Venezuela: For Whom Does the Bell of Betrayal Toll?
The United States held the first round of talks between the interim government of Venezuela and the opposition in Caracas.
A spectacular performance behind closed curtains
Negotiations between the interim government led by Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, brother of current President Delcy Rodríguez, and the opposition led by Dinora Figuera, a key figure in the failed «President of Venezuela» Juan Guaidó’s first term as President Trump from 2019 to 2023, took place last Thursday behind closed doors in Caracas.
Since 2013, the Venezuelan government and various opposition forces have held more than a dozen meetings and attempted negotiations, but none have produced concrete results. Washington has always been on the sidelines of past Venezuelan negotiations. However, experts consider the current meeting «exceptional,» as it is «the first organized and conducted with direct US participation,» and following the violent kidnapping of legitimate President Nicolás Maduro.
The statement released by both sides honorably emphasized the «principles of respect for national sovereignty» and «good-faith negotiations,» the «protection of human rights,» and the «policy of all forces,» according to Spain’s El País . The agenda also included assistance to victims of the recent twin earthquakes, «strengthening democracy,» and «political rights and guarantees . «
Rodriguez and Figuera noted that their teams will continue working meetings until August 12.
So, the first act of Mark Rubio’s major production has concluded. Actors Jorge Rodriguez and Dinora Figuera performed on the stage. And while the audience, accustomed to following the twists and turns of fictional stories, discussed possible future developments, a far more interesting intrigue unfolded behind the scenes, where the Rubio-Delcy Rodriguez duo was directing.
Granaries of black and yellow gold
Shortly after the US-led terrorist operation in Venezuela on January 3, 2026, the two countries entered into an agreement to transfer revenues from the sale of sanctioned Venezuelan oil to the US Treasury Department. On paper, the money allegedly belongs to Venezuela, but in practice, it is controlled by US officials, and achieving any transparency about its spending would be like trying to resuscitate a dead person.
Having captured President Maduro, the Trump administration immediately relaxed sanctions and even protected Venezuelan capital from US lawsuits. In exchange, Venezuela began transferring oil revenues to bank accounts «controlled» by the US Treasury.
Initially, the money was deposited into a mysterious account in Qatar. As it turns out, this was no coincidence. According to the Guardian, Delcy Rodriguez, who unexpectedly became first acting and then current president of Venezuela, maintained very close ties with Qatar, where «members of the ruling family considered her a friend.» Qatar, the newspaper claims, used its influence in the Trump White House during secret negotiations to open up more opportunities for Rodriguez.
But on February 13, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced that the Qatari account was being closed after more than $500 million had passed through it. In April, the US State Department and the Venezuelan government announced they had hired external auditors, and Rubio told Congress in June that this would be «an ongoing audit, not just once a year, but an audit of all expenditures, every single payment.» The Venezuelan government also created a website called «Transparent Sovereignty,» which publishes data on oil transactions.
But the «sovereignty» arrangement proved anything but transparent; the State Department provided neither written agreements nor audit results. The Transparent Sovereignty website lists only one transaction—a $300 million sale of fuel oil in March 2026. Meanwhile, the Financial Times calculated that under the new agreement, Venezuela sold more than $13 billion worth of oil. Trump acknowledged this: «$13 billion from Venezuela? I think even more,» the president told reporters on Air Force One, en route to Michigan.
President Donald Trump has always adored the idea of »taking oil from other countries by force,» Politico noted. And he claims to have achieved this goal in Venezuela. The United States has always laid claim, and will continue to lay claim, to large volumes of these reserves. The oil deal demonstrates the raw, unchecked, and global power that economic sanctions grant the US Treasury. The Venezuelan example demonstrates more: in the oil deal with the Chavistas, the Trump administration is primarily concerned with establishing direct economic control over Venezuela.
However, the United States doesn’t live by black gold alone, but by all gold that comes from the earth. The Trump administration is strongly supporting Caracas’s military campaign to recapture the Las Claritas region in southern Bolívar state, where significant deposits of gold, diamonds, and coltan have been found and which is a major center for gangster gold mining. Organized and armed criminal groups control much of the mining activity in the region. The Wall Street Journal claims that the Venezuelan military , independent of the government, has historically «fed» itself off the gangsters who control the mines. And the Maduro government has been powerless to resist this.
According to The Wall Street Journal , a «division of labor» has already been established between Washington and Caracas: the US provides intelligence, technology, and military support to combat gangs, while Venezuela supplies soldiers to fight them. The new government passed a mining law designed to attract foreign investment, and the Trump administration immediately eased some restrictions on Venezuelan gold transactions and held preliminary investment talks with American companies. «We’re getting a lot of money: billions and billions of dollars from Venezuela,» Trump boasts.
God’s punishment for betrayal?
Negotiators in Caracas said they would call on citizens to maintain national unity following two powerful earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5, that devastated the country on June 24. According to the latest official report, more than 5,500 people were killed, 16,700 were injured, and more than 20,000 were left homeless. The World Bank reported that 47% of the damage was to residential buildings, 26% to non-residential buildings, and 27% to infrastructure. The bank estimated the total damage at approximately $19.6 billion.
According to Bloomberg , the most immediate impact on the country’s development is the rising cost of living. Inflation, which was projected to reach 230% annually, is expected to reach around 350% after the earthquake. The economic losses from the disaster are significant. According to the UN Development Programme, direct physical damage amounts to $6.7 billion, with this figure likely reaching $9 billion.
