Prominent Venezuelan voices cautioned against Donald Trump’s campaign to swiftly restore oil investment in the country without prioritizing democratic reforms.
It would be delusional to believe that “Venezuela’s vast oil reserves [make] democracy unnecessary,” an economist argued. Foreign firms would only return to Venezuela if there were a “legal framework… approved by a legitimate legislature and enforced by a legitimate executive,” a Latin American energy policy expert wrote.
Maduro’s replacement, Delcy Rodríguez, may be more open to cutting oil deals with Washington, but the country’s democratic movement will be “deeply betrayed,” given she is an “emblem of the regime,” the founder of Caracas Chronicles said.
One journalist was “cautiously optimistic,” though, that US interests would align with those of Venezuelans.
