US President Donald Trump said that Venezuela could become the 51st federal state of the country. He made his statement during a rally in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he spoke about relations between Washington and Caracas and the supply of Venezuelan oil.
Trump said that the US is about to receive one billion barrels of oil from Venezuela. He presented the supply as the result of the new rapprochement between the two countries and indicated that it costs nothing to US taxpayers.
The US president described the intervention in Venezuela, which ended with the arrest of then-President Nicolás Maduro, as “the greatest victory in the history of the oil industry“. Trump did not provide further details on the mechanism by which the oil would be delivered.
The idea of a 51st state
After talking about oil and improved relations with Venezuela, Trump said the South American country could become a “very prosperous” 51st state of the United States.
Later in the speech, he again linked the possibility to economic relations and American access to Venezuelan energy resources. The statement was welcomed by the audience at the rally, but was not presented as an official proposal to change Venezuela's status.
AFP summarized Trump's words, and US media reported that a tanker with Venezuelan oil had arrived in Corpus Christi. According to the Associated Press, the president publicly indicated a ship with one million barrels of oil, while the News.bg publication, which cites AFP, stated the quantity as one billion barrels. The discrepancy refers to the reported quantity, not to the statement itself about a possible 51st state.
What's next
Turning Venezuela into a federal state would require a separate political and constitutional procedure in the United States. So far, Trump has only stated the possibility and has not announced a specific plan, deadline or legislative initiative to change the country's status.
Sources: news.bg, apnews.com