Only a “serious, democratic government” can provide the stability needed by investors in Venezuela’s oil sector, opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado said in a video message on Thursday.
International energy firms on Wednesday committed to expanding projects in the country in a signing ceremony overseen by interim President Delcy Rodriguez and U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
The signings, including by Eni, GE Vernova and Chevron, represent the latest effort by private companies to help revive Venezuela’s struggling oil industry, which produces about 1.25 million barrels per day, far short of its 3 million bpd peak in the late 1990s.
The deals are separate from a Caracas-Washington deal that gives the U.S. access to 17 oilfields.
“The United States is the principal partner Venezuela needs to fully develop its strategic potential,” Machado said in a video posted to X.
“The enemies of the United States in Venezuela are sitting in Miraflores (presidential palace) today. And precisely because the partnership between Venezuela and the United States is strategic for both countries, we all need to make sure this is done right.
“We need to attract capital and sustained, long-term investment under conditions that provide profitability, certainty and security, while delivering a real reduction in Venezuela’s country risk,” she added. “That is only possible with the legitimacy and stability provided by a serious, democratic government.”
Machado, who has been outside Venezuela since late last year, when she left after living in hiding in order to receive her Nobel, has taken pains for years to develop close ties with the Trump administration, which removed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a January raid. His former vice president Rodriguez has been at a helm since.
U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has historically been close with Machado, have this week defended Washington’s oil deal, casting it as part of a process to align Venezuela’s energy industry with the U.S. while helping rebuild a nation ravaged by corruption, and said that the time is still not right for elections.
Machado said the “true scope” of the deal was unclear, including who was signing it, what guarantees were being provided and what benefits it would bring for Venezuelans.
International observers have criticized the official results of a 2024 presidential election, which Machado’s political movement says it won by a landslide. Venezuela’s electoral authorities and top court said Maduro had won.
(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb Editing by Nick Zieminski)