María Corina Machado Questions Legitimacy of US-Venezuela Oil Deal

Opposition leader María Corina Machado expressed support for a partnership between the United States and Venezuela to develop energy resources, though she questioned the authority of acting President Delcy Rodríguez to negotiate a recent oil agreement with the Trump administration. The deal, announced nearly a week ago, grants the United States control over approximately 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan crude.

Machado characterized the government of Rodríguez as an "illegitimate regime" and argued that the nation's resources belong to the Venezuelan people. While she did not call for the agreement to be scrapped, she stated that "the true scope of the agreement remains unclear, including who is signing it, who will provide financing and guarantees and how Venezuelans will benefit."

This measured response places Machado between two extremes: hard-line members of her own movement who view any deal signed by Rodríguez as invalid, and hard-line Chavistas who accuse Rodríguez of surrendering a central nationalist resource.