Chavistas divided as Venezuela’s interim government forges ties with U.S.

Supporters of former president Hugo Chávez are divided over Venezuela’s new pact with the United States after U.S. forces seized President Nicolás Maduro this month, the New York Times reported. The report said the director of the C.I.A. travelled to Caracas to meet with interim President Delcy Rodríguez to discuss greater bilateral collaboration, even as Washington “starts to take its cut of the country’s vast oil wealth.” Mr.

Maduro is awaiting trial in the United States, while his inner circle — described in the story as self-styled Chavistas — continues to run the country. Hard-line Chavistas have publicly questioned those officials’ ideological credentials. One woman quoted in the article, Beatriz, said “It’s the only way President Nicolás Maduro — the legitimate president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela — will return to our country,” and demonstrators initially chanted for Mr.

Maduro’s return. Ms. Rodríguez, in her first State of the Union address, struck a balance between anti-American rhetoric and a push for opening oil fields to new investments. The piece traces the erosion of Chavismo to economic collapse beginning in 2013, attributing it to economic mismanagement, corruption and a drop in oil prices, and noting that U.S.

sanctions on Venezuela’s economy began in 2017. It also describes how Mr.

Key Topics

World, Chavismo, Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, Delcy Rodríguez, Cia