In a sweeping remark, United States President Donald Trump on Thursday said that the country along with Venezuela now constitute 68 per cent of oil reserves in the world. The President stated this during his address at the 74th National Prayer Breakfast at Washington.
Speaking of the capture of Venezuela by the United States earlier this January, Trump said, “They were in a big trouble, economically.”
“And yet they have more oil than any other country in the world, I think except us,” the President claimed adding that the two countries together constitute a total of 68 per cent of oil in the world.
“I know that does not mean too much to the people of Great Village…we are doing good,” he added.
United States’ capture of Venezuela
In what Donald Trump referred to as a ‘large-scale’ military operation, the US entered Venezuela and ‘captured’ its President and his wife on January 3.
One of his first statements after the military raid in Venezuela was on its oil reserves, making it the predominant reason behind the violent geopolitical action.
“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies… go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure,” news agency AFP reported quoting President Trump, as he further added, “We’ll be selling large amounts of oil.”
More than 150 US military aircrafts entered Venezuelan airspace after forces neutralized the country’s air defenses, reported Bloomberg.
To capture President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Army Delta Force commandos were flown to the military base where he was residing. The forces reached Maduro and his wife before they could seek a shelter.
As the country witnessed violent military action, at least seven explosions rocked the Venezuelan capital city Caracas. US Defence secretary Pete Hegseth described the intervention as a part of a ‘massive joint military and law enforcement raid.
Trump announced that it was going to ‘run’ Venezuela, until a power transition.