The Trump administration is reversing, through forceful actions and aggressive diplomacy, what President Chávez painstakingly built, and Nicolás Maduro later sought to deepen.
José Gregorio Yépez
The signing of Venezuela’s oil agreements with the multinational companies that attended the meeting at Miraflores, with the approval of U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, marks one of the milestones that will serve as a reference point for Venezuela’s return — along with its foreign policy and economy — to the Western sphere of influence, under a system of oversight directed from the White House.
“What once was will be no more…,” says a song by José María Napoleón, performed by José José. With a show of authority — or rather, authoritarianism — the Trump administration is moving to regain control of Venezuelan oil, leaving behind the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian influence that sustained an alternative ecosystem to the country’s historical relationships dating back to the creation of Petrolia del Táchira in 1878.
Since Hugo Chávez Frías won the presidential election on December 6, 1998, with 56.20% of the vote, Venezuela began distancing itself from its traditional political and economic partners.
No one could ignore the president-elect’s identification with left-wing ideas. During his campaign and the first years of his administration, he maintained a working relationship with the United States amid tensions and rhetoric that alternated between confrontation and restraint.
Signals such as Chávez’s decision to expel U.S. military attachés from Venezuela in 2004 showed his intent to build a political and business ecosystem different from what Venezuelan governments had traditionally maintained from the era of Juan Vicente Gómez through the end of the 20th century.
“We are suspending all exchanges of officers with the United States until who knows when (…) there will be no more joint operations or anything like that, because they send them here to ‘whisper in the ears’ of our young officers,” Chávez said in April 2004 as he moved to break with the United States.
From that moment onward, Venezuela steadily aligned its interests with China, Russia and Iran.
This shift brought Russian companies such as Rosneft and Gazprom into the country, along with Chinese companies CNPC and Sinopec.
Business with the United States suffered. Rising political tensions began to weaken economic relations, while military ties deteriorated even further. Venezuela moved from using Belgian rifles to acquiring the legendary Russian AK rifles.
Economist Luis Vicente León called this process “the political and economic de-Westernization of Venezuela,” which moved the country away from its traditional relationships. Venezuela joined an alternative political and economic ecosystem, interacting with countries facing Western sanctions.
In one stroke
Then came 2026.
Things began to change rapidly after January 3.
“On January 3, everything came to an abrupt halt, and a process in the opposite direction began. Instead, we are moving toward an increasingly strong Westernization of Venezuela’s economy and politics,” Luis Vicente León told us during a brief conversation. He added that “the West is Venezuela’s conventional hemisphere, where the country has developed throughout its history and where its oil market also works better in terms of lower discounts, higher prices and greater stability.”
The Energy Secretary’s presence at the signing supports implementation of these agreements, and Venezuela no longer centers this new understanding on state-owned companies from China, Russia or Iran.
Instead, the country is signing agreements with private companies based in the West, including Chevron, ENI, General Electric and North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), Alejandro Betancourt’s company, which leads the so-called historic agreement with the United States to develop 17 oil fields in Venezuela.
The strategy that the Trump administration is pursuing in Venezuela appears more closely aligned with the famous phrase coined by Bill Clinton campaign strategist James Carville: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Politics — as reflected in the dialogue between the teams led by Dinorah Figuera and Jorge Rodríguez — serves this priority.
Meanwhile, Reinaldo Quintero, president of the association representing small and medium-sized companies linked to the oil industry, projects that these agreements will generate 10,000 jobs in his sector.
As all this unfolds, expectations remain high. People hope to receive their share of the oil wealth — the wealth that belongs to them, as the Constitution establishes.
Will they get it? How long will it take?
We have no crystal ball to tell us. We simply keep our feet firmly on the ground, observing the political, economic, and social realities of this land of grace.
The game goes on.
