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CARACAS, VENEZUELA – FEBRUARY 11: Interim President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez meets with U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright at Palacio de Miraflores, on February 11, 2026, in Caracas, Venezuela. This is the highest U.S. Government visit to Venezuela after the capture of Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores on January 3. The U.S. Treasury Department issued a general license to facilitate the exploration and production of oil and gas in Venezuela on February 10, 2026. (Photo by Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)

I.- THE DEVIL’S EXCREMENT

The Añú and Wayúu peoples, who lived around Lake Maracaibo long before the Spaniards arrived, knew and used “mene.” They traded it for agricultural goods with the Timoto-cuicas of the Andes, who descended to the lakeshore to barter. For these tribes, “mene” —naturally occurring asphalt or crude oil—was a vital tool: a sealant for canoes and palafito stilts, a medicinal ointment for skin ailments, and a source of fuel for torches.

A local legend says that the foul smell of butane and methane gas rising from these cracks in the earth led to the belief that the devil was flatulating from the depths. However, the phrase “the devil’s excrement” (stercus diaboli) acquired its darker connotation through a later Judeo-Christian lens after the conquest.

In the 20th century, the phrase was popularized by Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo, the founder of OPEC. He used it as a dire warning: instead of fueling development, oil would cause the nation to abandon its agriculture and productive industries. He foresaw the rise of “Crony Capitalism,” where wealth is linked to government proximity and the cooptation of public contracts, linked to the corruption, rather than private production.

Pérez Alfonzo recommended ‘sowing the oil’ —investing resource wealth into long-term productive infrastructure—a piece of advice we tragically failed to follow.

Terry Lynn Karl built upon these teachings in her masterful book, The Paradox of Plenty, —a work that should be mandatory reading in every oil-producing nation. In her research, Karl offers overwhelming evidence that oil-rich nations often impoverish themselves by abandoning a productive economy. As Karl warns:

“Petro-states eventually substitute the distribution of international oil rent for wealth creation through productive effort and taxation. This process weakens the institutional capacity of the state and atrophies the development of non-oil sectors, creating an illusion of prosperity that masks a deep structural vulnerability.”

Karl, T. L. (1997). The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petro-States. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 5.

A large majority of oil-producing nations in North Africa, the Middle East and the Far East have not only abandoned productive economies but have also sought to turn oil into a political weapon. This began with Nasser in Egypt, whose Pan-Arab and anti-Israel policies were funded by cheap or free oil gifted to African nations to recruit them into his crusade against the State of Israel. Similarly, Iran has dedicated its immense oil revenues to nuclear projects and ballistic missiles aimed at destroying Israel, or to arming proxies like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis to carry out attacks they dared not launch frontally.

The exception might be Norway, which has never lived 100% off its oil; instead, it has invested those profits in education and other productive enterprises. The Norwegians have indeed ‘sowed the oil,’ as Pérez Alfonzo recommended, and for decades they have enjoyed the highest quality of life indices in the world, ranking among the happiest nations on the planet.

Hugo Chávez was an emulator of Nasser; he sought to use our oil to fight against the ‘Yankee Empire.’ Within that agenda, he gifted oil to Caribbean islands and handed out money across Latin America to secure votes against the U.S. and Israel at the OEA and the UN. We ended up allied with Cuba, China, Russia, Iran, and—according to the U.S.—with Colombian guerrillas and drug cartels… The rest is recent history, well known to everyone.

No form of socialism will ever take hold in Venezuela, and we will never be anti-American; that is simply not in our genes.

Venezuelans never bought into the agenda of Islamic expansionism. We are a predominantly Catholic country, and have large minorities of Evangelical churches. Before Chávez, 30,000 Jews lived here; today, roughly 4,500 remain, according to our friends of the Venezuelan Sionist Federation, as the majority have emigrated to the U.S., Panama, and other countries in Central America and Europe, while a smaller percentage has made Aliyah.

There are many Muslim immigrants, primarily from Syria and Lebanon, but upon arriving in Venezuela, they usually dedicate themselves to commerce. If they came with any agenda for the expansion of Islam in our country, they soon forget it, choosing instead to live a quieter life, raising their families in peace, far from the wars of the Middle East. The Shiite Iranian presence promoted by Chávez and Maduro—with all the risks it entails for Israel, the U.S., and the Western civilization globally—never established solid roots.

