MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former Chevron executive told CIA the opposition would struggle to control Venezuela

Moshiri’s position aligned with a central concern in Washington: avoiding a power vacuum in a country where much of the institutional structure remained under chavista influence

Ali Moshiri, Chevron’s former top executive for Venezuela and a longtime Washington interlocutor on energy matters, warned the CIA before Nicolás Maduro’s ouster that a direct handover of power to the opposition led by María Corina Machado could produce an unstable transition because she lacked control over the security apparatus and the state’s real power centers, according to a report published on Sunday. In that assessment, Moshiri recommended that the United States back Delcy Rodríguez as the more viable figure to manage the immediate succession.

A Wall Street Journal report said Moshiri’s assessment was included in a secret brief prepared for President Donald Trump in the weeks before the operation that ended with Maduro’s capture in Caracas on Jan. 3. His position aligned with a central concern in Washington: avoiding a power vacuum in a country where the military high command, intelligence bodies and much of the institutional structure remained under chavista influence.

Moshiri, who for years cultivated ties with Hugo Chávez and senior figures in Venezuela’s ruling establishment, also maintained a long relationship with U.S. officials, according to the same report. Chevron denied any involvement with the CIA or with the military operation, but the report said Moshiri’s political and business access made him a valuable source for Washington at a time when its ground-level intelligence capacity in Venezuela was limited.

Rodríguez was sworn in as interim president on Jan. 5, two days after Maduro’s capture, and Washington has since maintained a cautious cooperative relationship with her government. Trump said in January that he was considering some role for Machado, but for now backed an administration led by former Maduro loyalists, leaving the opposition leader sidelined even as broad sectors continued to regard her movement as the legitimate winner of the disputed 2024 election.

The energy dimension also helps explain Moshiri’s weight in that debate. Reuters reported this week that Chevron and Shell are moving toward the first major oil production deals in Venezuela since Maduro’s removal, a shift that places Western companies in position to expand under the new regulatory framework promoted by Rodríguez. At the same time, a U.N. fact-finding mission warned that Venezuela’s repressive state structures remain intact despite the change in leadership, with senior officials still in place and reports of fresh politically motivated detentions.