Elliott Abrams, who served as the Trump administration‘s special representative for Venezuela during the president’s first term, said that there is no legal basis for the United States to take Venezuelan oil and sell it, telling CNN that “it’s not our oil.”
Asked by the outlet’s Manu Raju whether Washington could “simply just go in and take Venezuelan oil and sell it,” Abrams replied with a firm denial, adding that the crude “belongs to the Venezuelan people” and that the United States should instead help Venezuela rebuild its energy industry.
Abrams went on to argue that the U.S. military operation that seized Nicolás Maduro was legally closer to “Panama,” framing it as the apprehension of an indicted drug trafficker, but said that rationale does not extend to claiming ownership over oil revenues.
Elliott Abrams, Trump’s former Venezuela envoy, says the U.S. cannot run Venezuela, calls Trump’s remarks about opposition leader María Corina Machado an insult, and says the U.S. cannot legally take Venezuelan oil: “It’s not our oil.” @mkraju (2026)pic.twitter.com/Wl3tH9YJfl
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) February 12, 2026
In the same interview, Abrams questioned President Donald Trump’s public suggestion that the United States would “run” Venezuela, saying the U.S. “cannot run Venezuela” and warning against arrangements that leave the ruling apparatus in place under interim leader Delcy Rodríguez. Abrams said making a deal that preserves much of the existing power structure would amount to “the Maduro regime running Venezuela without Maduro.”
Abrams urged Washington to press for specific steps that he said would signal a real break from the previous government’s alliances, including the expulsion of Cuban and Iranian officials and the release of political prisoners.
He also said the U.S. should back opposition figures he described as having electoral legitimacy, arguing that “the guy who won the election should be president,” and criticized what he called an “insult” to opposition leader María Corina Machado.
In a January interview with the New York Times’ “Interesting Times” podcast, Abrams similarly argued that the U.S. action against Maduro had not produced a full regime change, saying “the regime is still in place in Caracas fully,” and that the United States appeared to be accepting Rodríguez while “surrounded by indicted drug trafficking criminals who are still in place.”
Abrams said at the time that the administration should explicitly support a negotiated transition to democracy, warning that relying on entrenched officials to yield power voluntarily was unrealistic.
Originally published on Latin Times
