Rubio says Venezuela will submit monthly budget to White House

By MICHAEL CROWLEY

Venezuela’s interim government has agreed to submit a monthly “budget” to the Trump administration, which will release money from an account funded by the country’s oil sales and initially managed by Qatar, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.

But the plan drew sharp questions from skeptical Democrats, and Rubio conceded that it was “novel” and hastily designed. The role of Qatar — a Middle Eastern country thousands of miles from Venezuela whose ruler has won President Donald Trump’s favor — drew particular criticism from Democrats, who questioned its legality and transparency.

Rubio detailed the plan during an appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It was Rubio’s first public testimony to Congress since American forces captured Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, on Jan. 3, and an opportunity to clarify U.S. policy toward the country.

Many questions are sure to persist, however.

Rubio assured senators, for instance, that the Trump administration had established a “very respectful and productive line of communication” with the government of Delcy Rodríguez, a close ally of Maduro who assumed power after his removal. As a result, he said, the Trump administration does not “intend or expect” to use military force against Venezuela “at any time.”

Yet Rubio took a more threatening tone in a written opening statement that he submitted to the committee but did not deliver orally, making brief extemporaneous remarks instead. The written statement warned that the United States was “prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation” from Rodríguez’s government “if other methods fail.”

That cooperation is largely focused on Venezuela’s lucrative oil industry. Trump has previously said that the United States will control Venezuela’s oil and “run the country,” but Rubio provided more details.

The United States will help Venezuela’s government fund basic public services by disbursing proceeds from the sale of Venezuelan oil that is subject to U.S. sanctions, Rubio said. He said that the approach was necessary because of a “fiscal crunch” in Venezuela and that it was a “short-term mechanism” not meant to become permanent.

“They needed money in the immediacy to fund the police officers, the sanitation workers, the daily operations of government,” Rubio added. “They have pledged to use a substantial amount of those funds to purchase medicine and equipment directly from the United States.”

In an arrangement that he acknowledged was unusual, Rubio said the funds would initially be held in an offshore account controlled by Qatar before eventual transferral to a U.S. Treasury account.

“I understand it’s novel, but it’s the best we could come up with in the short term,” Rubio said.

He said a third-party account was necessary because of U.S. financial sanctions on Venezuela and because U.S. creditors to whom the country owes money, mainly from its seizure of American energy company assets roughly 20 years ago, could otherwise make legal claims on the funds that would complicate their disbursement.

The Venezuelan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the plan.

Some Democrats had doubts. “I think this is novel. I think it’s funky. I think it may not even be permissible,” Sen. Brian Schatz, D- Hawaii, told Rubio.

Schatz questioned whether the Trump administration had the legal authority to create and manage such an account. He also complained that the administration had not released the text of what Rubio said was a written agreement with Rodríguez’s government.

Rubio said the Treasury Department could provide the agreement.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said in a statement that Rubio’s testimony “raised more questions than answers,” and demanded to know why, instead of Qatar, the administration had not chosen “a country with much stronger banking laws and a history of robust management of oil revenues.”