Many hope that when President-elect Donald Trump takes office this month, he’ll tighten oil sanctions on the regime of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
But Trump’s camp has indicated he will instead make a deal with Maduro to ease those sanctions. The reason: so that Maduro will accept the thousands of migrants Trump plans to deport back to Venezuela and bring more oil onto the global market.
On Tuesday, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado insisted in a Zoom conference that the U.S.’s priority should be pushing Maduro out of power.
"Those who have concerns about migration should know that the only way we’ll stop those flows is with a democratic transition," she said. "Venezuela has a huge energy potential and the only way to take advantage of it is bringing the rule of law. We will transform Venezuela from the criminal hub of the Americas into the energy hub.”
Machado’s calling on Venezuelans worldwide to protest tomorrow the day before Maduro is set to be sworn in as president after he stole last summer’s election.
The real winner — opposition candidate Edmundo González — plans to travel to Venezuela on Friday to conduct his own inauguration, but he’ll likely be arrested.
READ MORE: Venezuela's ultimate political survivor faces his toughest challenge yet
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