{"id":56794,"date":"2026-01-09T14:26:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/trump-cancels-second-wave-of-strikes-on-venezuela-cites-cooperation-gesture\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T14:29:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:29:05","slug":"trump-cancels-second-wave-of-strikes-on-venezuela-cites-cooperation-gesture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/trump-cancels-second-wave-of-strikes-on-venezuela-cites-cooperation-gesture\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump cancels second wave of strikes on Venezuela, cites cooperation gesture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump said Venezuela had begun releasing a significant number of political prisoners as a gesture of \u201cseeking peace,\u201d following last week\u2019s US-led operation to abduct President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, who is currently in US custody along with his wife, Cilia Flores.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very important and smart gesture. The USA and Venezuela are working well together, especially as it pertains to rebuilding, in a much bigger, better, and more modern form, their oil and gas infrastructure,\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of this cooperation, I have cancelled the previously expected second Wave of Attacks, which looks like it will not be needed; however, all ships will stay in place for safety and security purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement comes amid evolving US-Venezuela relations, with Trump indicating earlier on Fox News\u2019s Hannity program that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado would visit Washington next week, despite his previous dismissals of her political influence.<\/p>\n

Trump also told The New York Times on Wednesday that the US was \u201cgetting along very well\u201d with Venezuela\u2019s interim government, led by acting President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n

In addition to the diplomatic developments, Trump is scheduled to meet with executives from major oil companies at the White House on Friday. He announced that \u201cat least 100 billion dollars will be invested by BIG OIL\u201d in Venezuela, a move aimed at restoring the country\u2019s oil and gas infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has repeatedly indicated its intention to control Venezuela\u2019s oil industry indefinitely. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has emphasised that Washington would manage the country\u2019s oil production, though the state-run oil company has maintained that it remains in charge, negotiating only on oil sales with the US.<\/p>\n

Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips are expected to attend the White House meeting. Chevron is currently the only US company licensed to operate in Venezuela; Exxon and ConocoPhillips left the country in 2007 after refusing to cede majority stakes to the government.<\/p>\n

Venezuela, sanctioned by Washington since 2019, holds roughly one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil reserves but produced only about 1 percent of global crude output in 2024, according to OPEC. Trump views the country\u2019s oil wealth as a potential boost to lower domestic fuel prices in the US.<\/p>\n

\"United<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United States President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he had cancelled a previously expected second wave of military strikes on Venezuela, citing \u201ccooperation\u201d from the South American nation as the reason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000100394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-56794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000100394,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/us-politics-trump-gop-51_1767865622314_1767865636139_1767953196104.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/us-politics-trump-gop-51_1767865622314_1767865636139_1767953196104.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/us-politics-trump-gop-51_1767865622314_1767865636139_1767953196104.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/us-politics-trump-gop-51_1767865622314_1767865636139_1767953196104.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/us-politics-trump-gop-51_1767865622314_1767865636139_1767953196104.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/us-politics-trump-gop-51_1767865622314_1767865636139_1767953196104.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000100394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56794"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=56794"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=56794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}