Prominent supporters of Venezuela's late president Hugo Chávez are publicly criticizing interim President Delcy Rodríguez over her growing cooperation with President Donald Trump, exposing tensions within a movement historically built around opposition to U.S. influence.
"It's utter surrealism," former Chávez minister Héctor Navarro told The Guardian, describing Rodríguez's rapprochement with Washington. Other longtime Chavistas have criticized the government over its oil agreement with the United States and Rodríguez's meeting with Trump in New York last week.
Mario Silva, a prominent Chavista television personality whose state-run program was recently canceled, accused Rodríguez's government of abandoning Chávez's legacy. "They have surrendered this country," Silva told the news site, saying he felt "a lot of disappointment" about the direction of the government. Former Vice President Elías Jaua and former Caracas Mayor Juan Barreto have also publicly questioned the shift.
The criticism follows a series of concessions to Washington since U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro in January and Rodríguez became interim president. The relationship took a further turn in August when Trump announced an oil agreement involving 65 billion barrels of Venezuela's reserves, about 22% of the country's estimated total.
Rodríguez has defended the arrangement, arguing Venezuela needs foreign capital, technology and infrastructure to increase production and saying it could generate more than $209 billion in government revenue. During a September visit by U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, she thanked the Trump administration and called the arrangement a "win-win deal."
The agreement drew criticism across Venezuela's political spectrum. El País reported in August that economists, opposition figures and some Chavistas questioned its transparency, legality and implications for national sovereignty, particularly because detailed terms were initially unclear.
The backlash does not necessarily amount to a broad revolt within Chavismo. Some supporters appear prepared to accept Rodríguez's cooperation with Washington if it preserves the movement's political power and produces economic improvements, sources told The Guardian.
But the change is particularly stark for a political movement Chávez built around resistance to what he called U.S. imperialism. Rodríguez now argues that cooperation with Washington can help revive Venezuela's economy, while critics from within Chavismo increasingly question how much of the movement's original project remains.
