'A deal signed at gunpoint'- Francisco Rodríguez slams neocolonial US-Venezuela oil pact

After kidnapping Venezuela's President and First Lady, the Trump administration has struck a historic deal with Venezuela's unelected leadership that effectively grants it control over one fifth of the country's massive oil reserves.

Economist Francisco Rodríguez tells The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal why he believes the deal represents "gunpoint diplomacy," with Venezuela's de facto President Delcy Rodríguez essentially gifting the US billions of barrels of crude in order to avoid the same fate as her predecessor.

Conducted under the auspices of a corporation run by a Venezuelan oligarch facing multiple money laundering indictments abroad, with little transparency and absolute US control, Rodríguez describes the deal as an unprecedented sell-off of Venezuela's sovereignty that will open the floodgates of corruption.

Francisco Rodríguez is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and a Faculty Affiliate at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies. He is the author of The Collapse of Venezuela: Scorched Earth Politics and Economic Decline, 2012-2020.