The Soggiest Eggs in Caracas

Venezuela is open for business for the first time in a generation, and big changes are happening quickly. Every week, we scan Venezuelan news and summarize the most important stories. This week: four oil majors signed deals in eighteen days, the U.S. is running foreign policy from a dilapidated Marriott, and a former House Speaker flew to Caracas to declare that he'd personally bet on the banks.

Regulatory

Washington just opened some of the Venezuelan banking system GL 56 lets U.S. companies negotiate commercial contracts with the Venezuelan government across all sectors. GL 57 opens four Venezuelan state banks to U.S. correspondent banking, wire transfers, and digital payments for the first time. Cleary Gottlieb

Politics

Delcy is off the SDN list and Chavista hardliners are furious Washington removed personal sanctions on acting President Rodríguez on April 2, formalizing its working relationship with her government. Internal resistance is now boiling over, with hardline Chavistas publicly accusing her of treason for reopening the oil sector to American firms. NPR / Latin Times

Kevin McCarthy to El Nacional: "I would take that risk. I'd look at banking." The former House Speaker, visiting Caracas this week, said he would personally invest in Venezuela's financial sector and called reconstruction of the banking system the country's most urgent economic priority. El Nacional

Energy Sector

Chevron quietly expanded its Orinoco position in an SEC filing Buried in Chevron's Q1 8-K: an agreement to expand its Petroindependencia joint venture and acquire development rights to the adjacent Ayacucho 8 area in the Orinoco Belt. CEO Wirth said in January the company could increase Venezuela production 50% within 18 to 24 months with proper authorization. Chevron 8-K, SEC.gov

The Caracas Stock Exchange is getting 5 to 6 investor visits per week Exchange president José Grasso Vecchio says foreign investors are actively evaluating concrete opportunities in manufacturing, agroindustry, pharmaceuticals, and tourism. MSC Noticias

Four oil majors signed deals in eighteen days — and the White House sent a delegation on the inaugural American Airlines Caracas flight Chevron, Repsol, Eni, and BP all locked in Venezuelan agreements inside one month. On April 30, the White House's National Energy Dominance Council director flew down on the inaugural American Airlines Miami-Caracas flight with Hunt Oil and HKN Energy executives. Shell already has a team installed at a Caracas office building. Venezuela is targeting 1.37 million barrels per day by year-end from a current 1.1 million, with 93 rigs needed and only two active today. Naranjo Venezuela Brief

Economy

Venezuela's central bank calls itself the best investment in the Americas Acting BCV president Luis Pérez announced 20 consecutive quarters of growth and projected stable exchange rates and low inflation for 2H 2026. Independent economists are more measured, projecting Q1 cumulative inflation at 72% and calling talk of a magical recovery oversold. Últimas Noticias / Venezolana de Televisión

Electricity consumption hit a nine-year high and the government declared an emergency Venezuela announced emergency measures to stabilize its power grid after surging demand exposed the fragility of infrastructure that has seen almost no capital investment in a decade. For companies planning operations in-country, this is the kind of ground-level risk that doesn't show up in oil production forecasts.

The U.S. is controlling Venezuela's oil revenues and making Caracas submit budget requests to get its own money back Venezuela's central bank confirmed it has hired outside auditors, including reportedly Deloitte, to inspect accounts holding Venezuelan export revenues currently controlled by the Trump administration. Since January 3, all oil royalties, taxes, and dividends flow into U.S. Treasury-run accounts before Washington decides how much to return to Caracas. U.S. officials have confirmed $500 million transferred so far of a projected $2 billion initial agreement. Venezuela Analysis

Someone wrote a $6 trillion Venezuela reconstruction pitch deck and it is not the government Roberto Smith Perera, a Harvard-trained former Venezuelan minister and telecom founder, has circulated a plan called "Venezuela First World" targeting simultaneous transformation of 14 sectors over a decade. The pitch: Venezuela's 300 billion barrels of proven reserves are the financing mechanism. A sovereign wealth fund would distribute proceeds to citizens. The document is not official policy, but it is exactly the kind of thing circulating at Marriott meetings right now. The Daily Journal

