Venezuela’s socialist regime on Wednesday criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to revoke an oil license granted by former President Joe Biden to California-based Chevron that allowed it to operate in Venezuela, deeming the rescission “harmful and inexplicable.”
Former President Biden granted Chevron a license in November 2022 that allowed the company to resume oil production in Venezuela and sell Venezuelan oil in American markets. The soon-to-expire license, which had been renewed every six months since it was issued, allowed Chevron to operate in Venezuela in spite of the oil sanctions imposed by President Trump during his first term in 2019.
President Trump, writing in a Truth Social post on Wednesday, announced the impending termination of the license slated for Saturday, March 1, in response to the electoral conditions in Venezuela and the regime not transporting Venezuelan criminals back to their country at the pace both countries had agreed to.
“We are hereby reversing the concessions that Crooked Joe Biden gave to Nicolás Maduro, of Venezuela, on the oil transaction agreement, dated November 26, 2022, and also having to do with Electoral conditions within Venezuela, which have not been met by the Maduro regime,” President Trump said.
“Additionally, the regime has not been transporting the violent criminals that they sent into our Country (the Good Ole’ U.S.A.) back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to. I am therefore ordering that the ineffective and unmet Biden ‘Concession Agreement’ be terminated as of the March 1st option to renew. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he continued.
Several members of the Venezuelan regime immediately responded to the announcement. Socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, without directly referring to President Trump or the Chevron license, said at a Wednesday evening event that “no country or threat will intimidate the nation.”
“Let no one make a mistake with Venezuela, no one, no one make a mistake with Venezuela again, and the fascists who call for aggression against our country will receive justice. Justice must come to them,” Maduro said. “Venezuela cannot be attacked, Venezuela cannot be touched, Venezuela must be respected.”
Venezuelan Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodríguez claimed on her personal Telegram account that the termination of the license is an attempt to “harm the Venezuelan people” but that it is instead “hurting” the United States. Rodríguez also called into question the United States’s international investment regime generally.
“The constitutional government of Venezuela and its people, in great national unity, categorically reject this type of action overtly requested by the country’s extremist and failed opposition,” Rodríguez said. “Venezuela emphasizes that these kinds of failed decisions prompted the migration from 2017 to 2021 with the widely known consequences. Venezuela will continue on its path of comprehensive economic recovery, guaranteeing it with the creative effort of all and in total safeguard of its sovereignty and national independence.”
Interior Minister — and long-suspected drug lord wanted by U.S. authorities — Diosdado Cabello claimed that the end of the Chevron license would “affect the American economy,” and further asserted that actions such as the removal of the oil license are promoted by the “extremist opposition” of the rogue regime.
“They have not been able to do it and they will not be able to: the Venezuelan people are indestructible,” Cabello said. “Venezuela has faced multiple attacks and is still standing. From electrical sabotage to economic warfare, every attempt at destabilization has failed.”
Although the Biden administration-issued Chevron license explicitly prohibited the California-based company from paying taxes or royalties to the Maduro regime, or dividends of any kind to Venezuela’s state-oil company PDVSA, a report published by Bloomberg in mid-January stated that documents reviewed by the outlet appeared to indicate that Chevron filed tax returns worth about $300 million in local currency to Venezuela’s revenue service in March 2024.
The Chevron oil license was part of the Biden administration’s multi-year failed efforts to convince the Maduro regime to hold a “free and fair” presidential election in Venezuela. In October 2023, former President Biden gifted Maduro a broad six-month oil and gas sanctions relief package that temporarily restored his regime’s main source of revenue by allowing it to freely sell Venezuelan oil in United States and international markets. In return, Maduro provided the Biden administration with a list of vague promises towards holding a “free and fair” election some time in 2024.
Maduro failed to uphold the terms of the agreement, and instead held a highly fraudulent election on July 28, 2024, that Maduro claims he “won,” illegitimately securing a third six-year presidential term that began on January 10, 2025.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.