About the Event
6:30 – 7:00 PM Registration and Networking
7:00 – 8:00 PM Program
In the early hours of January 3rd, at the command of President Trump and with the inter-organizational collaboration of US intelligence, the US military and US law enforcement, US Army Delta Force units dramatically captured Nicolas Maduro, ending his control of Venezuela.
Many Venezuelans in Venezuela and around the world were surprised and somewhat hopeful to see the demise of his brutal and corrupt reign. Maduro and Chavez’s disastrous and kleptocratic rule led to one of the greatest economic, political and social collapses of a nation in modern history.
While Maduro may now be facing criminal charges in New York, there are many unresolved questions and deep uncertainties facing Venezuela and its people.
In terms of governing and managing the country after the removal of Maduro, Trump said ‘we’re going to be running it (Venezuela)’. Yet, exactly how this US-led process will unfold remains unclear and largely undefined by the administration.
But, Trump has been much more specific with regards to how significant parts of this process will be paid for: ‘we’re going to have our very large U.S. oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in . . . and start making money for the country’.
Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. But during the damaging and dysfunctional mismanagement of Chavez and then Maduro, the country’s energy infrastructure fell into disrepair. And, thousands of the country’s most knowledgeable and needed experts from PDVSA and other energy firms were forced to flee the country. As a result, the country produces about 70% less oil today, than it did in the 1990s.
Renowned Latin American energy expert & Venezuelan scholar Francisco Monaldi will discuss the present and possible future state of affairs in Venezuela, and in particular, what are the current realities and prospects for the nation’s energy sector.