There have been allegations that Iranian agents received Venezuelan passports, and a suspected plot to assassinate Israel’s ambassador to Mexico, coordinated by Iran from Caracas, was even unveiled. But just as that plot failed, the Caracas-Teheran alliance has failed too, and it has reached level zero after January 3rd.

Furthermore, no form of socialism will ever take hold in Venezuela, and we will never be anti-American; that is simply not in our genes.

My teacher, the philosopher Massimo Desiato (Z”L), used to joke that Venezuela had a perfect antidote to Communism: Consumerism.

We are an extremely consumerist country, even in times of crisis. This behavioral pattern was consolidated over decades thanks to oil revenues and the influence of the world’s most consumerist nation: the United States.

From the U.S., we imported appliances, cars, airplanes, computers, technologies, the entertainment industry, fashion and luxury goods of all kinds, all financed by the oil bill. And Venezuelans—myself included—learned to walk happily through a mall, window shopping, spending without fear; we learned to travel the world, and that perhaps explains how more than 6 million Venezuelans in exile have adapted to the countries that received them.

Yes, citizens of the world, extremely cosmopolitan, thanks to the ‘devil’s excrement,’ paid for fundamentally by the USA. And this phenomenon is not limited to our middle class: among the millions of Venezuelan migrants abroad, many come from humble backgrounds without university degrees, yet they are enterprising and bold.

From Europe, we inherited our language, many institutions, legal frameworks, and cultural traditions. From the U.S., we inherited the construction of the country we are today.

On July 31, 1914, with the blowout of Venezuela’s first oil well, ‘Zumaque 1,’ during the government of General Juan Vicente Gómez, our country began a transformation tutored by the United States, its government and its oil companies. Nothing that isn’t still happening today, by the way.

Railways were abandoned in favor of automobiles, gasoline, and highways. The army was modernized, the air force was created, and agricultural production began to decline (as Terry Lynn Karl describes in her book). The Hydrocarbons Law was enacted—practically drafted by the oil companies—and a process of colossal urbanization, mass education, and public health began. Imports skyrocketed, and a country that had lived off the export of cocoa, coffee, and other agricultural goods became one of Latin America’s most important economies through oil.

All the modernity we see in our cities—those great architectural works, the entire electrical and oil infrastructure, iron and aluminum mining—came from the U.S. To such an extent has the U.S. defined our formation as a modern society that we don’t even play soccer. We have never been to a FIFA World Cup, and we don’t have a league that can compete with those of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, or Colombia. Instead, we play baseball, and we produce some of the most exalted players in the MLB.

Chávez wanted to change this mentality by citing outdated phrases from Simón Bolívar against the United States, but he could never make us hate the ‘Yankees,’ whom we always saw as partners who paid the oil bill that allowed us to live the way we did then, and how we want to continue living.

Chávez, not being Nasser, wanted to leave the West and associate with Muslim countries, the remnants of the global communist collapse, and allegedly with guerrillas, drug cartels, and terrorist groups. He led Venezuela into a geopolitical labyrinth later inherited by Maduro, who could neither succeed with that model nor lead the country out of it by our own means—until January 3rd, when he was taken by helicopter from his refuge in Fuerte Tiuna toward New York.

Today, as the transition imposed by the Trump administration unfolds following the events of January 3rd, Venezuelans breathe a sigh of relief. The transition works because even the most repressive factors of the government are in survival mode. They don’t care about ideology; they care about their bank accounts and avoiding a cell in New York next to Nicolás Maduro.

Now, I feel that Venezuelans breathe a sigh of relief when they see the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires, Laura Dogu, conversing with Delcy Rodríguez, or when they see 6 tons of donated medicines arrive for our collapsed public health system. Venezuelans smile inwardly when they hear that oil companies are going to invest here, and that more than 50 million barrels from oil tankers intercepted by the U.S. have already been negotiated. That oil bill is coming to Venezuela because the U.S. is not like Cuba, which received free oil: the U.S. actually pays for our oil, and at market prices. A wide smile breaks out on Venezuelans’ faces when they hear Donald Trump promising to visit us soon.

