As the US threatened Nicolás Maduro’s grip on power in recent months, a cadre of executives, lawyers and investors tied to the oil industry made their case to anyone who would listen — the Trump administration, congressional aides: His familiar No. 2 Delcy Rodríguez should fill his shoes in Venezuela.
An oil minister herself, Rodríguez has long been the go-to contact for senior executives, whom she impressed by navigating Venezuela‘s industry through international sanctions, economic pressures and internal mismanagement. Her loyalty to the Maduro regime notwithstanding, she’d be best positioned to shepherd through the US plan to restore Venezuela to its glory days as an oil gusher, argued executives and lobbyists.
President Donald Trump’s inner circle came to the same conclusion, though people familiar with the matter say they did so independently. Both groups believed that the vice president, long seen as a bridge between the government and private sector, could stabilize Venezuela’s oil-based economy and facilitate American business faster than leading dissident María Corina Machado could, said the people.
Administration officials were mindful of the chaos that ensued in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Business interests aside, maintaining a semblance of business continuity will be critical to a successful transition — one that the Trump administration has yet to define. And Rodríguez fits both those bills: she oversees Venezuela’s oil apparatus and has decades of relationships among the remaining socialist stronghold in government.
The advocates for Rodríguez didn’t directly include the biggest US oil majors, who were surprised by the removal of Maduro and are still racing to figure out how to work with Washington on next steps, according to people familiar with the matter. But there’s a wider universe of US and international companies that have operated in Venezuela for years, and many have contacts in the White House and on Capitol Hill, the people said.
A spokesperson for Chevron Corp., the only major US oil company licensed to operate in Venezuela said it “had no advance notice of the recent operation and did not engage in any discussions with administration officials regarding governance for a post-Maduro Venezuela.” It also said operations in the country were continuing uninterrupted and in full compliance with laws and regulations.
In a triumphal press conference Saturday, Trump endorsed Rodríguez to lead Venezuela for now. Machado, he said, lacked “respect” to lead the country, a stunning blow to the recent Nobel Peace Prize winner and the regime opponents at home and abroad who have pinned their hopes on her.
The White House declined to comment beyond remarks made Sunday by Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio, who is playing a key role in managing Venezuela. He said that the US would leverage its oil blockade and regional military presence to further its policy goals. He also said the US would watch Rodríguez’s actions more than her rhetoric.
In a Bloomberg Television appearance Monday, Greylock Capital Management Chief Executive Hans Humes, who is part of the creditor committee of Venezuela’s sovereign debt, reiterated what some global oil executives have said in private regarding Rodríguez: “If you want somebody who can operate in reasonably OK conditions get the person who operated in the worst conditions,” he said.
He added that Trump was making a big gamble, one that if successful, could “reorder the entire energy configuration of the world.”
Also read: India maintains silence on US operation against Maduro, issues travel advisory for Venezuela
Global Oil Interests
Oil companies with interests in Venezuela, home to some of the world’s largest hydrocarbon reserves, now want to make sure that the Trump administration swiftly eases those sanctions to ensure that Rodríguez can start delivering results. There is no time to waste, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.
In late December, Venezuela had already started closing oil wells because it had run out of storage to hold production stranded by the blockade. More shut-ins would make it harder for Venezuela to recover its economy and jeopardize Rodríguez’s hold on power, the sources said.
So far she looks to be consolidating control on the regime’s existing foundations. On Monday, she was sworn in by the National Assembly as acting president. In a fiery speech on Saturday, she described Maduro’s capture as a “kidnapping” and called for his return, but the sources said they believe her rhetoric was meant to shield her from internal reprisals.
On Sunday, she took a more conciliatory tone, inviting the US to “to work together on a cooperation agenda, aimed at shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence.”
Rodríguez, 56, had been a key figure in Maduro’s tight inner circle, heading a string of key portfolios including the Foreign Ministry that enabled her to build international bridges. She was named oil minister in 2024 after Maduro’s widely contested reelection, putting her in charge of the national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA, with the task of cleaning up corruption and bringing more transparency to the bloated firm’s accounts.
An accomplished table tennis player, Rodríguez regularly fields calls from senior executives at international oil companies, from Houston to Mumbai, and has longstanding relationships in Beijing and Moscow which she visits on her government jet.
One of the companies with the most to gain from a successful revival of Venezuela’s oil industry is Chevron. ConocoPhillips, a US peer that’s owed some $10 billion in unpaid arbitration awards from the 2007 state seizure of its Venezuelan assets, would gain as well if it decides to implement a proposal to return to the country to recoup its debt. Among non-US companies, Shell Plc has an offshore Venezuelan gas deal on ice that could be reactivated on short notice. Other incumbents in Venezuela include Spain’s Repsol SA, Italy’s Eni SpA and France’s Maurel et Prom SA.
The Revolutionary’s Daughter
Rodríguez began her political career under late former President Hugo Chávez after graduating as a lawyer from the Central University of Venezuela.
Her father, Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, was a prominent leftist in the 1960s and 1970s and a Marxist party founder. He died in 1976 after being tortured in prison by state security forces, a defining feature of Delcy’s political narrative. Her brother, Jorge Rodríguez, is another regime stalwart and was Maduro’s longtime chief negotiator with the US.
Those who have worked alongside the new acting president often remark on her long hours, with Maduro recently saying she responded to messages well into the night and early morning. She was also by Maduro’s side as he ordered the most aggressive wave of repression the country has seen to crack down on dissidents in the aftermath of his contested reelection in 2024.
In meetings with financial advisers in the weeks ahead of Maduro’s capture, Rodríguez was very focused on the status of Venezuela’s debts and relationships with US oil majors, among other international financial matters, according to one of the sources.
Such diligence, together with the absence of a US indictment that had dogged Maduro for years, made Rodríguez the favorite, not just for oil companies, but also some bondholders who are looking to restructure some $60 billion of debt.
The endorsement by the White House is “a very clear-eyed sort of realist approach,” said Kimberly Breier, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs during Trump’s first term.
Rodríguez “liaises with energy companies, and they have been able to deal with her, but that doesn’t mean she is a long-term solution,” Breier added, highlighting her deep association with a regime blamed for widespread human rights violations.
In 2021 Rodríguez showed two Bloomberg News journalists the room at the Economy Ministry in downtown Caracas where she’d practice table tennis, with three of her sparring partners on hand to demonstrate. The cavernous space contained two ping-pong tables. Portraits of Maduro, Chávez and Simón Bolívar, who liberated Venezuela from Spanish rule, looked on.
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Also read: What’s at stake for China in Venezuela? A $100 billion in loans and a crumbling economy