Marco Rubio, a Florida senator for 14 years, is now Secretary of State and Acting National Security Advisor in the Trump administration. Photograph: Gage Skidmore.
Guacamaya, May 22, 2025. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared Wednesday night that there will be no extension of the “Chevron license,” which allows the corporation to operate in Venezuela despite sanctions.
The acting national security advisor stated on social media that “the pro-Mauro Biden oil license in Venezuela will expire as scheduled next Tuesday May 27th.”
This directly contradicts statements by Richard Grenell, Donald Trump’s presidential envoy for special missions. On the Steve Bannon Show, he stated that a 60-day extension of that same license would be granted, having made “progress” in negotiations with the government of Nicolás Maduro.
On Tuesday, while information about the extension was leaked to the media, Grenell traveled to Antigua to meet with Joseph St. Clair, a US citizen imprisoned in Venezuela, considered a hostage by Washington.
A source on Capitol Hill claims that, for the second time, the three Republican representatives from Florida, present in the lower house of Congress: Carlos Giménez, María Elvira Salazar, and Mario Díaz-Balart, are reportedly involved. They have conditioned their support for the “Reconciliation” bill in exchange for the end of the Chevron license.
The three representatives are close to Rubio, who was a senator from the same state. They belong to the Cuban-American group that has most strongly pushed the economic blockade against the island; their next objective appears to be to replicate that strategy against Venezuela—because it is an ally of Havana.
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which is in charge of sanctions, has not yet issued a statement on the extension.
