US Energy Secretary Chris Wright visits Venezuela’s Miraflores Palace in historic post-Maduro trip

Venezuela has spent years as the geopolitical equivalent of a closed door. This week, the US decided to knock, loudly, by sending Energy Secretary Chris Wright directly to Miraflores Palace in Caracas. Wright arrived in Venezuela on February 11, making him the highest-ranking Trump administration official to engage with the country since Nicolás Maduro’s removal from power. The visit, which ran through February 12, marks one of the most consequential diplomatic moves in US-Venezuela relations in over a decade. What happened at Miraflores Wright met with interim President Delcy Rodríguez at the same presidential palace that long served as Maduro’s seat of power. The centerpiece of the discussions was energy cooperation, specifically the future of Venezuela’s oil sector and how the US intends to help revive it. Wright toured Chevron-PDVSA joint venture facilities in the Orinoco Oil Belt, the region that contains the bulk of Venezuela’s proven reserves. As a direct output of those talks, Chevron announced plans to invest more than $100 million in upgrades to the Petropiar plant, a facility within the Orinoco Belt joint venture. Wright framed the broader mission in terms of “commerce, ...