Americas

Caracas: After seizing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump administration is increasing the already substantial pressure on the country’s new president, Delcy Rodríguez, demanding she cut ties with USadversaries before a blockade on Venezuelan oil is lifted. The economic pressure campaign has emerged as central to President Donald Trump’s vow that the United States would "run” Venezuela. In an apparent indication of early compliance, Rodríguez’s government agreed to a deal under which Venezuela would hand millions of barrels of oil over to the US. Inside Venezuela, a nervous quiet has descended on many parts of the capital as people grapple with the aftermath of the USattack and a widening government crackdown against dissent. For now, Caracas residents report no shortages of goods in markets, but inflation is up, normally busy streets are empty and the businesses that do open only do so for set periods of time. Under the current conditions, Trump administration officials say the Venezuelan government only has a few weeks before it would "go broke” if it doesn’t "play ball,” according to two USofficials briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal policy deliberations. Analysts and economists said that timeline probably describes how long the USassesses that the government in Caracas has before its cash reserves run out and it is left unable to make critical payments, such as salaries for security forces. "The president is speaking about exerting maximum leverage with the interim authorities in Venezuela and ensuring they cooperate with the United States,” said a senior administration official. "As the president stated, the embargo on sanctioned Venezuelan oil remains in full effect,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Trump has said he is demanding the USget "total access” to Venezuela’s oil reserves and "other things.” Among those is a demand that Venezuela cut ties with China, Iran, Russia and Cuba and agree to partner exclusively with the USon oil production, according to one of the USofficials briefed on the matter. Under the deal, Venezuela would hand over 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the US, to be sold. The proceeds can be spent "at the discretion of the USgovernment,” and the funds will "be disbursed for the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people,” the Energy Department said in a statement. Venezuela has not disputed the plan. The Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Wednesday, "We’re just going to control the flow of those funds so we have leverage over the people in power.” In the short term, he said, his priority is "to stabilise the economy in Venezuela, stop the collapse of the bolivar, prevent Venezuela from becoming a failed state.” Also Wednesday, the Defense Department announced the seizure of two additional tankers, both under USsanctions, carrying Venezuelan oil. That comes after four ships were observed leaving Venezuelan waters in apparent defiance of the blockade on Saturday and Sunday, according to an analysis from . Because Venezuela’s economy is so reliant on oil exports, the USblockade has probably already brought national revenue close to zero, according to Francisco Rodríguez, an expert on the Venezuelan economy at the University of Denver and the author of "The Collapse of Venezuela.” "They were basically living day-to-day and only paycheck to paycheck. And the checks are the oil exports,” he said. Once one of the wealthiest countries in the world, Venezuela experienced stunning economic collapse within a matter of years as USsanctions, corruption and government mismanagement hollowed out the economy. Throughout the crises, Venezuela repeatedly dipped into its reserves and now has little accessible cash left. Venezuela’s cash-flow problems emerged within days of the imposition of the blockade, said Andrés Martínez-Fernández, a Latin America policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank in Washington. He cited reports that Venezuela had fallen behind on debt repayments to China and Russia. "There was quite a bit of scrambling and concern after those initial actions against the tankers,” he said. Venezuela uses much of its oil transfers to Russia and China to pay down country-to-country debts, according to Martínez-Fernández, and once the oil flows ceased, the government in Caracas had no other way to settle the accounts. Venezuela’s government also faces the possibility that it will be unable to pay the salaries of its own employees, the military and police. Martínez-Fernández and Rodríguez, the economist, both estimated that this could happen as soon as the end of January or early February, after which government functions could begin to break down and food shortages could surge. "I think famine is a real possibility now in Venezuela. But it’s a large country with porous borders. And, usually before people starve, they try to leave,” Rodríguez said. Economic collapse has already triggered massive waves of migration from Venezuela. Since 2014, nearly 8 million Venezuelans have fled the country, according to United Nations figures. Those who stayed have already faced widespread hunger for years, causing infant mortality to soar and most adults to lose weight, a phenomena dryly referred to as "the Maduro diet.” Rojas, a 47-year-old owner of a small chocolate business in Caracas, said he’s living from one sale to the next, terrified that another economic downturn could bring hyperinflation with it. "With the money I just received, I’m going to buy food. I have to work miracles with what I’ve saved and what I can earn,” he said, to stretch his earnings to support his mother and father, as well as himself. So far, apart from business being down slightly, he hasn’t experienced a dramatic economic shock since the ramped-up USpressure on Venezuela, but he fears it’s coming any day now, and that has made it impossible to plan. "Uncertainty is the worst thing that can happen to a human being,” he said. George reported from Washington. John Hudson and Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.

