From TIME · Ian Bremmer · · 1m 40s
Venezuela waits for elections Trump promised
Nine months after Nicolás Maduro's capture, opposition leader María Corina Machado returned from exile hoping for 2027 elections, but a massive oil deal between Washington and Caracas has sidelined democracy talks.
In brief
Nine months after Nicolás Maduro's capture, opposition leader María Corina Machado returned from exile hoping for 2027 elections, but a massive oil deal between Washington and Caracas has sidelined democracy talks. Nine months after Trump ordered Maduro's capture, Venezuela's opposition leader returned from exile…
Maduro captured, questions remain
On January third, U.S. Special Forces captured Nicolás Maduro in Caracas and flew him to the United States with President Trump's blessing. His vice president Delcy Rodríguez took power.
Machado returns, seeks elections
On October twenty-seventh, opposition leader María Corina Machado returned to Caracas after a year in exile. She thanked the Trump Administration for removing Maduro and expressed faith that Venezuela would hold elections in twenty twenty-seven.
Trump says fix country first
Two weeks after Maduro's capture, Machado, winner of the two thousand twenty-five Nobel Peace Prize, presented Trump with her medal at the White House.Trump insisted Venezuela was not ready for elections.
“We have to fix the country first.”
Hundred-year oil deal announced
On August twenty-eighth, the U.S.and Venezuela announced a hundred-year agreement to revive Venezuela's oil industry.The U.S.gets an ownership stake in seventeen oil fields and access to more than sixty-five billion barrels of proven reserves.
Machado distances herself from deal
On October fifteenth, Machado accused Alejandro Betancourt, the oil deal's Venezuelan investment partner, of obscene corruption.
“obscene corruption”
Rubio warns against street protests
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that you're not going to street-protest your way into a democracy, signalling Washington will control Venezuela's political process ahead.
“you're not going to street-protest your way into a democracy.”
The short version
Nine months after Trump ordered Maduro's capture, Venezuela's opposition leader returned from exile expecting elections, but a hundred-year U.S. oil deal with the interim government has overshadowed democratic reform.
