Read our editorial on the US imperialist war of aggression against Venezuela here.
On February 11, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright met in Caracas with Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodríguez to press for expanded US investment in Venezuela’s oil industry and deepen the country’s integration into the interests of US imperialism. Wright is the highest-ranking American official to visit Venezuela in nearly three decades.
Rodríguez framed the talks as part of a broader opening to foreign capital, stating that Venezuela is ready to welcome investors from around the world, including the United States, to work alongside the government to “bring the oil industry up to the highest standards.” During the visit Wright toured major oil facilities, including joint ventures involving Chevron.
At the Caracas meeting, Wright told reporters that the imperialist blockade against Venezuela is “essentially over” and that the US is “flowing Venezuelan crude out, selling it at a much higher price than Venezuela was selling it before.” Meanwhile, the US continues its lethal strikes on small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that it claims are “drug trafficking” vessels.
Earlier this month, the United States eased long‑standing restrictions on Venezuelan crude, issuing general licenses that allow American and other global energy firms to resume operations and trade Venezuelan oil, potentially bringing in billions of dollars in sales managed under US authority.
The rapprochement follows Rodríguez’s January 29 signing of a Hydrocarbons Law amendment that significantly opens Venezuela’s oil sector to private and foreign participation, effectively ending the monopoly of PDVSA, the state oil company, and paving the way for private control over production and sales.
On February 13, ultra-reactionary President Donald Trump hailed the growing relationship with Rodríguez, announcing that he now recognizes her government as Venezuela’s official leadership and stating his intention to visit the country. Trump framed US ties with Venezuela—that is, deepening subjugation—as part of a broader effort to cut Chinese imperialist investment out of the region, stating, “[China has] been quite damaging to nations in South America, Africa and around the world. So I think with U.S. help and with U.S. partnership we want to stop those kind of deals.”
Rodríguez’s government has been linked in international market reporting to what would be Venezuela’s first oil shipment to Israel since 2009, reversing Caracas’s long‑standing diplomatic break with Tel Aviv. However, Venezuelan officials have publicly denied these characterizations, calling the reports false and urging accurate reporting.
Since the January 3 US kidnapping of President Maduro and First Lady Flores, Rodríguez’s interim government has accelerated efforts to establish ties with US finance capital, especially in the energy sector. While private involvement in Venezuela’s oil industry predates Rodríguez’s tenure, with US firms such as Chevron already operating in the country, the scale and speed of new US sanctions relief and investment reflect the leverage of US imperialism. At the same time, the US has repeatedly threatened further military action and hinted at the use of force against Venezuelan targets should Rodríguez’s government resist US imperialism’s demands on the country.
Image: US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez shake hands on February 11, 2026. Credit: DWS News.
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