Venezuela's acting president vows to free the Maduros as Trump grips on Venezuelan oil revenue

Venezuela's Acting President Delcy Rodríguez vowed to free the Maduro family and condemned the U.S. strike as an act of criminal aggression against the Venezuelan people during a televised address on Saturday, January 10 – a day after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency and blocking any court attempts to seize Venezuelan oil revenues held in U.S. Treasury accounts.

Speaking at a communal fair in Sucre Municipality, east of Caracas, on Saturday, Rodríguez vowed not to rest until Nicolás Maduro and the First Lady are returned to Venezuela. She also affirmed that she will continue to condemn the U.S. strike against Venezuela on January 3, saying it will "go down in history as a great stain" on relations between the two countries. 

On January 3, the U.S. military launched a large-scale strike against Venezuela and captured President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, flying them to New York, where they are facing federal charges including narcotics and terrorism allegations; both have pleaded not guilty. 

Yván Gil, Venezuela's minister of foreign affairs, rejected the U.S. drug-trafficking accusations in a statement on Telegram on Saturday, saying Venezuela has never been a drug-trafficking state and asserting the country's resolve to defend its sovereignty with peace and dignity. 

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, on the contrary, had proposed to offer her Nobel Peace Prize to Donald Trump – a notion the Norwegian Nobel Institute clarified on Friday is not permitted, stating a Nobel Prize may not be transferred to others. The Nobel Peace Prize given to Machado last year has long been yearned for by Trump, who believes his effort in "ending eight wars" would warrant the honor. Trump said in a Fox News interview on Friday that meeting with Machado would be a "great honor," despite earlier comments that Machado "doesn't have the support within or the respect" within Venezuela for her to govern.

The show of resolve from Venezuela's leadership came a day after Trump moved to secure U.S. interests in the country's oil sector. On Friday, January 9, Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency, aimed at "safeguarding Venezuelan oil revenue held in U.S. Treasury accounts from attachment or judicial process," according to a White House release. The order stated that any judicial action seeking to seize the funds from U.S. custody would undermine "U.S. efforts to ensure economic and political stability in Venezuela," while emphasizing that the assets are held for "sovereign purposes" and to support "broader diplomatic objectives."

Trump has been pushing for a stronger U.S. involvement in the Venezuelan oil industry since the January 3 attack, claiming the U.S. and Venezuela "are working well together" on rebuilding "much bigger, better, and more modern form" of the country's oil and gas infrastructure. Trump also asked for at least $100 billion investment into Venezuela from U.S. oil companies at a roundtable meeting with major American oil executives on Friday afternoon. The proposal was met with caution, however, with ExxonMobil's CEO describing Venezuela as "uninvestable."

Since December 17, 2025 – around three weeks before the U.S. strike on Caracas – Trump has ordered a "naval blockade" targeting sanctioned oil tankers traveling to and from Venezuela. The tanker Olina, allegedly carrying sanctioned oil, was seized by U.S. forces in the Caribbean on Saturday, marking the fifth vessel seized by the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the seized oil would be sold "in the marketplace at a market rate," with revenues controlled by the U.S. government and "dispersed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people."

(With inputs from agencies)