Trump signs order to "safeguard Venezuelan oil revenue"
發佈日期: 2026-01-11 20:42
TVB News
Donald Trump signed an executive order to protect Venezuelan oil revenue held in the US.
In declaring it a national emergency, Trump says the funds must be held to "advance US foreign policy objectives."
President Trump's latest move a week on from removing Venezuela's leader.
An executive order: "Safeguarding the Venezuelan oil for the good of Americans and Venezuelans."
The statement says the aim is to stop Venezuelan oil revenues being used for judicial proceedings.
That, it says, could "Undermine critical US efforts to ensure economic and political stability."
Any attempt to seize money through courts could be an "extraordinary threat to national security."
It comes after Trump hosted US oil bosses at the White House.
He's encouraging them to do business in the South American state after declaring that tapping into Venezuela's vast oil reserves is key after his decision to remove Nicolas Maduro.
Executives from seventeen companies were cautious saying the country is unstable and dangerous.
Trump is offering security guarantees to get those energy giants drilling again.
In Venezuela, hugs for a son and nephew who had been a political prisoner.
Diogenes Angulo is now free.
The teenager held for posting video of an opposition demonstration during the Presidential election campaign eighteen months ago.
Oblivious to the fact that Maduro had been ousted by the US military, when told the former President is now the one in jail, Mr. Angulo replied "Wow."
His mother Nelly tears up as she says she could never have expected at the start of 2026 her son would be back with her and "the country would be free."
Venezuela has so far released about a dozen activists and journalists as a "gesture of peace".
More expected with US pressure on authorities.
Dissidents in Argentina carried Venezuelan flags alongside candles at a mass to pray for those still held.
Some of those released are foreign nationals and hundreds, maybe thousands, are still in jails in Venezuela.
"We are still waiting," says Maria Alexandra Gomez.
"We haven't seen much of a response days on from the announcement of releases."
"We continue to demand more."
Others who have left and set-up shop elsewhere have mixed feelings about what they are seeing from afar.
Up to seven million Venezuelans are spread across the continent
Many fled poverty and oppression.
"This is just the first step" says store owner Yanelis Torres,a twenty-two-year-old designer of T-shirts.
Some poke fun at her leaders back home.
"Many of us have moved on from Venezuela," she says, "We don't want to go back to zero, I made my life elsewhere."
