Venezuela’s ‘Iron Lady’ Machado woos American business with promise of the biggest deal ever
Maria Corina Machado, the charismatic leader of Venezuela’s opposition movement, re-emerged from hiding last Wednesday with a bold plea for help from American policymakers and businesses in exchange for a lucrative spot in a rebuilt Oz. It’s the largest deal President Donald Trump may ever get the chance to make.
“There is no bigger opportunity, from every perspective, than a transition to democracy in Venezuela,” she said in a podcast hosted by Donald Trump Jr. nearly seven weeks after strongman Nicolas Maduro reinstalled himself into a new term despite widespread evidence that he lost the election. Machado herself had been barred from the ballot, but she spent most of last year canvassing the country in support of her stand-in candidate and drew unprecedented popular support.
“We’re going to turn Venezuela from the criminal hub of the Americas into the energy hub of the Americas,” she said, describing a vision that would be “the biggest economic opportunity for American business and companies.” The conversation with the junior Trump came as the elder President is seeking out deals around the globe, including one for mineral rights in Ukraine. Machado, for her part, seemed exquisitely and carefully attuned to current political discourse in the US and said her plan wouldn’t even need any financial support or troops on the ground.
“We don’t need soldiers. We don’t even need resources,” she said. “We have the possibility to pay for our freedom, and to pay for the rebuilding of our country.” What then does Machado want? It’s actually quite simple: a true ally, and help in making Maduro’s regime “understand that their only option is a negotiated, orderly, peaceful transition.”
Chevron rebuked
On that front, she’s suddenly seeing some promising signs. The interview was being recorded just as President Trump announced that his administration would terminate a special license that allowed Chevron (NYSE: CVX) to export some oil from the sanctioned country in a move that many saw as the reversal of a possible rapprochement with Maduro just a month earlier. It’s hard to believe the timing was a coincidence, and it reinvigorated speculation that Venezuela could be once again in play even as many in the diaspora opposition abroad had been starting to contemplate a reality in which Maduro might stick around.
And while podcasts are indeed a dime a dozen these days, the 45-minute broadcast was notable for its effectiveness on two fronts. First, Machado shamed American companies and people reported to be in favor of working with Maduro, accusing them of not only wanting to team up with a criminal organization, but of going after measly scraps. She lambasted Chevron for its Biden-era deal that gave Maduro $3 for every $1 it received. “It’s billions of dollars that he has used for repression, persecution and corruption,” she said.
“I know that some people come to President Trump and say ‘why can’t we make some business with Maduro?’” Machado continued. “And I say, ‘Really? So you want to be in partnership with a drug cartel? Is that what you’re proposing?’…This is very little money. This is crumbs. Venezuela should be producing over 6 million barrels a day. It’s barely a million [right now]. And who’s going to invest in a country in which you have a criminal in power who at any moment can change the rules or rob you?”
More importantly, Machado dangled the promise of what could become a “win-win” partnership with the US. Venezuela is home to the largest oil reserves in the world with nearly 300 billion barrels in the ground that would be worth trillions at current prices. The country also has significant reserves of natural gas, gold and bauxite, and its central geographic positioning in the wider Americas once made it a key hub for industry and commerce before the economy was hollowed over the past 20 years under Maduro and his socialist predecessor, Hugo Chavez.
‘Forget about the Saudis’
“Forget about Saudi Arabia. Forget about the Saudis,” Machado told Trump Jr., just one week after President Trump had flown to Miami to speak at an investment conference hosted there by the Kingdom. “We have more oil, infinite potential. We’re going to open markets. We’re going to kick off the government from the oil sector. We’re going to privatize all our industry. Venezuela has huge resources—oil, gas, minerals, land, technology. And we have a strategic location, hours from the US.”
Machado continued the masterclass on international statesmanship ticking off all the right boxes for the Trump Jr. audience by condemning socialism and stating how the return of democracy in Venezuela would bring hostile regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua to their ends as well. She even thanked Elon Musk for Starlink terminals she said had been used to transmit electoral results. Americans, Machado argued, should care about Venezuela’s future because of Maduro’s cozy relationship with Iran, his government’s alleged role in drug smuggling, and the migratory crisis that has seen a fourth of the country’s population flee in all directions.
“Look Mr. President, Venezuela is the biggest opportunity on this continent,” Machado closed the interview by saying. “For you, for the American people, for all the people in our continent.”
It’s perhaps one of the easiest propositions Trump may ever be offered. The only question now is if he will keep listening and move to Make Venezuela Great Again before his Art of the Deal attention turns elsewhere.