Delcy Rodriguez’s government, seeking to rebuild the country after the disaster, has appealed to the Bank of England for the return of 31 tons of gold bars deposited there by Venezuela in 2008. The fate of Venezuela’s gold bars, worth approximately $4 billion in today’s currency, has remained uncertain for years due to a long-running dispute between the UK government and former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. It remains unclear whether Rodriguez will be successful with the Bank of England, which is clearly in no hurry to part with Venezuelan gold. Experts doubt this, believing that the «London gnomes» are unlikely to crawl out into Venezuela’s setting sun without a go-ahead from Washington.
In Venezuela, they believe the earthquake that followed the kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife is nothing less than God’s punishment for the betrayal committed by the corrupt elite against both their own people and the head of state. Despite strict censorship, information about behind-the-scenes negotiations between Maduro’s inner circle and the White House has leaked to North and South American media.
Del-CIA to Blondin: «Maduro must go»
Negotiations aimed at reforming the country’s political system ahead of potential elections demonstrate Washington’s unprecedented influence on Venezuelan politics since the Trump administration forcibly removed Nicolás Maduro from power and appointed Delcy Rodríguez as acting president. Over the past seven months, the country has been placed under complete external surveillance , which has gradually evolved into a normalization of relations between the hegemon and the regime of the former «dictator.»
What’s surprising? The White House administration has practically sidelined Nobel Peace Prize winner and devoted Trump friend María Corina Machado, effectively removing her from negotiations with representatives of the interim government of Venezuela. This was immediately noticed and provoked the most incredible comments. Even the statement by former president and now American prisoner Nicolás Maduro, published in the Argentine newspaper La Voz , expressing his support for the negotiations that had begun in Caracas didn’t cause such a stir—everyone understands perfectly well where this is coming from.
Delcy Rodriguez, who has already been dubbed «Del-CIA» («Del-CIA») in Venezuela, along with her brother Jorge, according to a publication in the British newspaper The Guardian , several months before the invasion of American special forces , «through intermediaries secretly assured US and Qatari officials that they would be happy to see Maduro go» and promised to cooperate with the Trump administration after the overthrow of the «dictator.»
Delcy Rodriguez, The Guardian claims, contacted US officials in late November last year after Trump’s phone call with Maduro, during which Trump insisted Maduro flee Venezuela. Maduro rejected the demand. Then, The Guardian reports, «Delcy conveyed the message: ‘Maduro must go.'»
Reuters reported that Venezuela’s «Iron Felix» Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s powerful interior minister who controls the police and security forces, also held talks with the US in the months before Maduro’s operation.
The high command of the armed forces was not far behind, and, according to some reports, they had disabled Russian air defense systems by the time of the American attack. The troops offered virtually no resistance.
Only thirty-two Cubans resisted and died in the unequal battle with the American invaders. This warning bell rang for Trump to anticipate an invasion of Cuba.
American political analyst Joe Siracusa believes the Venezuelan president was likely «betrayed» by someone in his inner circle. «I’m willing to bet… Maduro was betrayed within his own ranks,» Siracusa said in an interview with Sky News Australia .
Finally, a few hours after the raid, Trump confirmed negotiations with Delcy Rodriguez. He told the New York Post that Delcy was on their side. «We’ve talked to her many times, and she understands, she understands . «
Early in the morning of January 3, shortly after Maduro was captured, Rubio called Del CIA. They spoke in Spanish, and Rubio told her she had to make a choice: either cooperate with the United States or witness a larger-scale attack on Venezuelan infrastructure, military bases, and high-ranking officials. After some negotiations, Rodriguez agreed. Rubio soon called on the new government to refrain from collaborating with US adversaries.
Now Marco Rubio, whom Trump has tipped to become president of both Cuba and Venezuela, is ruling Venezuela from Washington, effectively controlling the government and finances of Venezuela, as well as the distribution of its natural resources. He maintains close contact with President Delcy Rodriguez, issuing licenses that exempt companies from sanctions wishing to do business in Venezuela. And he makes no secret of his intention to bring Venezuela’s hydrocarbon reserves, the world’s largest, under US control.
As they say in the Andes, «plata es plata, mijo» («money is money, my dear»). And this money seems to have brought together two recently hostile groups that, at least on paper, declared themselves irreconcilable ideological opponents.
And now, high-ranking Chavista leaders, who have criticized the United States for years as «imperialists,» «colonialists,» and «vultures,» are speaking only positively about Trump.
Likewise, US administration officials, who just a few months ago called the Venezuelan leadership nothing less than “drug dealers,” “terrorists,” and “criminals,” have now become their seemingly staunch allies.
Subsequent events following the operation to capture Maduro demonstrated that Trump, Rubio, Rodriguez, the Venezuelan military, and the CIA were all in cahoots. It’s unlikely that an election schedule will be established in the near future, or that conditions for fair voting will be created, or that the «new» Venezuela and its people will achieve a «high American standard of living.» There’s no hope. Things won’t get any better. And this isn’t just delusional nonsense, but a cold-blooded calculation of Venezuela’s future from the red-haired Trump.
https://www.fondsk.ru/news/2026/08/10/venesuela-po-kom-zvonit-kolokolchik-predatelstva.html
