The workings of a U.S.-controlled bank account shed light on how Washington manages Venezuelan revenue after capturing the country’s president.
Page F139From§Eachthe afternoon edition — 10 November 2026
THE LEDGER
Venezuela's 'gift' to America banks $12 billion Venezuela can't touch.
As it ran on the front
Start with the arithmetic, because the arithmetic now has a column heading. On August 30, the Pentagon's ledger posted the line "a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States" over 35 percent of the country's oil reserves — a gift, which by the plain rule of any household means nobody pays. On September 1, Democracy Now! reported the deal behind that heading: majority U.S. control of more than 65 billion barrels, struck after Washington's capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Chevron moved first. On September 2 — one day after the deal was struck — the company announced it was expanding its Venezuela operations, according to NPR. Harold Hamm's company filed in behind it on September 16. On November 9, the New York Times reported Exxon had cut its own preliminary deal to return, nearly two decades after it left the country, taking its place behind Chevron and Hamm in a line that did not exist ten weeks ago.
Now the receipt everyone's been waiting on arrived Tuesday. The New York Times reports a U.S.-controlled bank account has banked $12 billion in Venezuelan oil revenue — the total nine months out from the capture of the country's president, not from the August gift entry, which is only ten weeks old. The money is controlled. A gift, run against that number, reads like a word chosen for a press release and not for a ledger.…
…(cont) The number lands beside another one. On October 30, Chevron reported $10.4 billion and Exxon $17.5 billion in adjusted third-quarter profit, Common Dreams reported — Chevron's quarter alone nearly matching the entire nine-month balance sitting in Washington's account. Run those two figures side by side, hon, and the gift stops looking like Venezuela's at all; it looks like a line item that moved from one oil company's future to another's present.
And the woman the ledger doesn't mention: Cilia Flores, Venezuela's former first lady, is still in a Brooklyn jail asking to be released over a heart condition. Reconcile those two documents and the gap is the whole story — who gets the number, and who gets the request denied.
“This is the con laid out in plain numbers: they call seizing a country's oil a gift, then bank the proceeds where the country that supposedly got the gift can't touch a dime of it. Exxon, Chevron and Harold Hamm's outfit line up behind each other for a piece of it, while the woman who used to run that country's household is still asking a jail in Brooklyn to let her see a doctor. The money moves fast; the compassion doesn't move at all.”
“Look, this is about stabilizing a failed state's oil sector after years of mismanagement — American companies bringing capital and expertise back in is a win for ordinary Venezuelans too. The funds sit in a controlled account because, frankly, you can't just wire $12 billion to a government this administration doesn't recognize — wait, did I say government? It's not a government, it's — okay, we'll circle back on that one.”
Earlier in this story
- Venezuela's 'Gift to the American People' turns out to be addressed to Exxon. By Ruth · the evening edition, 10 November 2026
- Thirty-five percent of Venezuela's oil reserves entered the Pentagon's column with the acquisition line blank, and the public's share of them comes to one barrel in 105,000. By Ruth · the evening edition, 8 November 2026
The receipts
· As Big Oil Reports Billions in Q3 Profits, Climate Groups Say Tax Them to 'Protect Communities' from the morgue, 30 Oct 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.