María Corina Machado appears at the White House to file a lawsuit against Trump.

WashingtonThe dispute between Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, and opposition leader María Corina Machado for Donald Trump's favor is beginning to become clearer. the question of who really rules the Caribbean countryAfter the US president dismissed her as a successor to the ousted regime of Nicolás Maduro, Machado traveled to Washington to curry favor with the president of the world's leading power. The meeting has stirred nervousness in both Caracas—Rodríguez made sure to call Trump the day before to prepare the ground—and Oslo: the Nobel committee has already warned Machado that the Nobel Peace Prize is non-transferable. Last week, in an attempt to win back the Republican's favor, Machado floated the idea of sharing the award with Trump, who has made no secret of his desire to add it to the Oval Office's collection of statuettes and trophies. The new ruler of Venezuela is a fickle man, and his decisions are often based on the latest advice he's received from his advisors. Rodríguez's tactic of getting ahead of her competitor and speaking with Trump before the face-to-face debate is a pattern that has been seen before. Russian President Vladimir Putin is known for picking up the phone on the eve of Volodymyr Zelensky's visits to the White House.

"We had an excellent conversation, and she's a fantastic person. In fact, she's someone we've worked very well with," Trump told reporters about Venezuela's interim president. He said it had been a "long" conversation in which "many topics" were covered.

The objective of oil

Washington has already begun setting in motion the machinery to plunder Venezuela's crude oil reserves. In an initial payment to the US, Caracas will hand over up to 50 million barrels of oil, a volume that could be valued at more than $2.8 billion. Simultaneously, Trump has already been pressuring major oil companies to invest at least $100 billion to restore Venezuela's damaged oil infrastructure and the start of a new gold rush, in this case, for black gold.

Almost two weeks ago, the elite Delta Force unit kidnapped Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in the middle of the night. The operation, which resulted in at least one hundred deaths in Caracas, shocked the country and the entire international community. Trump was carrying out the threats of recent months and thus culminating the military siege erected around the Latin American country with bombings against alleged drug-laden boats in the Caribbean and the deployment of US Navy ships to the edge of Venezuelan waters.

In the hours following the military intervention in Venezuela, Trump had already ruled out Machado as a possible replacement in the power vacuum created in the country. On the contrary, the president pointed to Rodríguez, Maduro's deputy, as a possible interlocutor. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had already been speaking with her, as he explained at the press conference. The Hispanic official—one of the ideologues behind the entire interventionist project—pointed to Rodríguez as a better interlocutor than her predecessor, while Machado watched as the possibility of taking the reins of the country crumbled.

Shortly afterward, administration sources explained to Washington Post that one of the reasons why Trump had ruled it out Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize so quickly. Although the opposition leader dedicated the award to him, the president felt he shouldn't have accepted it.