STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The Trump administration is celebrating more agreements to give the U.S. access to Venezuelan oil.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Energy Secretary Chris Wright was in Venezuela's capital, Caracas, on Wednesday. He appeared with acting President Delcy Rodriguez to announce new energy deals.
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CHRIS WRIGHT: Today is a historic day in the transformation of Venezuela and the expansion of the possibilities for the Venezuelan people.
MARTIN: The agreements come with the same authoritarian government that the U.S. once opposed. American troops captured Rodriguez's predecessor, Nicolás Maduro. But if the new boss is the same as the old boss, what does that mean for democracy?
INSKEEP: Reporter John Otis is following this from neighboring Colombia. John, good morning.
JOHN OTIS, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: How do these energy agreements work?
OTIS: Well, under the first agreement that was announced by Trump last Friday, the U.S. government will partner with Venezuela's second-largest private oil company. The White House says this will give the U.S. majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil. Now, this is unusual because the U.S. government itself hasn't been directly involved in oil production since World War II. However, private companies had been wary of Venezuela. So this was widely seen as the Trump administration trying to get the investment ball rolling.
The one big U.S. firm that answered Trump's call is Chevron. So in a separate agreement, Chevron's CEO, who was also in Caracas yesterday, pledged, along with partners, to invest $7 billion over the next five years. He said that would double the company's output in Venezuela to about 500,000 barrels per day.
INSKEEP: What are Venezuelans saying about the United States going more fully into the oil business?
OTIS: Well, oil's a very emotional issue in Venezuela because it makes up more than 90% of its export income. And during its socialist revolution, the government forced out some foreign oil companies. In fact, I was in Venezuela back in 2007 when then-President Hugo Chávez nationalized U.S.-operated oil fields. There were these huge crowds dressed in revolutionary red T-shirts, and they were cheering him on.
And so that's why, for a lot of people now, it's really quite jarring to see their current president cozying up to Trump and to Chevron. Now, critics claim that new oil deals are the result of Trump's gunboat diplomacy after removing Maduro and are therefore unconstitutional. But others say Venezuela needs the foreign investment. The oil industry's in terrible shape and is pumping just one-third of what was produced back in the 1990s.
INSKEEP: What does all of this mean for the effort to promote democracy in Venezuela?
OTIS: Well, the Trump administration is sponsoring talks between the Rodriguez government and the political opposition, which is pushing for free elections. Remember, Rodriguez was Nicolás Maduro's vice president, and she was fully supportive of his repressive regime. In fact, her government still holds more than 300 political prisoners. But when he was asked at the White House on Wednesday about new elections for Venezuela, Trump was skeptical.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I just don't think they're ready yet. You know, it's very new. We took them out of a dictatorship, and we're getting along great with the government. Delcy, as you know, is doing a very, very good job - very highly respected.
OTIS: Now, for democracy activists, such statements show that Trump doesn't really care about a democratic transition - that he'd vastly prefer dealing with the compliant Rodriguez rather than a more independent president.
INSKEEP: John Otis in Colombia, thanks so much.
OTIS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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