A White House delegation led by energy adviser Jarrod Agen landed in Caracas Thursday aboard the first direct commercial flight from the United States to Venezuela since 2019. The trip signals a rapid economic reopening under interim President Delcy Rodríguez, nearly four months after US special forces extracted her predecessor Nicolás Maduro to face drug charges in New York. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth told CBS News the regulatory changes are a start but “probably not enough to bring in the level of investment that would be desirable.”
Agen, who directs the National Energy Dominance Council, told CBS News the team would push forward agreements between American companies and Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA, along with mining ventures. HKN Energy, backed by Ross Perot Jr., and Hunt Energy are among the new US entrants. The delegation also expected to meet with Rodríguez herself.
The flight carried more than American officials. Venezuela’s newly appointed Ambassador to the US, Félix Plasencia, was also on board. His presence on the American Airlines jet made the diplomatic subtext physical.
Two governments, once adversaries, now sharing a cabin. That shift began violently. In January, a lightning US military raid snatched Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from Caracas.
Both were extradited to New York on narcoterrorism charges linked to the Cartel de los Soles. They have pleaded not guilty. The operation removed the head of a regime Washington had spent years trying to topple through sanctions and isolation.
Rodríguez stepped into the void. Maduro’s former vice president, she was officially recognized by the Trump administration as Venezuela’s “sole head of state” in March. The US lifted sanctions on her earlier this month.
The calculus is stark: stabilize the economy first, hold elections later. Multiple US and Venezuelan officials told CBS News that timeline could stretch two to three years. Rodríguez appears set to finish Maduro’s six-year term, which would mean no vote until 2030.
The Trump administration has made stability its top priority. Democracy ranks second. “The economic opening in Venezuela is on a bullet train. The democratic process is on a chicken cart,” Juan Gonzalez, a former State Department deputy assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, told CBS News after returning from a business trip to Caracas.
He described watching old Maduro posters come down. Chavismo, the socialist ideology of Hugo Chávez and Maduro, was dead and gone, he said. But the regime’s structure remains intact—minus Maduro himself.
Chevron, America’s second-largest energy company, never left. It operated continuously under Maduro and now sees the opening firsthand. CEO Mike Wirth, in an interview airing Sunday on “Face the Nation,” acknowledged progress on hydrocarbon law changes under Rodríguez.
Those laws dictate the terms under which foreign companies can invest. “It still needs some work,” Wirth said. He spoke before a White House meeting last week. The Venezuelan crude is the heavy, sour type that Gulf Coast refineries are engineered to process.
Wirth supports changes to boost production but called the process a “work in progress.” He praised Chevron’s Venezuelan workforce while noting that many skilled employees had fled the country over two decades of Chavismo. Wirth also confirmed he speaks regularly with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio has discussed the need to hold elections “in due course,” Wirth said.
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No timeline was shared. The US has reestablished a diplomatic presence in Caracas, though the embassy remains shuttered. Career foreign service officer John Barrett serves as Chargé d’affaires.
The contradiction at the heart of this policy has a face. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello still carries a $25 million US government bounty for his role in the Cartel de los Soles, the same drug trafficking organization designated as a terror group. He ran Maduro’s repressive security apparatus.
Today, he sits across the table from high-level Trump officials discussing business deals. Opposition leader María Corina Machado watches from exile. Her party won the 2024 presidential election, according to the State Department, which assessed that 12 million Venezuelans voted peacefully.
The Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner anyway. His representatives then sought to arrest Machado and her stand-in candidate Edmundo Gonzalez. The US called it a scheme to hold power.
Machado told “Face the Nation” in February that exiles need a secure and precise transition timeline before they will feel safe returning. She has consulted twice with President Trump and recently with Rubio about her plans to go back. “I will be president when the time comes,” she said confidently. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have also led delegations to Venezuela, which holds the world’s largest oil reserves.
The Trump administration has rolled back sanctions to let American companies spend on infrastructure and production. The goal is clear: pump Venezuelan oil, stabilize the economy, and create conditions where a political opening might follow. What this actually means for your family.
The policy says one thing. The reality says another. American refineries get the heavy crude they need.
Venezuelan families, millions of whom have fled the country’s economic collapse, see no clear path home without a vote. The administration bets that economic revival will eventually force democratic reform. Machado and the opposition argue the reverse—that only a democratic mandate can secure the investment needed.
Both sides claim victory. Here are the numbers. Venezuela sits on more than 300 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.
Production has cratered from nearly 3 million barrels per day two decades ago to under 1 million. Chevron’s output there is a fraction of that. The gap between potential and reality is measured in billions of dollars and millions of displaced people.
Why It Matters: The US is betting that oil investment can succeed where sanctions failed—in loosening authoritarian control. If the gamble works, it could reshape how Washington engages pariah energy states. If it fails, American companies will have propped up a regime that still harbors a man with a $25 million bounty on his head, while millions of Venezuelans abroad wait for a vote that keeps receding into the future. - A White House energy team landed in Caracas on the first direct US commercial flight since 2019, prioritizing oil deals over election timelines. - Chevron’s CEO says regulatory changes are a start but insufficient to attract the investment Venezuela needs to revive its crippled oil sector. - Opposition leader María Corina Machado insists a secure transition timeline must precede her return, while officials signal elections may not happen until 2030. - Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, wanted by the US on a $25 million bounty, now meets with Trump officials to negotiate business agreements.
The flight touched down Thursday. Meetings with Rodríguez are expected in the coming days. The hydrocarbon law remains a work in progress.
Chevron’s Wirth will lay out his case on national television Sunday. Machado continues her consultations. The bullet train of economic opening races ahead.
The chicken cart of democracy follows somewhere behind. Watch for any fixed election date—that will be the signal that Washington’s bet is paying off, or that the house is winning again.
Key Takeaways
— - A White House energy team landed in Caracas on the first direct US commercial flight since 2019, prioritizing oil deals over election timelines.
— - Chevron's CEO says regulatory changes are a start but insufficient to attract the investment Venezuela needs to revive its crippled oil sector.
— - Opposition leader María Corina Machado insists a secure transition timeline must precede her return, while officials signal elections may not happen until 2030.
— - Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, wanted by the US on a $25 million bounty, now meets with Trump officials to negotiate business agreements.
Source: CBS News
