Venezuela - February 22, 2025

MADURO-TRUMP PACT

"In the first government (2017-2021) of the re-elected president Donald Trump, things did not go well for us. This is a new beginning for us to bet on a win-win. May things go well for the United States and also for Venezuela."

Those were the words with which Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro started a televised message to congratulate Donald Trump, shortly after the latter had won the elections on November 5 last year.

And reality has shown us this:

Alleged "anti-imperialist" Maduro is guaranteeing the oil that supplies the US war fleet

The "legacy" of Chavez and the Bolivarians is that they applied and continue to apply the USA plan. Likewise, this oil feeds the US war machine to supply Zionism with bombs and arms to massacre the Palestinian masses

Trump led an international coalition to disavow Maduro's legitimacy as president in 2019 and seized control of Venezuelan state assets in USA from Maduro. He supported, along with Biden, the process of consolidating the MESA DE UNIDAD DEMOCRATICA - MUD (DEMOCRATIC UNITY ROUNDTABLE) during the last electoral campaign, where the opposition to Chavism nominated Edmundo Gonzales. In addition, he approved personal sanctions against Maduro and several of the main figures in his government and even offered a reward of US$25 million for those who helped capture the Venezuelan ruler. The Maduro government survived the policy of maximum pressure, but Venezuela's economy, its oil production and the quality of life of its citizens continue to suffer from the effects of an economic crisis that already existed before the sanctions.

During this new Trump administration, he has been standing out for his business and political pressures, but on January 31, he sent Richard Grenell to Caracas to meet with Maduro at the Miraflores Palace. That same night, Grenell returned to USA with six US citizens who had been jailed in Venezuelan prisons, accused of alleged conspiratorial acts, and who were released by Maduro. He also brought with him Maduro's commitment to receive and take care of the Venezuelans that the Trump administration wants to take out of USA as part of the "largest deportation" in US history. Nine days later, two planes from the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa landed in Caracas carrying the first 190 deportees from USA.

Let’s remember that Venezuela, through the company owned by CITGO Holding, Inc., a subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA), has three refineries in USA: Lake Charles in Louisiana, Corpus Christi in Texas and Lemont in Illinois, with a capability to produce 800,000 barrels of gasoline a day, and an important network of gas stations for its distribution and marketing. During the government of Joe Biden, and Juan Guaidó as interim “president” of Venezuela,, General License No. 44 of the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury (OFAC) came into force in November 2023, which allowed Petróleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA) to directly market in the US market and that favored the diversification of clients; as part of BIDEN 's previous agreements with Maduro, the latter gave the Orinoco basin to USA and made periodic and daily delivery agreements for the sale of oil. While BIDEN was criticizing Maduro, he was doing back burner  business that allowed him to supply his war fleet with oil from Venezuela whose refineries are right inside USA.

Since 2024, Venezuela's oil exports to USA have reached 216,000 barrels per day, an increase of more than 80% over the same period last year. However, this OFAC authorization was linked to progress in the political process marked by decisions related to the presidential election on July 28, in order for them to be "competitive, free and transparent." This situation has not happened since the beginning of that year, which is why the validity of the aforementioned license ceased on May 31, 2024, which meant that 85% of Venezuelan oil in the US market is being sold by Chevron and Repsol, which in turn basically resell the crude oil extracted from their operations in Venezuela in the US American market to refining companies Valero Energy and Phillips 66. Venezuela has a heavy grade of crude oil that is optimal for asphalt, produced through a joint venture project run by PDVSA and Chevron that fits into Trump's plans for domestic development.

The arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency of USA, and his business vision allow for the consolidation of the management of oil profits for the benefit of both his and Maduro governments and businessmen together in Venezuela. As a result of this, the VENEZUELAN BONDS, with expiration in 2027, have already a price of more than 20 cents of a dollar, despite the fact that since 2017 Venezuela has been in default, with a debt of more than US$ 250,000 million. About the renewal of the Chevron license, which Trump had threatened to suspend, "They are in Venezuela doing the right thing ", Trump told reporters this week. While in Venezuela, the situation does not improve, Edmundo Gonzales has been silenced, and there is a wave of repression that has led to the imprisonment of more than 2,000 among opponents of Maduro, journalists and human rights activists. The facts are exposing the falsehood of what the Communist Party so strongly defends Maduro for, i.e. his alleged "confrontation" with imperialism, when Maduro has handed over the gold and all the natural resources,such as oil, to USA.

The class struggle is given within the frame of the break of large popular and working class sectors with Chavism. The protest mobilizations against Maduro and what remains of Chavism are not only in middle class sectors, now there are protests against the proposals for a Constituent Assembly and also against the control by the military of the country's companies and industries. A new Caracazo is not yet in sight, 15% of the population still supports Maduro, another 35% supports the MUD and the rest is against the former two. There is also no revolutionary left alternative against Maduro and Chavism and the privileged military control intended by the current "CONSTITUENT COUP" of Maduro, which is supported by reformist and centrist sectors, really playing into the hands of bourgeois propaganda against the capitalist and corrupt filth of Maduro. The Mesa de Unidad Democrática (MUD) continues to be only a bourgeois political coalition against Maduro, and it intends to continue promoting Edmundo Gonzales, a partner of Ma. Corina Machado, who only represents bourgeois sectors of Venezuela. Maduro is in charge of punctually paying the foreign debt to US imperialism while he starves the people.

The way out of the current situation of the exploited and the Venezuelan people is neither with Maduro, nor with the MUD, or with any bourgeois block... only nationalization and expropriation, without compensation of the large companies of the “Bolivarian” bourgeoisie and imperialism... Everything under workers' control and a socialist government of the workers.