Venezuela’s state oil company is reopening some wells that were shut down because of the U.S. embargo that targeted the government of former President Nicolás Maduro, according to Reuters.
Two shipments carrying millions of barrels of crude oil left the country on Monday, sources close to the operations told Reuters.
It is unknown if the tankers are carrying the first shipments of a 30 to 50-million-barrel supply that President Trump announced on Truth Social last week.
Phil Gunson is a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group and lives in Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas. He joined Here & Now’s Indira Lakshmanan to talk about what life is like in the city 10 days after Maduro and his wife were arrested by U.S. special forces and brought to New York to be arraigned on drug charges.
5 questions with Phil Gunson
What is the security situation and the mood like on the streets now in Caracas?
“The country is quiet. It’s certainly not in chaos, but there’s a good deal of tension. I think the security forces are trying to send a message that nobody should get the idea that there’s a political opening, not certainly in the immediate future. So what we’re seeing is the Colectivos, these armed and uniformed, actually, civilians who go around on motorcycles, intimidating people, members of the military, as well as police, stopping people, asking for asking to see their phones, checking if there’s any subversive material on them. So there’s a good deal of tension on the streets.”
The vast majority of Venezuelans didn’t vote for Maduro in an election that was stolen back in 2024. They didn’t vote for his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, who’s now in charge. And they certainly didn’t vote for Donald Trump, who this week called himself the acting president of Venezuela. So, where does this leave Venezuelans who supported the opposition to Maduro?
“That’s an excellent question. It currently leaves them nowhere. Of course, we’ve got this meeting coming up, apparently, on Thursday between Donald Trump and the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, Maria Corina Machado, of course, the Nobel Peace Prize winner. And we’ll have to see if she can find a way to get a seat at the table. Really, because so far what seems to be happening is that the future of Venezuelans is being negotiated over their heads.”
President Trump has said he wants stability and democracy in Venezuela, but aside from Maduro, the rest of that government is still intact. Restoring democracy sounds like providing security for candidates and a free and fair election. Is there any sign that the U.S. is moving in that direction?
“It’s obviously very early days. The first stage of this process, according to Secretary of State [Marco] Rubio, is the stabilization of the economy, which, of course, depends on this extraordinary operation whereby the U.S. is basically taking control of Venezuela’s exports and apparently going to determine how the proceeds of those exports are spent. It’s quite an undertaking, and it’s really not clear how that’s going to happen.
“But of course, the people here, as you say, I mean this how is it with the exception of Maduro himself and they’re going to be dragging their feet, especially the people with the guns, the people in the military, the police, the other branch of the security forces, the intelligence services and so on, because they really don’t want to see any kind of political opening. Their individual and collective futures are very much at stake. Many of them could end up in jail, of course, on human rights, charges of trafficking and so on. If there were such an opening of the rule of law, it were restored.”
What do you mean? And who are they taking out their anger on?
“Yes, indeed. Well, I mean, obviously, although they are at the moment trying to find this balance between collaborating with what Trump needs and is demanding for fear of what might happen if they don’t. And at the same time, trying to maintain their position internally because they have to, at least at a narrative level, they have to claim that they’re still in charge. So I think there’s a lot of seething resentment. We’ll have to see how that plays out. It is very difficult, given the fact that the Venezuelan military failed so dismally on Saturday, the third of January to defend even their president, let alone the rest of the country. They’re not in a very good position right now to defend even themselves.”
President Trump has talked about fixing the economy by seizing the oil. Is that realistic?
“Oil is going to be crucial to the future of Venezuela, that the oil industry is a terrible mess. If Trump can manage to bring in the 10s of billions of dollars that are needed to put back together the oil industry, then that, of course, will be tremendously positive. But it’s an enormous undertaking.”
This interview has been edited for clarity.
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Jenna Griffiths produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Julia Corcoran. Griffiths also adapted it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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