Stephen Miller, a top aide to United States President Donald Trump, has suggested that Venezuela’s oil belongs to Washington, describing the nationalisation of the South American country’s petroleum industry as “theft”.Miller’s comments on Wednesday raise further questions over the Trump administration’s claim that drug smuggling is its primary source of the tension with Venezuela.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list“American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela,” Miller, who serves as White House deputy chief of staff, wrote in a social media post.“Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.”While US and British companies were involved in early oil exploration in Venezuela, the fuel belongs to the Latin American country under the international law principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources.Venezuela nationalised its oil sector in 1976 and brought it under the control of the state-owned PDVSA.Later, in 2007, the late left-wing President Hugo Chavez nationalised the remaining foreign oil projects in Venezuela, effectively ousting US oil giants like ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil.The US companies filed legal challenges to fight the expropriation process, and in 2014, a World Bank arbitration tribunal ordered Venezuela to pay Exxon Mobil $1.6bn. Legal proceedings remain ongoing.The US imposed sanctions on PDVSA in 2019, under Trump’s first presidency. Advertisement But Trump has ramped up his “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuela since returning to office for a second term in J …
