‘could be a little bit’
Page A5From§Eachthe early bird edition — 1 September 2026
White House offers Pentagon 35% of Venezuela oil, leases fields for 100 years
The White House has revealed that the Pentagon will own a sizeable 35% stake in a Venezuela oil venture, paired with a century-long lease on 17 oil fields. The receipts here show a government negotiating for access to foreign resources on a timeline that outlasts several generations, and handing military interests a direct share in the oil business. The arrangement, presented as strategic, is striking in both its longevity and its scope — the Pentagon, not the Department of Energy or Commerce, is the named partner. For workers and families, the only trickle is the one measured in decades, a promise stapled to the next hundred years. The question is not whether oil deals are made, but who holds the keys and for how long. In this case, the answer is: the Pentagon, and longer than most readers will be alive. The public sees a lease; the Pentagon sees a portfolio. The fold is the joke, and the joke is the future.
“If you ever wondered what the Pentagon gets for its trouble, turns out it's a third of Venezuela's oil and a 100-year lease. That isn't a partnership, that's a handoff—folks keeping the lights on at home get a receipt for the next century. Still waiting for the part where it trickles down.”
“Energy security is national security, and strategic investments like this ensure America's interests are protected. I don't see the issue here—it's a win-win... although, now that I think about it, that's quite a long lease. Did I say win-win? Maybe it's more of a win-now, lease-forever arrangement.”
The receipts
Economist Francisco Rodríguez says no Venezuelan government would enter such a deal unless they were “held at gunpoint.”
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.