Venezuelans are grateful for Trump's decision to take away Maduro's blood oil

Last week Trump decided to revoke the oil license that allowed Chevron and other American companies to operate in Venezuela, despite the sanctions. Thanks to those licenses, and with the payment of millionaire taxes and royalties, the regime of Nicolás Maduro received approximately 500 million dollars monthly.

The license was granted by Joe Biden to Maduro, in 2022, which allowed the regime to bypass the oil sanctions that Trump had imposed in August 2017, as a consequence of human rights violations, drug trafficking and terrorism promoted by chavismo.

With the licenses, the regime of Nicolás Maduro was receiving a considerable amount of money on a monthly basis. It is estimated that more than 4 billion dollars entered the regime's pockets during the time the licenses lasted. There is no trace, of course, of where this money went.

Today the mainstay of the Maduro regime is in its repressive apparatus, which needs millions to stay oiled and loyal. In addition, multiple reports speak of the millionaire oil contracts that the hierarchs of the military world have (and depend on).

There is no doubt that oil revenues have played a fundamental role in maintaining Maduro's repressive apparatus. The other two major remaining sources of financing for the regime are drug trafficking and mineral plundering.

The decision to revoke the oil licenses that Biden had given Maduro is the right one. With them, Chevron and other American companies financed the Maduro regime, and its lethal actions in the hemisphere (such as the export of cocaine, support for terrorism and organized crime with gangs like the Tren de Aragua), in exchange for very little. The Maduro regime, which completely dilapidated the oil industry, barely has a daily production, which does not reach one million barrels of oil.

Chavismo ended with the oil industry, with the rule of law in Venezuela and with private enterprise. Today it is not a reliable trading partner. The Trump Administration knows what an opportunity it would mean for the hemisphere, in terms of energy, if there were a legitimate authority in Venezuela. This is precisely what opposition leader María Corina Machado talked about in her interview with Donald Trump Jr. last week.

In that sense, Venezuelans, as Machado also said, celebrate Trump's decision. No one serious in Venezuela believes that oil sanctions on Maduro hurt Venezuelans more than the regime. In fact, studies and research have completely refuted the narrative that the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela began with the sanctions. That is completely false. Four years before the first sanctions were applied, and when Venezuela's oil exports exceeded 2 million barrels of oil per day, the country was already short of milk, toilet paper and outside supermarkets there were ridiculously long lines.

In these more than two years of licenses, the Maduro regime has not invested a dollar in infrastructure, health or education. In fact, quite the opposite. The repressive apparatus has become crueler than ever, human rights violations have worsened and they have even carried out assassination operations in other countries thanks to alliances with the Tren de Aragua gang.

After the huge triumph of the Venezuelan opposition last July 28 (and the obscene fraud of Chavismo), the regime is exposed and everyone knows that more than 70% of Venezuelans, including the military, despise Maduro. He only has repression left to maintain himself. Revoking the licenses is a big step in the right direction.

And Venezuelans celebrate it. That is why the majority of Venezuelans (more than 47%), according to surveys, identify with the ideological right. That is why María Corina Machado, who thanked the Trump Administration for its decision, today enjoys more than 70% of support according to polls. Her support, despite more than 8 months of persecution, clandestinity and isolation, has not waned. This is a clear indication that most of us look favorably on Trump's decision.

And we don't just thank Trump. We should thank Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who played a key role. And also to Florida's congressmen, such as Senator Rick Scott and Representatives Carlos Gimenez, Maria Elvira Salazar and Mario Diaz-Balart. Their commitment to the cause of freedom and to the America First agenda has been more than demonstrated with the revocation of the blood oil licenses.