From the Liveblog of
Sunday, January 4, 2026
Elliot Abrams: US ‘cannot run Venezuela,’ and does not own its oil
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Elliot Abrams, the veteran Republican foreign policy official who served as US President Donald Trump’s Venezuela envoy during his first term, delivers a blunt critique of Trump’s plans for the South American nation following the US capture of Nicolas Maduro, saying that the US won’t be able to run the country or take possession of its vast oil reserves.
Abrams was an architect of former US president Ronald Reagan’s controversial Latin America policy, which saw the US intervene in conflicts in a number of countries in the 1980s. He pleaded guilty in 1991 to crimes relating to the Iran-Contra Affair.
But in an interview with CNN, Abrams dismisses Trump’s assertion that the US will “run” Venezuela. He also criticizes the administration’s suggestions that it will rely on the country’s new leader, Delcy Rodriguez.
“The United States cannot run Venezuela,” Abrams says. “The worst thing that we could do, and we may be doing it actually, is to make some kind of deal with the regime’s remnants, with the vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, and leave her and the regime in place, except for maybe a change on oil policy.”
He added, “That’s not our running Venezuela, that’s the Maduro regime running Venezuela without Maduro.”
He says the US should focus on expelling Cuban and Iranian officials from the country, demanding that its political prisoners be freed and supporting its political opposition, which is widely considered to have won elections in 2024.
Abrams says the “worst” part of Trump’s press conference yesterday was when the president said Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado lacked “the respect within the country” to lead it.
He also casts doubt on Trump’s stated intention for US oil companies to enter Venezuela and begin pumping its vast petroleum reserves.
“The idea that the oil is ours is not persuasive,” he says. “It belongs to the Venezuelan people. We should help them redevelop that industry, but it’s not our oil.”
He says that “it is legal” for the US to seize Maduro, who faces an indictment in the US for drug trafficking.
Elliott Abrams, Trump’s former Venezuela envoy: “The United States cannot run Venezuela…It’s just not going to work.”
Says “the worst point” of Trump’s presser was “the insult” of Machado, the opposition leader
Is it legal for US to take VZ oil?
“No…It’s not our oil.” pic.twitter.com/gzvxbWEdPm
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 4, 2026
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