Trump Recognizes New Venezuelan Government and Unveils $165 Million "Gold Agreement"

On Saturday, President Donald Trump formally recognized the Venezuelan government led by interim President Delcy Rodríguez and unveiled a "historic gold agreement" that allows American companies to extract and trade Venezuelan minerals.

The announcement was made during the regional summit "Shield of the Americas," held at the Trump National Doral Miami on March 7, with leaders from a dozen Latin American nations allied with Washington in attendance.

"I am pleased to announce that this week we've formally recognized the Venezuelan government. We've recognized them legally. We've also just reached a historic gold agreement with Venezuela to enable our two countries to work together to facilitate the sale of Venezuelan gold and other minerals," Trump declared to the summit attendees.

The agreement was sanctioned by the Treasury Department on Saturday through a new license that eases previous sanctions against Minerven, the Venezuelan state mining company.

This deal includes the sale of between 650 and 1,000 kilograms of gold doré through the trading firm Trafigura to U.S. refineries, valued at approximately $165 million. The license explicitly prohibits any transactions with Iran, North Korea, Russia, China, or Cuba.

The formal recognition comes just two days after the U.S. and Venezuela reestablished diplomatic and consular relations, ending a rupture that dated back to 2019 when then-leader Nicolás Maduro expelled American diplomats during Trump's first term.

Normalization has progressed swiftly since January 3, 2026, when U.S. special forces conducted "Operation Absolute Resolution," capturing Maduro at Fuerte Tiuna, Caracas, in an operation lasting between 18 and 25 minutes, with no American casualties.

Trump detailed the operation: "It was about 18 minutes of pure violence and we took him out. We didn't lose anyone." The action resulted in the deaths of 24 Venezuelan and 32 Cuban officials.

Following Maduro's capture, the Venezuelan Supreme Court appointed Delcy Rodríguez as acting president on January 5. Since then, her government has announced the release of over 800 political prisoners and opened the energy and mining sectors to American businesses.

U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited Caracas from March 4 to 5 to negotiate the terms of oil, mineral, and mining reform agreements with Rodríguez, paving the way for yesterday's announcements. Trump praised the interim president with a clear condition: "She's doing a great job because she's working with us. If she wasn't working with us, I wouldn't say she's doing a great job."

In his speech, Trump specifically targeted Cuba as the next focus of his hemispheric policy. "Cuba is at the end of the line. They don't have money, they don't have oil, they have a bad philosophy. They used to get money from Venezuela. They used to get oil from Venezuela. But they don't have money from Venezuela anymore. They don't have oil anymore," he stated.

He warned that the Cuban regime is in its "last moments of life" and that negotiations with him and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are already underway.

The summit also served as the launch of the Anti-Cartel Coalition of the Americas (AC3), signed by 18 countries, pledging to use lethal military force against drug trafficking in the hemisphere.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summarized the doctrine guiding this strategy: "President Trump has established the Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, the Donroe Doctrine, and the Department of War is implementing it as fast as we can."

Trump also announced the release of Venezuelan assets frozen since 2019, including accounts from the Central Bank of Venezuela and funds from PDVSA, as part of the normalization process with Caracas.