Venezuela, reopened?

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Up next: World Tour.

Production of Venezuelan oil and gas is set to ramp up after U.S. companies signed new contracts with interim President Delcy Rodriguez. It’s just one change following the capture of former President Nicolas Maduro, but some Venezuelans say the country needs much more.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports.

SOUND: [Flight arriving]

MARY MUNCY: Cheers marked last week’s first direct flight from the U.S. to Venezuela in six years. 

In 2019, the previous Trump administration ordered an indefinite suspension of commercial flights and shut down the U.S. embassy, saying the country was too dangerous. 

The U.S. reopened the embassy in March.

The developments paved the way for new oil and gas agreements, despite years of corruption surrounding Venezuela’s oil market.

RODRIGUEZ: [Spanish] This is where the interests of the United States and Venezuela converge.

Interim President Delcy Rodriguez says this is where the interests of the U.S. and Venezuela converge.

Venezuela sits in the Orinoco Belt, which holds the largest known oil reserves in the world. In the past few years, Chevron has been the only foreign oil producer in the country. But last week, representatives from large oil companies like Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, along with smaller operators, met with Rodriguez. 

That’s a big turnaround from earlier this year, when Exxon said the country was “uninvestable.” 

But on the ground, Venezuelans say a lot still needs to change.

SOUND: [Protests]

On Monday, relatives of political prisoners continued protesting, saying their loved ones are still being kept unjustly.

In February, Rodriguez made headlines for implementing an amnesty law for politicians, opposition leaders, and military personnel.

Her administration says it’s released more than 8,000 people. But at least one NGO says it can only verify about 400 releases, with about 600 people still detained.

AVILA: [Spanish] Torture continues in detention centers where political prisoners are held, and we, their families, are still waiting for a response.

This activist and relative of a prisoner says prisoners are being tortured and families are waiting for a response from the government.

On top of that, Rodriguez ended the amnesty law last week.

GAMARRA: It solely released people from prison, but it did not relieve them of the charges against them.

Eduardo Gamarra is a professor of international relations specializing in South America at Florida International University. The law also gave amnesty to people currently in power, protecting them from future accusations.

Right now, it’s unclear how much longer Rodriguez will remain president. Venezuela’s court says Nicolas Maduro is still officially in power, though he’s incapable of governing while in jail in New York. The country’s constitution says the vice president takes over for 90 days in the event of a “temporary absence” of the president. 

That deadline passed in April.

GAMARRA: If you read the Constitution strictly … if it continues after 90 days, she needs to call elections. She can be in power for another 90 days, but there need to be elections in those 90 days. And what she has recently declared is some kind of sarcastic comment about, ‘Well, there'll be elections someday.’

Exiled opposition leader Maria Corina Machado remains popular among voters. But both Machado and Gamarra say Venezuela’s entire political system needs an overhaul to make elections fair.

MACHADO: [Spanish]We estimate that around 40% of Venezuelans entitled to vote are not on the electoral roll.

Machado says about 40 percent of eligible Venezuelan voters are not on the electoral roll. The country would need to register everyone, change the electoral assembly, and revamp the country's election laws.

MACHADO: [Spanish] We estimate that it will take around nine months to complete all of these steps.

She says that will take around nine months. Gamarra thinks that’s optimistic.

He says so far, the old regime is still effectively in place. A few people have moved to different positions: a brutal military leader moved to agriculture and the leader of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service took his place.

GAMARRA: That's like, I don't know, like changing one thug for another.

He thinks the only way change will come is if the Trump administration stops working with Rodriguez and demands elections.

Venezuelan Immigrants Aid Director Nikura Melendez fled the country in 2016. She says the lingering questions mean many don’t feel safe enough to return… even with the new flights.

MELENDEZ: Almost three decades of building this horror and this criminal system cannot be gone even within six month.

She says when she left, neighbors would report on each other for politically incorrect speech. That, plus Venezuela’s economic devastation, means it will take time for people to get back to normal.

MELENDEZ: ‘Hey guys, hey, we don't need to cut the napkins in half, we can buy a napkins without any fear that we won't have the napkins tomorrow.’

For now, Melendez says she wants her country to understand that fear is not normal, and democracy is about more than voting.

MELENDEZ: Democracy is the freedom of your mind and be able to talk the way I'm talking to you, Mary, without feeling fears...

Hearings for Marduro and his wife have been rescheduled multiple times since their capture. Their next court date is set for June.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

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