Agreement between criminals

As explosive and in need of scrutiny as the oil agreement: a truck carrying petroleum products is inspected in the Venezuelan city of Punto Fijo in January

Ronna Rísquez would like to travel to the Venezuelan capital Caracas for a few weeks soon to do research there and to find out whether she can return to her work as an investigative journalist in Venezuela. »I have my doubts, because many of the laws that were used against the opposition, but also against the media, are still in force, people who threatened me and others are still in office and dignified. “Re-democratization is only progressing at a snail’s pace,” criticizes the reporter, who currently lives in Spain and plans to remain there for the foreseeable future.

Many Venezuelans abroad have been feeling something similar since the US captured the authoritarian Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a military operation in January. “Many people are toying with the idea of returning, some go on an exploratory trip and wave it off because the conditions for a return simply do not exist yet,” confirms Óscar Murillo from the Venezuelan human rights organization Provea. This accuses the interim government of Venezuela under interim President Delcy Rodríguez of playing for time: the longer it stays in office, the less likely it is that investigations into the Chavista regime's corruption and human rights violations will occur. For many experts, this is also a reason why there are hardly any elections to be expected this year. “There will at most be local elections, but certainly not presidential elections,” says Ronna Rísquez.

As vice president, Delcy Rodríguez was part of the authoritarian system around Nicolás Maduro and, like her brother Jorge, abused her position of power to amass large personal possessions at the expense of the population.

Interim President Delcy Rodríguez is in no hurry. She now de facto governs the country together with her brother Jorge Jesús Rodríguez, the chairman of Venezuela's unicameral parliament known as the National Assembly. She is supported by the USA. They effectively control the country's oil revenues, handle sales, and the US Treasury Department then transfers profits to Venezuela's state oil company. Only recently did US President Donald Trump emphasize that the Venezuelan population is not yet ready to hold presidential elections. In Venezuela, such statements are not well received everywhere, says Luis Ernesto Blanco, a journalist in Caracas for the independent news portal Runrun.es, which advocates free reporting and has been able to expand its reach in recent months. "Yes, we are signing articles with our name again, yes, the repression has decreased significantly, but no one can be sure here," says Blanco, adding: "All laws that enable the criminalization of reporters and dissidents are still in force - the authoritarian structures have not been touched." For example, the judiciary never investigates officials of the regime, said Blanco.

There is likely to be a lot to investigate against Delcy Rodríguez. As vice president, she was part of the authoritarian system around President Nicolás Maduro, who ruled from 2013 until January of this year, and, like her brother Jorge, abused her position of power to accumulate large personal possessions at the expense of the population. In addition, she has almost no democratic legitimacy due to the systematic electoral fraud in the previous elections in 2024, especially since a new election should actually have taken place within 180 days of the de facto dismissal of her predecessor Maduro.

Despite this, the interim president signed a contract with the USA on Tuesday last week, which caused a lot of anger in Venezuela. It envisages giving the oil company North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) a 100-year concession for 17 oil fields with an estimated potential of 65 billion barrels. The US would take over 35 percent of the company's shares, receive 20 percent of the oil produced and decide whether and to whom the remaining oil will be sold. This agreement will bring the necessary investments of around $100 billion to reactivate the oil sector, but also generate more than $209 billion in tax revenues, Delcy Rodríguez advertised on the messaging service Telegram.

“The fact that, together with the USA, it entrusts the entrepreneur Alejandro Betancourt, who is known for corruption, to carry out the oil deal is a scandal,” says Ronna Rísquez. She points out that NABEP owner Betancourt is under investigation for money laundering in both Switzerland and Spain – ironically on the basis of US investigations. The fact that the US is using such a questionable figure, who is held responsible for the shutdown of several power plants in Venezuela, is just as problematic as the fact that the entire negotiation process was opaque. Nevertheless, the members of the National Assembly, who also owe their positions to election fraud, waved the “binational energy agreement” through on the day it was signed.

According to journalist Luis Ernesto Blanco, the US took advantage of Venezuela's precarious situation and brought 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil under its control through the agreement.

For many Venezuelans, the agreement represents a violation of national sovereignty and constitutional provisions, commented Venezuelan economist Ricardo Hausmann. The agreement has no value from a moral perspective, said the lecturer, who teaches at the elite US university Harvard. According to Blanco, the US took advantage of Venezuela's catastrophic economic situation and political isolation to gain access to the country's raw materials. In Venezuela, the agreement puts an end to the illusion that the USA would promote redemocratization.

Ronna Rísquez therefore calls the contract an “agreement with criminals”. In Caracas, where the supply situation is precarious and people are struggling with runaway inflation, resentment is increasing over difficult living conditions, said Óscar Murillo. The hoped-for economic upswing did not materialize; the USA used raw materials without investing. Murillo said the interim government's interest in quickly holding the transparent presidential elections that so many had hoped for was low. “From my perspective, the oil agreement with the USA is not covered by the constitution and the question remains unanswered: When will we return to democratically legitimate conditions?” criticizes the human rights activist. For the first time, the Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader in exile, María Corina Machado, indicated her distance from the Trump government, after previously strongly supporting its policies. She criticized the agreement cautiously but clearly, said Óscar Murillo. »She also advocated for functioning institutions, and we are currently a long way from having them. A number of politicians, including some journalists, have returned to Venezuela. But the legal basis for press work and better governance is largely missing,” reports Murillo.

Something could change in the second half of September, as political parties will then be allowed back in, said Murillo. This could remove the obstacles to the return of María Corina Machado and thus change the political situation in Venezuela, said Murillo. But he also knows that Machado's return depends on a number of factors. This also applies to the return of the approximately nine million Venezuelans abroad. A number of people have traveled to their home country in recent weeks to find out whether the conditions for a permanent return exist. But “many left again,” reports Murillo. This seems understandable, because so far the interim government has not initiated any laws for the legal protection of investments, the annual inflation rate in August was 534 percent compared to the same month last year, and many goods are difficult to obtain. This dampens the interest of potential returnees, but also international investors. There doesn't seem to be any improvement in sight.