The administration is brokering deals in a notoriously corrupt industry, including one with a company that the United States deems a security threat.
Page F2From§Eachthe sunrise edition — 28 September 2026
THE VENEZUELA LEDGER
Washington partners with a mining firm it lists as a security threat; gangs already take their cut.
As it ran on the front
A reconciliation is two columns and the difference between them, and you do not need an opinion to run one. You need the filings and a straight edge. Here are the filings for one year, nine months apart, on the same country.
Congress took no vote. The next day, August 29, the administration closed it anyway — a Truth Social post announcing "majority US control" of a reserve holding 65 billion barrels, the Pentagon's stake set at 35 percent. One day after that, August 30, the President filed the same transaction under a different heading: a "gift from Venezuela to the people of the United States," oil earmarked to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve a previous administration had drawn down.…
…(cont) The price column ran on its own calendar. Over Labor Day weekend, the national average at the pump reached a record $4.15 a gallon — the same weekend the Energy Secretary was telling reporters the new arrangement would bring prices down, in a year or two. A driver does not pay a barrel count or a percentage stake. A driver pays at the pump, whenever the tank runs dry, hon, and what came out of the tank over Labor Day was the highest price on record — not a year or two from now, now.
The New York Times reported this week that the same administration is now brokering deals in Venezuela's gold mining sector, an industry the paper describes as notoriously corrupt, including one with a company the United States government itself lists as a security threat. The gangs did not wait for the ink.
Run the two industries side by side and the pattern holds without a motive column at all: oil opened by a military operation, gold opened by a broker's handshake, and in both columns, the people already taking their cut are the ones the government's own paperwork warns you about.
“This is the same script twice in one season: they open a "notoriously corrupt" industry, hand a piece of it to a company their own list calls a threat, and the gangs cash in before the ink dries. Congress got no vote on either deal, the oil one or the gold one. That's not foreign policy, that's a shakedown wearing a State Department seal.”
“Look, this is diversification — oil AND gold, that's just smart portfolio management for the hemisphere, this creates opportunity. The security-threat list is a different desk, they don't necessarily talk to the guys cutting the deals, which — did I say that? That doesn't sound like coordination, that sounds like the opposite of coordination, let me circle back.”
Earlier in this story
- Nine months after the military removed Venezuela's president, the 30-minute operation that booked 65 billion barrels — 35 percent of it to the Pentagon — leaves the driver stretching a gallon at a record $4.15 until the savings arrive in a year or two. By Ruth · the breakfast edition, 27 September 2026
The receipts
· 'Mobster Language': Trump Says Venezuelan Oil Will Replenish US Reserves from the morgue, 30 Aug 2026
· 'One Big Military Theft': Trump Announces Deal for US Control of Venezuelan Oil Fields from the morgue, 29 Aug 2026
· 'Yet Another Trump Grift': Congress Called to Stop US Takeover of Venezuelan Oil Fields from the morgue, 28 Aug 2026
· Trump admin's list of US-designated 'foreign terrorist' groups in Latin America expands to 21 from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026
· Top Trump official reveals how 30-minute military op unlocked Venezuela oil windfall for US buyers from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026
· Ex-Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores seeks release from NYC jail, citing heart ailment from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026
· New York City protest once again demands release of Maduro and Flores from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026
· Trump Official Denies Stealing Venezuela's Oil One Hour After Boasting Country is 'Forced to Work' With US from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026
· The Biggest Oil Deal or Theft at Gunpoint? U.S. Claims Majority Control of Venezuela's Oil Reserves from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Tehran threatens attacks after U.S. strikes Iranian tankers from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· US forces take out 3 Iranian oil tankers in retaliation from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· Oil prices up as Iran says it will expand control over Strait of Hormuz from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026
· Iran live updates: Trump speaks to MBS, says everything will 'work out fine' from the morgue, 13 Sep 2026
· Iran threatens retaliation against U.S. tanker strikes from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· U.S. gas prices hit record high for Labor Day from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· Ship tracking websites, including Kpler, MarineTraffic, and TankerTrackers, show that three Iranian oil tankers, including two from the National Iranian Tanker Company, have escaped the blockade that from the morgue, 17 Jun 2026
· Iranian state media reports that the United States Navy attempted to capture an Iranian oil tanker. The oil tanker was boarded, commandeered and then returned by Iranian NEDSA marines in a helicopter from the morgue, 3 Nov 2021
· US strikes Iranian rocket launchers in first attack since late July from the morgue, 30 Aug 2026
· An Iranian Navy commander claims on state television that the Iranian Navy forced a U.S. submarine to surface as it transited the Strait of Hormuz and that the submarine violated Iranian territorial w from the morgue, 20 Apr 2023
· Trump Threatens to Rename Strait of Hormuz for Himself as War Pushes Diesel Prices Toward Record High from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Trump floats renaming Strait of Hormuz after himself from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· U.S. strikes targets in Iran near Strait of Hormuz as Iran says it is retaliating from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Trump Hammered Over Iran War That Drove Gas Prices Above $4 Per Gallon Every Day in August for First Time Ever from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
· 'Trump Did It!': At $5.85 a Gallon, Diesel Price Hits All-Time High in US Thanks to War on Iran from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Price of diesel in U.S. hits record as Vance downplays Iran war impact from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Diesel prices hit record high as wars disrupt supply from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Trump vows response to Iran's retaliatory strikes: 'We're going to hit them hard' from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
· Trump threatens Iran against retaliation for latest U.S. strikes from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Live updates: US, Iran ramp up strikes; incumbents hold on in Massachusetts from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Trump calls Iran conflict "small potatoes" from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· Labor Day gas prices are highest ever for holiday from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· How ‘Hypermilers’ Are Trying to Beat High Gas Prices from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· Fuel prices at record Labor Day high in US thanks to Iran War and refinery issues from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· Oil Prices Rise Slightly After U.S. and Iran Trade Strikes from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026
· USS Lincoln heads home as war with Iran escalates from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· Lawler disagrees with Trump on Iran war: 'It is certainly not small potatoes' from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026
· OPEC Plus to Keep Oil Production Steady from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026
· Iran War Has Cost the Average American More Than $1,200 Over Six Months, Economist Estimates from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Trump says military conflict in Iran is 'small potatoes for us' from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Wright: US has 'a lot of leverage' in Venezuela after oil deal reached from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026
· White House unveils new details of Venezuela agreement from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Chris Wright explains how Venezuelan crude will ‘fill’ the Strategic Petroleum Reserve from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Energy Secretary Wright says Venezuela oil deal will bring down gas prices in a year or two from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Chevron to expand in Venezuela, days after the U.S. and Venezuela strike oil deal from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Venezuelan oil flows will lower gas prices in 12-24 months, Wright says in Caracas from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Trump says Venezuelan oil will replenish Strategic Petroleum Reserves from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.