CARACAS, Venezuela—In a significant financial development, Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez confirmed on Tuesday the receipt of $300 million from a United States-managed sale of Venezuelan crude oil. The funds, originating from a larger $500 million transaction authorized by Washington, have been earmarked for a critical intervention in the nation’s foreign exchange market to bolster the severely weakened bolivar.
Rodriguez announced the capital injection is specifically designated to ‘stabilize the exchange market and safeguard the income and purchasing power of Venezuelan workers.’ This move directly addresses the profound currency crisis that has gripped the nation since 2018, when hyperinflation rendered the bolivar virtually obsolete and the U.S. dollar emerged as the de facto currency for transactions.
The release of funds follows what the U.S. government termed a ‘historic energy deal’ brokered by President Donald Trump over the weekend. President Trump stated that the oil would be sold at market price and explicitly noted that the proceeds would be ‘controlled by me, as President of the United States of America,’ underscoring Washington’s ongoing oversight of Venezuelan assets.
Economic analysts from the firm Ecoanalitica suggest the government’s objective is to methodically narrow the substantial disparity between the official exchange rate and the prevalent black market rate for the U.S. dollar. A severe scarcity of greenbacks, a direct consequence of a six-year American embargo on Venezuelan oil, has caused the dollar’s value to skyrocket within the country.
This development marks a shift in the complex economic standoff. Prior to the U.S. capture of former leader Nicolas Maduro in a January raid on Caracas, Venezuela was compelled to offer its crude at significant discounts, primarily to China, to circumvent the stringent embargo. Washington intensified its enforcement of these sanctions in December by seizing tankers carrying the sanctioned oil, further constricting Caracas’s revenue streams.