Trump Declares National Emergency to Protect Stolen Venezuela Funds

Listen to the article with analysis from the author:  President Donald Trump invoked the National Emergencies Act to ensure he controls the funds generated from selling stolen Venezuelan oil. “The attachment or the imposition of other judicial process against the Foreign Government Deposit Funds will substantially interfere with our critical efforts to ensure economic and political stability in Venezuela,” the executive action signed by Trump on Friday stated. “The failure of these critical efforts would jeopardize major foreign policy objectives of the United States.” After ordering the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3, Trump claimed that the US was controlling the country. The White House policy calls for taking the South American country’s oil, selling it, and using the money to run Venezuela. Additionally, the US has seized five oil tankers carrying Venezuelan oil in recent weeks. A senior US official told Axios that the US would be running Venezuela’s oil industry “indefinitely.” Trump’s plan for controlling Venezuela’s oil is already facing challenges. On Friday, major oil executives met with Trump in the White House and failed to make significant commitments to the President’s plan to rebuild Venezuela’s oil infrastructure. “It’s uninvestable,” ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods told White House officials after hearing Trump’s proposal to invest in the country.“There are a number of legal and commercial frameworks that would have to be established to even understand what kind of returns we would get on the investment.” First Published at Antiwar.com