24 US companies land in Caracas to negotiate with Delcy

The United States not only focuses on Venezuela’s oil, but also on its metals and mineralsof which it has immense reserves of iron, bauxite, gold, nickel, coltan and diamonds.

After pressing for Venezuelan oil, the Trump Administration sent a delegation to Caracas this Wednesday led by its Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, to search cooperation in the mining sectorpractically at the same time as the announcement by the Delcy Rodríguez Government of a legal reform to attract foreign investments in this sector.

Burgum’s visit will last two days and he will be accompanied by representatives of 24 US oil, gas and mining companies interested in investing in Venezuela.

Rare earth agreement

According to reports The New York Times, Delcy Rodríguez has already met “for hours” with these companies and the US Secretary of the Interior is expected to announce this Thursday a agreement related to rare earth minerals.

From the Miraflores Palace, Delcy has already announced, in an unusual image alongside Burgum, that he will present “in the coming days” to Parliament, controlled by Chavismo, a “expansion of the Mining Law”, without delving into details.

Since the United States captured President Nicolás Maduro on January 3 during a military attack in Caracas, relations between both countries have taken an almost unexpected turn to the point of being classified as “friends” and “partners.”

Collaboration “without limits”

Just this Wednesday, the president of the United States, Donald Trumponce again highlighted that Delcy Rodríguez “is doing an excellent job” and collaborating “very well”, to which she responded by thanking him for his “kind disposition” to work together.

In fact, within the framework of the new rapprochement with Washington, the Government of Venezuela – which simultaneously demands the release of Maduro and the lifting of US sanctions – enacted more than a month ago a reform of the hydrocarbon law to also allow foreign investment and make state control in the industry more flexible.

The countries also announced a long-term energy partnership three weeks ago, when the US Secretary of Energy, Chris Wrightthen visited Caracas to address projects in oil, gas, mining and electrical energy.

24 US companies

During the meeting with Burgum this Wednesday, the countries exchanged “information on investment flows for Venezuela” and “new technologies for develop the mining sector”, Rodríguez indicated.

For his part, the US secretary stated that the “opportunities that exist for collaboration and synergy” between both countries “they have no limits.”

He added that “some two dozen American companies, of the biggest, of the strongest, of the best in the world in minerals and mining” accompany you on your visit, “Many of these” already worked in Venezuela at some point, Burgum noted.

“Venezuela It is an extremely rich country, It is a country that contains large reserves not only of oil and gas, but also of critical minerals. In this enormous world we are geographical neighbors with a lot of synergy,” he said.

Just two weeks ago the head of the US Southern Command, Francis Donovanarrived in Caracas, and agreed with the national authorities to develop a cooperation agenda on migration and the fight against drug trafficking.

Trump assured last month that he will make a visit to Venezuela, although he admitted that the date of the trip has not yet been decided, while Delcy Rodríguez indicated then that she will travel to Washington “at some point.”