Venezuela hands the US control over a fifth of its oil in landmark deal

BREAKING: Venezuela's parliament approves handing the US control of a fifth of its oil reserves, cementing Washington's grip on a government it helped install after the toppling of President Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuela just handed Washington control of a fifth of its oil reserves.

Parliament in Caracas approved the deal, and you have to remember who's sitting in that parliament. This is the government the United States helped install after Nicolas Maduro was toppled, and he spent years calling American oil interest an invasion. Now his successors have signed a chunk of the largest proven reserves on the planet over to the country that helped put them in power.

Call it gratitude, call it payment, the effect is the same. American hands on Venezuelan crude at the exact moment the Middle East is on fire and everyone's energy math is broken. Whoever holds spare barrels right now holds real leverage, and Washington just picked up a lot of them.

A fifth of the reserves. Not a contract, not a partnership. Control. That word is doing all the work, and Caracas chose it.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.