Venezuelan opposition leader questions US oil deal with ‘illegitimate regime’

María Corina Machado has challenged Donald Trump’s oil agreement with Venezuela, but she has chosen her words carefully. She says the United States is the partner Venezuela needs to develop its resources, while arguing that the government now occupying the Miraflores presidential palace has no democratic right to negotiate them.

“

Of course the United States is the principal partner Venezuela needs to fully develop its strategic potential. This is what the majority of Venezuelans believe, and it is something I’ve spent my whole life defending.

In a video posted on social media, Machado made her first public comments since Trump announced what he called “the biggest oil deal in world history.” She said most Venezuelans believe the United States should be the country’s principal partner, a position she said she had defended throughout her life. But she also described the current authorities in Caracas as enemies of the United States and said they lacked both a democratic mandate and the right to bargain over Venezuela’s natural wealth.

“The wealth of our subsoil does not belong to an illegitimate regime, it belongs to the Venezuelan people,” Machado said. She acknowledged the “sadness and anger” of supporters who felt excluded from the decision-making process. Venezuela holds an estimated 303 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, and more than 65 billion barrels are covered by the agreement.

“

The wealth of our subsoil does not belong to an illegitimate regime, it belongs to the Venezuelan people.

The deal was struck with interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who took power in January after Nicolás Maduro was abducted by US special forces. Many observers had expected Trump to replace Maduro with Machado, a conservative democracy activist who later gave the US president her Nobel Peace Prize. Instead, Trump backed Rodríguez and warned that she would pay “a very big price” if she failed to do what he considered right. Machado has since been sidelined.

“

If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.

The White House says the agreement will secure US energy dominance for the next century and remove Chinese and Russian influence from Venezuelan oilfields. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the administration wants to expand production and economic opportunities, describing Trump’s mission as bringing peace, freedom, opportunity and prosperity to Venezuela. Critics have called the deal a predatory, colonial-style land grab. Machado’s supporters fear it will make Washington less willing to push for new presidential elections, after her movement was widely believed to have defeated Maduro in 2024, a result he rejected.

“

To massively grow production and economic opportunities in Venezuela.