Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez has signed a law that opens the nation’s oil sector to privatisation, reversing a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades. Rodríguez enacted the measure less than a month after the brazen seizure of then-President Nicolás Maduro in a US military attack in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.
Rodríguez, facing oil workers and ruling-party supporters, signed the bill less than two hours after the National Assembly approved it. Rodríguez yesterday also spoke with US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who, a day earlier, explained to US senators in a hearing how the administration is planning to handle the sale of tens of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela. The moves by both governments are paving the way for yet another radical geopolitical and economic shift in Venezuela, which has the largest proven reserves of crude in the world.
