Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. President Donald Trump is meeting with oil executives to persuade them to invest in Venezuela, days after a U.S. military operation to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro that cost hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars and left at least 80 people dead. In response, Frances Colón, senior fellow for International Climate at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:
President Trump’s meeting with Big Oil executives exposes what the Venezuela invasion was always about: corporate plunder at taxpayer expense. Some of the same oil companies that poured at least $96 million into Trump’s campaign are now being invited to profit from a high-risk military operation that killed at least 80 people, including civilians, and that Americans paid for with their tax dollars.
Trump promised these executives policy favors in exchange for campaign cash. Now he is mobilizing the U.S. military as a security force for multinational corporate interests while dangling taxpayer-funded subsidies to sweeten the deal. Meanwhile, health care and groceries are still unaffordable for working families in the United States, and Venezuelans face a humanitarian crisis. There’s no credible plan for any of this to benefit Americans or Venezuelans.
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