Anatoly Kurmanaev

It involved shipping all of Venezuelan oil to the United States.

It involved opening up all of Venezuela's oil fields and mines to U.S.

companies.

And very importantly, it involved Maduro basically breaking off the existing contracts with Chinese, Russian and Iranian companies, basically sabotaging his existing alliances in order to rebuild his relationship with the United States.

The biggest reason is survival.

In return for these economic riches, Maduro would stay in power, or at the very least his movements would be able to stay in power or to be able to contest elections in the future.

So it created an off-ramp for Maduro and his top officials.

That's right.

Early this year, the momentum was definitely heading towards a deal.

Venezuela started accepting deportation flights from the United States.

It started releasing Americans held in Venezuela.

And it seemed like we are cruising towards normalization of relations.

But then, Trump's Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, takes center stage.

And everything changes.

So he starts undermining it behind the scene.

First, in late March, he exerts pressure to cancel permits for US companies operating in Venezuela.

He scraps these licenses, dealing a major blow to the Venezuelan economy.

And then in June, Rubio uses his connections in the South Florida Republican Party to convince Trump that Cuban-American congressmen from South Florida will not support his big spending bill if the deal with Maduro goes forward.

Correct, the Big Beautiful Bill.

That's right.