Venezuela is sitting on over $11 billion in frozen assets scattered across international institutions, and the Trump administration is now actively working with Venezuelan officials to figure out how to unlock them. The catalyst: a devastating series of earthquakes that hit Venezuela on June 24, 2026, killing thousands and causing damage estimated in the tens of billions of dollars.
What’s frozen and where
The $11 billion figure breaks down into three main buckets. Roughly $5 billion sits in Special Drawing Rights at the International Monetary Fund, the IMF’s quasi-currency that countries can exchange for hard cash. Another $4 to $4.5 billion in gold is parked at the Bank of England. The remainder consists of oil sale proceeds held in US Treasury-controlled accounts.
These assets didn’t end up frozen by accident. Years of US sanctions targeting the Maduro regime effectively locked Venezuela out of its own money. Nicolás Maduro was ousted in a military action in January 2026, and acting President Delcy Rodríguez was recognized as the interim leader.
That’s exactly what 14 US lawmakers asked in a formal letter to President Trump on July 14, 2026. The bipartisan coalition urged the administration to lift broad sanctions and enable access to the frozen funds for humanitarian aid and economic stabilization. Their core argument: this wouldn’t cost American taxpayers a dime.
