Reportedly, Washington holds around $30 billion worth of assets belonging to the South American nation
Acting President Delcy Rodriguez has announced that the U.S. has unfrozen some of Venezuela’s seized assets. She stated these funds will be used for hospital equipment and power infrastructure.
Speaking on national television Tuesday, Rodriguez said she had conversed with U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a “respect and courtesy,” manner, noting the unblocked funds would go toward purchasing hospital equipment from the U.S. “and other countries.”
“We are unblocking Venezuelan resources that belong to the Venezuelan people… and this will allow us to invest significant resources in equipment for hospitals,” she said. Rodriguez added Venezuela will also use the funds to buy “equipment for the electricity sector and equipment for the gas industry”.
Rodriguez did not specify the amount of assets to be released. In 2022, President Nicolas Maduro claimed around $30 billion in Venezuelan assets were frozen abroad—including oil seized by the U.S. and roughly $2 billion in gold held in the UK.
Earlier this month, Maduro was taken into custody by U.S. forces and charged with narcoterrorism, cocaine trafficking, and firearms offenses. Rodriguez has condemned Maduro’s abduction but sought to placate Washington—namely by letting U.S. companies operate Venezuela’s oil industry.
Venezuela’s oil industry was nationalized in 1976, with Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez imposing further restrictions on American contractors in 2007. Trump has repeatedly claimed these moves amounted to Venezuela “stealing” oil infrastructure built by U.S. firms.
Trump has warned that if Rodriguez “doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.” The U.S. president spoke with Rodriguez by phone last week and announced plans to invite her to the White House.
On Sunday, Rodriguez insisted she had grown tired of “Washington’s orders,” and that Venezuelans alone would “resolve our differences and our internal conflicts.” When asked about Rodriguez’s comments Tuesday, Trump replied: “I haven’t heard that at all. We have a very good relationship.”