Record · the original document behind a story
Guardian on Machado and the oil deal
Published by The Guardian on September 3, 2026.
Maria Corina Machado on September 3: subsoil belongs to the people; U.S. is the principal partner Venezuela needs.
The cited passage, with surrounding source text
… <p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/03/us-venezuela-visual-look-century-old-relationship-drenched-in-oil" data-link-name="in standfirst link"><span data-dcr-style="bullet"></span> The US and Venezuela: a century-old relationship drenched in oil</a></p></div></div><aside data-gu-name="meta" class="dcr-c3afk8"><div class="dcr-1r7uyhr"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="100%" height="13" viewBox="0 0 1300 13" preserveAspectRatio="none" stroke="var(--article-border)" stroke-width="1" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false" class="dcr-1ioulxl"><line x1="0" x2="1300" y1="0.5" y2="0.5"></line><line x1="0" x2="1300" y1="4.5" y2="4.5"></line><line x1="0" x2="1300" y1="8.5" y2="8.5"></line><line x1="0" x2="1300" y1="12.5" y2="12.5"></line></svg></div><div class="dcr-18aucbd"><div class="dcr-vyk1vu"><div class="dcr-19o5mbt"><div><address data-component="meta-byline" data-link-name="byline" data-gu-name="byline"><div class="dcr-15wyqgv"><a rel="author" data-link-name="auto tag link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tomphillips">Tom Phillips</a><span> Latin America correspondent</span></div></address><details style="--mobile-colour:var(--dateline)" data-gu-name="dateline" class="dcr-kzowyp"><summary class="dcr-njvsm3"><span class="dcr-10i63lj">Thu 3 Sep 2026 12.17 EDT</span></summary>Last modified on Thu 3 Sep 2026 16.57 EDT</details></div></div><div data-print-layout="hide" style="margin-bottom:8px" class="dcr-wk3oiu"><div class="dcr-h34qpb" style="padding-top:8px"><gu-island name="ShareButton" priority="feature" deferUntil="visible" props="{"pageId":"world/2026/sep/03/venezuelan-opposition-leader-questions-us-oil-deal-with-illegitimate-regime","webTitle":"Nobel laureate Machado: ‘Illegitimate’ Venezuela regime has no right to strike US oil deal","format":{"design":0,"display":0,"theme":0},"context":"ArticleMeta"}"><a href="mailto:?subject=Nobel laureate Machado: ‘Illegitimate’ Venezuela regime has no right to strike US oil 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class="dcr-11gq2tx"><div id="maincontent" class="dcr-1w2vkyc"><div class="article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-1r8ovvy"><p class="dcr-1s160rg">The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has questioned Donald Trump’s oil deal with Venezuela’s interim government, saying the country’s natural resources do not belong to “an illegitimate regime”.</p><p class="dcr-1s160rg">In her first public comments since <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/28/trump-venezuela-oil-agreement" data-link-name="in body link">Trump announced</a> what he called “the biggest oil deal in world history” with Venezuela last Friday, Machado walked a diplomatic tightrope between challenging the agreement and trying not to rile the White House.</p><div id="sign-in-gate"></div><p class="dcr-1s160rg">In a video posted on social media, the Nobel peace prize winner said: “Of course the United States is the principal partner Venezuela needs to fully develop its strategic potential. This is what the majority of Venezuelans believe … and it is something I’ve spent my whole life defending.”</p><p class="dcr-1s160rg">However, Machado said, the current occupants of the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas were “enemies of the US”, saying they did not have the right or the democratic mandate to negotiate Venezuela’s natural resources. “The wealth of our subsoil does not belong to an illegitimate regime – it belongs to the Venezuelan people,” she said, adding that supporters felt “sadness and anger” at being excluded from the decision-making process.</p><p class="dcr-1s160rg">Venezuela has the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves with an estimated 303bn barrels, of which more than 65bn barrels are involved in the agreement.</p><p class="dcr-1s160rg">Trump’s deal was struck with the un-elected interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, who took power in January after her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, was abducted by US special forces.</p><p class="dcr-1s160rg">Many observers expected Trump to replace Maduro with Machado, a conservative democracy activist who later gave the US president her Nobel prize award. But instead Trump backed Rodríguez, threatening: “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price – probably bigger than Maduro”, and sidelined Machado.</p><p class="dcr-1s160rg">The White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/08/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-announces-historic-oil-agreement-to-secure-american-energy-dominance-and-drive-venezuelas-economic-recovery/" data-link-name="in body link">claims</a> the oil deal will help secure US “energy dominance for the next century” as well as “purging foreign malign influence from our back yard” by excluding China and Russia.</p><p class="dcr-1s160rg">Speaking outside the Miraflores palace on Wednesday, the US energy secretary, Chris Wright, said the aim was “to massively grow production and economic opportunities in Venezuela”, adding: “President Trump has a clear mission in Venezuela. The mission is to bring peace, freedom, opportunity, and prosperity to everyone in Venezuela.”</p><p class="dcr-1s160rg">But there has been widespread condemnation of what critics call a predatory and colonial-style land grab. Machado’s supporters fear the deal makes Washington far less inclined to push for fresh presidential elections.</p><p class="dcr-1s160rg">Machado’s movement is widely believed to have beaten Maduro by a landslide in the last such vote, in 2024, but he refused to accept the result and clung to power until his dramatic rendition on 3 January this year.</p><p class="dcr-1s160rg">On Wednesday, Trump and Rodríguez brushed off questions about when an election might be held. “You had a very powerful, very nasty dictatorship in Venezuela – and they’re just not going to be ready for it yet,” Trump told reporters, before adding vaguely: “But soon.”</p><p class="dcr-1s160rg">Rodríguez said: “There will be an electoral process, but when Venezuela is ready.</p><p class="dcr-1s160rg">“I don’t set dates,” she added.</p></div></div><gu-island name="SlotBodyEnd" priority="feature" deferUntil="visible" 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- The White House says 100-year rights to 17 Venezuelan oil fields. Caracas says 25 years, renewable. · cited for Machado's September 3 video
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Timeline entries this record anchors: White House follow-up, warrants record, Wright in Caracas.