Rubio details how the Trump administration will control Venezuela’s oil money

By DAVID KLEPPER and REGINA GARCIA CANO, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration soon will allow Venezuela to sell oil now subject to U.S. sanctions, with the revenue initially dedicated to basic government services such as policing and health care and subject to Washington’s oversight, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.

The United States will retain control in the short term to ensure the oil revenue is used to stabilize Venezuela, Rubio said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

“The funds from that will be deposited into an account that we will have oversight over,” Rubio said, adding that the U.S. Treasury would control the process. Venezuela, he said, “will spend that money for the benefit of the Venezuelan people.”

Rubio offered new insight into how the U.S. is planning to handle the sale of tens of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela, which has the largest proven reserves of crude in the world, and oversee where the money flows. After the U.S. raid that ca...