Africa

Simon's Town:Chinese and Iranian warships were docked off South Africa's main navy base Thursday ahead of exercises that officials said were also meant to involve Russia. The January 9- 16 "Will for Peace" drill hosted by South Africa risks further straining its ties with the United States, which is in dispute with many of the countries taking part. AFP journalists saw two Chinese ships in Cape Town's False Bay harbour on Wednesday, joined by an Iranian vessel on Thursday. South African navy officials said warships from Russia were also expected to take part in the China-led exercises. The drill was focused on the "safety of shipping and maritime economic activities", the South African defence force said in December when it announced the manoeuvres. It was intended to "deepen cooperation in support of peaceful maritime security initiatives," it said. The statement said the exercise would involve navies from BRICS countries. BRICS, originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and, more recently, Indonesia. The joint drills -previously known as Exercise Mosi -were initially scheduled for November 2025 but were postponed due to a clash with the G20 summit in Johannesburg. South Africa's Democratic Alliance (DA), a member of the ruling unity government, said parliament had not been "properly briefed" on the drills, including cost, command structure and diplomatic consequences. "South Africa's defence and foreign policy must be transparent, constitutional, and principled and certainly not being quietly reshaped through military exercises that contradict our stated neutrality and damage our standing in the world," DA spokesperson on defence, Chris Hattingh, said in a statement. The centre-right party - which joined government after the African National Congress lost its majority in 2024 due to voter disillusionment with corruption and mismanagement -vowed to demand full transparency in parliament. President Donald Trump has accused countries in the BRICS group of emerging nations of "anti-American" policies. South Africa has drawn US criticism for its close ties with Russia and a range of other policies, including its decision to bring a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice over the Gaza war. South Africa's military was criticised for hosting naval exercises with Russia and China in 2023 that coincided with the one-year anniversary of the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine. The three countries first conducted joint naval drills in 2019.

Europe

Paris: Three of 11 vessels chartered by Chevron were Thursday transporting oil from Venezuela to the US, according to an AFP analysis of ship-tracking data, as export sanctions raised concerns over the South American country's storage capacity. Two more of the tankers were anchored at Bajo Grande refinery port, western Venezuela, while the remaining six were on their way to the South American country, according to ship-tracking data collated by Bloomberg and trade information platform Kpler. Chevron is the only US company to have operations in Venezuela and booked the tankers as part of a regular schedule of crude shipments back to the US. While the boats were in transit, US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Caracas will turn over 30mn to 50mn barrels of sanctioned crude to the US. The US blockade of Venezuelan exports is causing a build up of oil in storage, warned analysts from Kpler. Chevron is one of the operators still able to move the oil. One of its chartered tankers, the Ionic Anassa, was last recorded passing Cuba on its way to Pascagoula Port in Mississippi, having loaded at Bajo Grande on January 4, according to shipping data published by Bloomberg and Marine Traffic. The Nave Photon was recorded north of Caracas on Thursday, heading for Port Freeport in Texas, having arrived at the Jose terminal, eastern Venezuela, on January 5. It was being closely followed by The Mediterranean Voyager, which also appeared to have picked up a shipment at Jose terminal, according to the latest displacement data published by Bloomberg. Two vessels, the Minerva Gloria and Searuby, were anchored at Bajo Grande on Thursday. Gloria appeared to be loaded, while Searuby appeared to be empty. Another six vessels, apparently empty, were en route to the South American country. Chevron would not confirm the movements of the vessels when asked by AFP, saying only that it "remains focused on the safety and wellbeing of our employees" and that "we continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws." Crude oil stocks in Venezuela have been rising since the US seizure of the tanker Skipper on December 10, according to data from Kpler. The latest assessment, based on radar images from December 30, indicates that onshore stocks, namely tanks, have exceeded 22 million barrels, nearly half of the country's storage capacity. "With loading activity now slowing sharply due to the naval blockade, Kpler analysts expect upcoming radar imagery to show further inventory builds," said Emmanuel Belostrino, senior analyst at Kpler, in a report sent to AFP. "Floating" oil storage is also increasing rapidly off the coast of Venezuela, a sign of a bottleneck in exports. According to Kpler figures, at least 16.7 million barrels of crude oil were stored on board at least fifteen large tankers, used as temporary reservoirs near the Venezuelan coast, at the beginning of the week.