Crypto

Venezuela is the world's 17th largest crypto market — and USDT has become its operating currency TRM Labs counts $17.9 billion in Venezuelan retail crypto volume, with 90% of Binance P2P listings in USDT. Economist Asdrúbal Oliveros estimates USDT now settles roughly 80% of Venezuela's oil sales. Grocery chains are upgrading point-of-sale systems to accept it. The New York Times has called Venezuela the first country to manage a substantial portion of fiscal revenue in cryptocurrency. TRM Labs / Blockworks

Other Industries

Venezuela pitches the UN on tourism, and Maduro's daughter-in-law is running the ministry Tourism Minister Daniella Cabello held a virtual meeting with UN Tourism Secretary-General Shaikha Al Nowais to launch a new strategic cooperation phase covering indigenous, cultural, and heritage tourism. Cabello is the wife of Nicolás Maduro Guerra, a reminder that the family networks of the old regime remain embedded in the current government structure. El Universal

The Caracas Marriott is where the U.S. is running Venezuela — and the eggs are soggy The New York Times and El País both got inside the JW Marriott, which has become the de facto U.S. Embassy while the actual embassy undergoes repairs two miles away. The 17th floor is a restricted State Department operations center; Texas oilmen are cutting deals on the terrace; and CIA personnel are milling around the lobby refusing to say what they're doing there. Breakfast runs $32 a person. "It's undoubtedly where the action is," one Venezuelan businessman told the Times. "The Marriott is the nerve center for Venezuela's economic and political transformation." New York Times / El País

Deal Flow

SMERGERS lists 49 Venezuelan businesses currently for sale or seeking investment. The range: a Margarita Island hotel asking $3.2 million, a processed meat company doing $4.8 million in revenue at 40% margins asking $6 million, a 42-year-old powder coating plant in Maracaibo. Most are owner-operated businesses that survived the last decade on cash flow and are now looking for capital to scale. SMERGERS Venezuela listings

Twitter Chatter

Budget airline Wingo is launching Bogotá–Valencia flights starting July Three times per week, direct. A small but telling sign that commercial infrastructure between Colombia and Venezuela is being rebuilt from the ground up. @Andresevd on X

Opinion

A Venezuelan columnist asks: did the opposition just trade Maduro for Washington? El Universal's Mibelis Acevedo Donís argues that Venezuela's democratic opposition has been sidelined by a U.S.-Rodríguez arrangement that prioritizes economic deals over elections. Washington's three-phase plan focuses on "growth that offers security for U.S. companies," with free and fair elections coming only in phase three — "as soon as possible, but not before it's too soon," in Energy Secretary Chris Wright's formulation. The column is worth reading as a temperature check on how thoughtful Venezuelans are processing the transition. El Universal

A Miami dealmaker says the Venezuela opportunity is real — and outlines what needs to happen to protect it Raymond Pérez of Frontera Capital argues that the $150 billion opportunity flowing through Venezuela's energy sector over the next decade requires a third-party fiduciary overseeing oil and mineral revenues before licenses are granted. His case: structural oversight is what separates a genuine recovery from a replay of the past. Venezuela ranked last out of 180 countries on Transparency International's 2025 Corruption Index, which makes the compliance architecture around any transaction the actual competitive advantage. Frontera Capital / LinkedIn

About Interstice Digital

The Interstice Digital Venezuela Protocol is a cross-border payment compliance infrastructure system purpose-built for the Venezuela corridor, that works by routing US dollar payments from the United States to Venezuela using USDC or USDT stablecoins, through a process nearly as simple as an international bank wire. Interstice Digital is a U.S.-based digital asset infrastructure company building compliant payment and settlement solutions for institutional participants.

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Disclaimer

The Venezuela-America Weekly News Roundup is an aggregation of publicly available news, commentary, and third-party reporting. All items should be independently verified before being relied upon for business, legal, investment, or compliance decisions. Nothing in this newsletter represents the views, opinions, or positions of Interstice Digital or its affiliates. Interstice Digital is not a bank, broker-dealer, investment adviser, or payment network. This newsletter does not constitute legal, financial, regulatory, or investment advice. Links to third-party sources are provided for informational purposes only; Interstice Digital has no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of third-party content.