What began as a provocative statement by Donald Trump unleashed a rapid response from Caracas and raised question marks over the limits of United States foreign policy.
Although the idea of the Latin American country becoming the 51st state of the United States of America did not please Caracas, the Republican leader assured everyone last week in a telephone statement to the conservative Fox News that “Venezuela loves Trump”, justifying this by mentioning the South American nation’s oil reserves – some of the largest in the world – which he valued at $40 billion.
Although this could be regarded as a joke by the United States’ president, this is not the first time that he has done it. On previous occasions he has referred to standing in future elections in the Latin American country where he believes he would “obtain greater backing than any other person in history”. Last Wednesday he claimed that Venezuelans are “dancing in the streets” over the economic benefits of the investments in oil, controlled by the United States, and on 17th March following the Venezuelan team’s victory in the final of the World Baseball Classic, Trump issued an intriguing post on his platform Truth Social. “Good things are happening to Venezuela lately. I wonder what this magic is all about? STATEHOOD, #51, ANYONE?” he wrote.
But “that would never have been considered, because if there is one thing we Venezuelan men and women have, it is that we love our independence process”, said Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, from The Hague, responding to Trump’s comments on Fox News.
Rodríguez highlighted that her country’s history was built through the “glory of men and women who gave their lives” to make Venezuela a free nation and not a colony.
On 3rd January, Operation Absolute Resolve ordered by Trump against Venezuela resulted in a large-scale assault in which the constitutional president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, were kidnapped. Over a hundred people died as a consequence of this attack on a sovereign nation, among them 32 Cuban internationalists. Since then, the United States has had de facto control of Venezuelan oil exports and, a few days after the operation, Trump announced that Venezuela would hand over 30 – 50 million barrels of high-grade oil and that the revenue from sales at market prices would be controlled directly by Washington.
The UN, in an economic forecast about Venezuela published at the end of April, estimated that in 2026 it would obtain over $22 billion of revenue from oil exports, a figure that would exceed by more than 50% the $14.713 billion collected last year.
It seems Trump is trying to revive the United States’ policy of territorial expansion and, undoubtedly, the rhetoric of “the 51st state” is part of a wider pattern in his narrative. He has applied the same idea that he launched about Venezuela to Canada and Greenland. PL
(Translated by Philip Walker – Email: philipwalkertranslation@gmail.com) – Photos: Pixabay
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