Francisco Rodríguez

So it's the imposition, the complete imposition of external control.

So Trump didn't just take out the head of state, but he also has made clear that this is on his conditions.

Now, what are his conditions?

His conditions are that

Venezuela is going to send its oil to the US.

It's going to be under the management of US authorities.

US authorities are going to sell that oil, some of it in the US, some of it outside of the US.

The money is going to go into a fund that is going to be administered, in President Trump's words, by himself as president for the benefit of the people of Venezuela and the US.

Now, how do I see this?

I see this in two ways.

One of them is I think that this is the crudest expression of imperial power that the U.S.

has attempted to exercise since the early 20th century, since when it ran Cuba after the Spanish-American War or when it took control of the customs administration of Haiti and Dominican Republic after it invaded those countries in the 1910s.

Now, when all is said and done, there's an economics to this, which is very relevant.

Venezuela is being able to sell its oil to the U.S., and it's being able to sell its oil to the Western world, which is something that it had not been able to do for the past seven years.

So since sanctions were imposed, Venezuela was selling oil just to China.

Well, to China and Cuba.

Cuba wasn't even selling it.

It was almost giving it away.

So reverting these sanctions is going to help the Venezuelan economy, and it's going to generate revenues, which, if they do go at least in part to Venezuela, will be able to fuel a significant economic recovery.

It's Trump...