Decision to Keep Venezuela’s Oil Money in Qatar Ripped

On Jan. 3, President Donald Trump ordered a military offensive in Venezuela, captured Nicolás Maduro, and declared that his administration was “in charge” of the South American country, Steve Benen reported for MSNBC.

The circumstances have drawn comparisons to the Iran-Contra scandal of the Reagan era. (Photo: BNamericas) 

Three days later, Trump announced plans to sell Venezuelan oil and create a massive pool of money that he would distribute at his own discretion.

Semafor later reported a startling development: the revenue from those oil sales was being deposited into a bank account in Qatar—the Middle Eastern nation that previously made headlines in the U.S. for gifting Trump a luxury jet.

Trump subsequently announced a NATO-like security guarantee for Qatar. Two weeks later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that the reporting was accurate.

As The New York Times summarized, Venezuela’s interim government agreed to submit a monthly “budget” to the Trump administration, which would release funds from an account financed by the country’s oil sales and initially managed by Qatar.

The arrangement drew sharp criticism from Democrats, and Rubio acknowledged that the plan was “novel” and hastily assembled. Lawmakers questioned the legality and transparency of involving Qatar—a country thousands of miles from Venezuela whose ruler has won Trump’s favor.

After initially referring vaguely to oil proceeds being placed “into an account,” Rubio conceded to Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire that the account was located in Qatar.

The circumstances have drawn comparisons to the Iran-Contra scandal of the Reagan era: the U.S. has seized control of a foreign nation’s natural resources, is selling those resources, and is depositing the proceeds into an offshore bank account in Qatar.