Incoming Trump Officials Eager To Restore Pressure Campaign On Venezuela As Maduro Remains In Power

The incoming Trump administration is set to take a drastically different approach toward Venezuela than its soon-to-be predecessor, with officials eager to return to the high-pressure policy implemented during the Republican's first term.

The initiative is part of a broader assessment of geopolitical decisions revolving around the oil market, especially after the Biden administration imposed new sanctions on Russia's oil trade.

According to Bloomberg, there's a consensus among key Trump advisers to return to a maximum pressure strategy targeting Iran. Major industry players could be targeted as soon as February, the outlet added, quoting people familiar with the plans.

Bloomberg explained that the situation in Venezuela is more complex due to the presence of U.S. oil firms like Chevron. However, the overall policy is likely to be much more confrontative.

Marco Rubio, Trump's Secretary of State nominee, hinted at this during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Concretely, he said the Biden administration "got played" by the Maduro regime during negotiations regarding last year's presidential election, which Maduro claimed to have won despite a lack of backing documentation. He began a third term in office last week despite not being recognized by the vast majority of the international community, who consider opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez as the rightful winner.

When answering a question by Senator Rick Scott about his take on some of the most represented nationalities of Florida, Rubio offered detailed commentary on Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba.

"Venezuela, sadly is not governed by a government," said Rubio. "It's governed by a narcotrafficking organization that has empowered itself with a nation state."

The Republican then went on to detail his take on the current crisis that has engulfed Venezuela, taking a jab at the Biden administration's relationship with the South American nation:

"We have seen upwards of seven to eight, nine million Venezuelans who have left the country. More are expected to leave. I was in strong disagreement with the Biden administration because they got played the way I knew they would get played. They entered negotiations with Maduro, he agreed to have elections, the elections were completely fake, they leveraged migration against us to get concessions and now they have these general licenses where companies like Chevron are actually providing millions of dollars into the regime's coffers and the regime kept none of the promises they made."

Rubio concluded his intervention by saying that the U.S. relationship with Venezuela needs to be reexplored especially since "you have the Russian presence and you have a very strong Iranian presence."