Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick outlined a vision for Venezuela’s recovery under President Donald Trump, saying that the nation’s massive natural wealth was squandered under Nicolás Maduro, who was apprehended by American forces over the weekend.

Trump Will ‘Fix’ And ‘Rebuild’ Venezuela

On Monday, in a post on X, Lutnick said, “Venezuela was once a great, rich and dynamic country,” while pointing to its vast endowment of natural resources.

This includes its “enormous reserves of oil and natural gas,” along with “hundreds of millions of tonnes of nickel and bauxite” and “thousands of tonnes of gold,” much of which, he said, is concentrated in “the Orinoco Mining Arc, one of the largest mineral and mining regions in the hemisphere.”

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Lutnick framed the nation’s economic decline over the years as a result of mismanagement by Maduro and his administration.

“Maduro didn't unlock prosperity. He destroyed it,” Lutnick said, adding that the Latin American leader “crushed his people while stealing their money, resources and heritage.”

Trump, on the other hand, “will fix the broken Venezuelan economy and rebuild the country,” he said, adding that a “strong, exporting Venezuelan economy is great for America,” as well as for the entire Western Hemisphere.