Trump and Rubio's bold Venezuela oil pact could finally crush communism's grip

For more than a quarter-century, Venezuela was not merely poorly governed. It was captured by Cuban communist intelligence services. Russian arms entrenched it. Chinese loans stripped the country of sovereignty while the Chávez–Maduro regime looted Venezuela, wrecked the currency and filled the prisons. The result was a failed state: mass exile, political prisoners, electrical blackouts and a platform for America's enemies in the Western Hemisphere. That history is what critics of the new U.S.–Venezuela energy agreement prefer to forget.

Last week, President Trump announced a historic oil partnership with Venezuela's interim government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth negotiated it. Interim President Delcy Rodríguez confirmed the core terms: 17 strategic fields holding more than 65 billion barrels, a production target above 1.5 million barrels a day, more than $100 billion in private investment and large fiscal flows to Venezuela. Whether the final term is a generation or a century-scale U.S. stake, the meaning is the same. The United States has taken a secured interest in the resource that once financed communism in Cuba and subversion all over Latin America.