'Excuses Exposed': Venezuela's New Leader Says US' Democracy Rhetoric Masks Oil Greed

The US military action in Venezuela was not aimed at bringing democracy or safeguarding human rights, but to advance its own energy interests, said Delcy Rodriguez, the country's interim president.

Rodriguez took over as the interim leader on Monday, two days after the US launched seven strikes on the country, across its various cities along with detaining their President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores for a trial in New York.

"The energy greed of the North wants the resources of our country," Rodriguez was reported as saying on Thursday, during a live broadcast on state television VTV.

She implied that Washington is eyeing Venezuela's oil resources, which is the country's main source of external revenue and funds over half of the government budged.

"We had denounced it, all the lies about 'drug trafficking', 'democracy', 'human rights'. They were the excuses. Because has always been present, is the threat that Venezuela's oil has to be handed over to the global North," Rodriguez said.

The Donald Trump-led US administration has put in place a total naval blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela. "I assume we're going to keep the oil," he reportedly told the press.

The American president has also claimed that Venezuela would use revenue from a new oil agreement to purchase goods made exclusively in the US.

"I have just been informed that Venezuela will exclusively purchase products manufactured in the United States with the money it receives from our new Oil Agreement. These purchases will include, among other things, U.S. agricultural products, medicines, medical devices, and U.S.-made equipment to improve Venezuela's electrical grid and energy facilities," Trump had said on his social media platform Truth Social.

The Venezuela interim leader, despite her criticism of Washington, clarified that the country was open to doing business with regards to its oil resources but only under conditions that it could deem mutually beneficial.

"Our stance has been very clear. Venezuela is open to energy relationships where all parties benefit, where cooperation is clearly defined in a commercial agreement," Rodriguez stated.

Rodriguez also noted the unprecedented tensions between the two nations. "There is a stain on our relations such as had never occurred in our history," she said during the meeting with leaders of the national assembly.

She also announced a new bill intended to maintain stability and urged all political forces to collaborate to address internal divisions.

"Extremist or fascist social, political, and economic expressions cannot be allowed, because they have led to very dangerous situations for the life of this Republic. That is why we must have programs for peace and national coexistence," she said.

The Trump administration alleged that Venezuela had been the chief culprit behind the movement of narcotics past US borders, accusing it of trafficking narcotics such as fentanyl and cocaine.

This accusation, say critics, does not seem to be supported by US Drug Enforcement Administration data. Fentanyl was produced mainly in Mexico, according to the BBC. The publication also stated that it is smuggled solely through the southern border. Venezuela was not named in the DEA's 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment as a Fentanyl originator.

A 2020 report from the DEA classified Colombia as the source of three quarters of Cocaine crossing US borders, with a small percentage of them transported via fast boats from the Caribbean that the US targeted.