(Bloomberg) —<\/p>\n
As the US threatened Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s 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 \u2014 the Trump administration, congressional aides: His familiar No. 2 Delcy Rodr\u00edguez should fill his shoes in Venezuela.<\/p>\n
Most Read from Bloomberg<\/p>\n
An oil minister herself, Rodr\u00edguez has long been the go-to contact for senior executives, whom she impressed by navigating Venezuela\u2019s industry through international sanctions, economic pressures and internal mismanagement. Her loyalty to the Maduro regime notwithstanding, she\u2019d be best positioned to shepherd through the US plan to restore Venezuela to its glory days as an oil gusher, argued executives and lobbyists.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump\u2019s 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\u2019s oil-based economy and facilitate American business faster than leading dissident Mar\u00eda Corina Machado could, said the people.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 one that the Trump administration has yet to define. And Rodr\u00edguez fits both those bills: she oversees Venezuela\u2019s oil apparatus and has decades of relationships among the remaining socialist stronghold in government.<\/p>\n
The advocates for Rodr\u00edguez didn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Chevron Corp., the only major US oil company licensed to operate in Venezuela, said it \u201chad no advance notice of the recent operation and did not engage in any discussions with administration officials regarding governance for a post-Maduro Venezuela.\u201d It also said operations in the country were continuing uninterrupted and in full compliance with laws and regulations.<\/p>\n
Photographer: Christian Monterrosa\/Bloomberg <\/p>\n
In a triumphal press conference Saturday, Trump endorsed Rodr\u00edguez to lead Venezuela for now. Machado, he said, lacked \u201crespect\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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 Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s actions more than her rhetoric. <\/p>\n
In a Bloomberg Television appearance Monday, Greylock Capital Management Chief Executive Hans Humes, who is part of the creditor committee of Venezuela\u2019s sovereign debt, reiterated what some global oil executives have said in private regarding Rodr\u00edguez: \u201cIf you want somebody who can operate in reasonably OK conditions, get the person who operated in the worst conditions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added that Trump was making a big gamble, one that if successful, could \u201creorder the entire energy configuration of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
That conclusion dovetailed with a Central Intelligence Agency report that one person familiar with the matter said senior US officials had recently commissioned to examine near-term succession scenarios. The document drew on numerous intelligence sources including open-source and human collection, and was meant to give Trump the best information possible as he considered the operation, according to the person.<\/p>\n
The assessment concluded that top members of the regime, including Rodriguez, would be best placed to lead the government if Maduro were no longer in power, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.<\/p>\n
Global Oil Interests<\/p>\n
Oil companies with interests in Venezuela, home to some of the world\u2019s largest hydrocarbon reserves, now want to make sure that the Trump administration swiftly eases those sanctions to ensure that Rodr\u00edguez 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.<\/p>\n
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 Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s hold on power, the sources said.<\/p>\n
So far she looks to be consolidating control on the regime\u2019s existing foundations. On Monday, she was sworn in by the National Assembly as acting president. In a fiery speech on Saturday, she described Maduro\u2019s capture as a \u201ckidnapping\u201d and called for his return, but the sources said they believe her rhetoric was meant to shield her from internal reprisals.<\/p>\n
Photographer: Bloomberg <\/p>\n
On Sunday, she took a more conciliatory tone, inviting the US \u201cto work together on a cooperation agenda, aimed at shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez, 56, had been a key figure in Maduro\u2019s 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\u2019s widely contested reelection, putting her in charge of the national oil company, Petr\u00f3leos de Venezuela SA, with the task of cleaning up corruption and bringing more transparency to the bloated firm\u2019s accounts.<\/p>\n
An accomplished table-tennis player, Rodr\u00edguez 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.<\/p>\n
Photographer: Bloomberg <\/p>\n
One of the companies with the most to gain from a successful revival of Venezuela\u2019s oil industry is Chevron. ConocoPhillips, a US peer that\u2019s 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\u2019s Repsol SA, Italy\u2019s Eni SpA and France\u2019s Maurel et Prom SA.<\/p>\n
The Revolutionary\u2019s Daughter<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez began her political career under late former President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez after graduating as a lawyer from the Central University of Venezuela.<\/p>\n
Her father, Jorge Antonio Rodr\u00edguez, 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\u2019s political narrative. Her brother, Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, is another regime stalwart and was Maduro\u2019s longtime chief negotiator with the US.<\/p>\n
Photographer: Bloomberg <\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
In meetings with financial advisers in the weeks ahead of Maduro\u2019s capture, Rodr\u00edguez was very focused on the status of Venezuela\u2019s debts and relationships with US oil majors, among other international financial matters, according to one of the sources.<\/p>\n
Such diligence, together with the absence of a US indictment that had dogged Maduro for years, made Rodr\u00edguez the favorite, not just for oil companies, but also some bondholders who are looking to restructure some $60 billion of debt.<\/p>\n
The endorsement by the White House is \u201ca very clear-eyed sort of realist approach,\u201d said Kimberly Breier, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs during Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez \u201cliaises with energy companies, and they have been able to deal with her, but that doesn\u2019t mean she is a long-term solution,\u201d Breier added, highlighting her deep association with a regime blamed for widespread human rights violations.<\/p>\n
In 2021 Rodr\u00edguez showed two Bloomberg News journalists the room at the Economy Ministry in downtown Caracas where she\u2019d practice table tennis, with three of her sparring partners on hand to demonstrate. The cavernous space contained two ping-pong tables. Portraits of Maduro, Ch\u00e1vez and Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar, who liberated Venezuela from Spanish rule, looked on.<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Erik Schatzker, Maria Elena Vizcaino and Natalia Drozdiak.<\/p>\n
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek<\/p>\n
\u00a92026 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Bloomberg) — As the US threatened Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s grip on power in recent months, a cadre of executives,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[3662,51,180523,1700,206126,132900,37887,82525,206124,9386,34016,206125,1757,16,15,8518],"class_list":{"0":"post-679142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-bloomberg","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-delcy-rodriguez","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-jorge-rodriguez","13":"tag-maria-corina-machado","14":"tag-nicolas-maduro","15":"tag-oil-industry","16":"tag-petroleos-de-venezuela","17":"tag-photographer","18":"tag-rodriguez","19":"tag-senior-executives","20":"tag-trump","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-venezuela"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115851940627948992","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}