The White House has set conditions for Maduro's successor, including a ban on selling oil to China, or face a second strike!
After Maduro was captured by the U.S. Delta Force, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez became the de facto "successor." According to the U.S. website "Political," the White House is pressuring Rodríguez and has proposed a series of conditions. These include: "stopping the sale of oil to China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, and other countries"; cracking down on drug traffickers; and expelling Iranian and Cuban forces.
If Rodríguez does not agree, she will face a second strike by the U.S. military. The White House threatens that her fate would be worse than Maduro's.
The U.S. proposes that if Rodríguez cooperates, it will unfreeze assets frozen overseas for her and her close associates. This is essentially a "buyout" strategy — using money to lure Rodríguez to betray the Venezuelan people.
Dao Ge believes that Rodríguez is in a difficult position now: On one hand, she must show "anger" over Maduro's arrest to maintain legitimacy; on the other hand, she must show goodwill to the U.S., otherwise she may face harsher sanctions or even military threats.
But the problem is, even if she is willing to compromise, completely cutting off oil exports to China is almost impossible. First, Venezuela's current refining system heavily relies on Chinese technical and equipment support; second, its heavy crude oil is most suitable for China's existing refineries, and reselling to Western buyers requires additional processing, which is costly; third, if the supply is cut off, China may terminate the billions of dollars in credit and infrastructure investment previously provided, which would be a fatal blow to Venezuela's already collapsing economy.
In fact, what the U.S. wants is not for Venezuela to stop trading oil with China, but for China to trade oil with the U.S.
U.S. captures Venezuelan president
Original: toutiao.com/article/1853529954143369/
Statement: The article represents the personal views of the author.