Confidence grows even stronger when we see U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright in talks with Interim President Delcy Rodríguez and U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Laura Dogu, planning Venezuelan oil exports to the United States and future investments by oil companies in our country. This was never going to happen under the old regime, yet it is already taking place in less than two months, following the events of January 3rd.

Why is the transition imposed by Trump working? Because nobody, not even Delcy and her brother Jorge Rodríguez, cared about Chávez’s ideology or geopolitical model anymore. They only cared about staying in power, and the Chávez project became increasingly difficult and dangerous for them and their associates. For Delcy, it is a relief to cast off a dysfunctional system that could lead her to a jail cell in the U.S.

The transition is working not because the Chavistas leaders involved have democratic values; they simply want to survive, avoid the seizure of the money they have stolen from public coffers, and enjoy that wealth in Venezuela and the rest of the world without the Treasury Department blocking their accounts. They accept the economy starting to function because it suits their survival, while trying to maintain political power—somewhat like the China model.

They will try to delay and sabotage elections as much as possible, starting with the Presidency. But they know that for at least the next three years, while Trump is in power, they will have to gradually loosen the chains, release political prisoners, open the economy, and eventually hold elections. If the Democrats win in the U.S. and a stable transition has not yet been achieved in Venezuela, forget it—let’s run to Maiquetía airport and the last one out, please turn off the lights.

If they achieve economic success, they could retain a good portion of political power—perhaps 20%—which isn’t bad after the debacle of January 3rd. According to a Meganálisis survey, if presidential elections were held today, María Corina Machado would win with 78.3% of the vote. However, caution is needed: according to her own claims (though she never showed the tally sheets she said she had), Edmundo González Urrutia won the 2024 elections with 90% of the vote.

This means she has lost 12 percentage points, and we don’t know what would happen if the transition continues successfully—if the economy takes off, the fear of government persecution diminishes, freedoms are expanded, and the radical and paramilitary elements of the government are isolated. For instance, if figures like Diosdado Cabello are removed from the political inner circle, if Vladimir Padrino López is dismissed as Minister of Defense, and if the repressive apparatus of the SEBIN (the political police) is dismantled.

The line of Delcy and the Chavistas leaders could start to rise in the polls due to the fear that Machado’s radicalism might spoil the transition—one reason why Trump keeps her away from the 3-stage negotiation, even saying she was not respected internally.

A third factor could emerge, such as businessman Lorenzo Mendoza, who could gather the trust of voters from both extremes. He is a man of success, respected for his group, Empresas Polar, which produces food and beer and has some of the most solid corporate social programs in Venezuela.

The survey also reflects a strong rejection of the socialist model: 88.3% stated that socialism brought poverty; 93.1% backed the return of expropriated companies; and 72.5% supported the privatization of the state oil company PDVSA. Faced with the country’s direction, 75.6% affirmed that Venezuela needs justice, order, and law, compared to 12.6% who opted for forgiveness and reconciliation.

Will the transition work? I believe so, because it suits everyone—even the most repressive factors of the government—for simple survival. They know that at any moment, they could be detained like businessmen Raúl Gorrín and Alex Saab, alleged frontmen for Nicolás Maduro, or extradited to the U.S. to stand trial.

III.- ISRAEL AND THE DEVIL’S EXCREMENT

Thus, the relations between Israel and Venezuela, which had been peaceful and productive for decades, became strained due to Chávez’s delusions of grandeur and his fantasies of shifting the global geopolitical order—allying us, without consulting Venezuelans, with factors as alien to our culture as jihadists and Islamic terrorists.

Diplomatic relations between Israel and Venezuela were officially severed on January 14, 2009. Of course, Venezuelan Jews, as citizens, maintained their status quo and rights—at least nominally—even as media harassment and antisemitic discourse radicalized following the Venezuelan alliance with Iran. But it has been related to the Palestinian question, not to their Jewish identity per se.

Numerologists and conspiracy theorists pointed out that the moment Hugo Chávez publicly cursed the State of Israel, he sealed his fate, dying shortly after from a fulminant cancer.

When Maduro served as Chávez’s Foreign Minister, he welcomed Iranian President Ahmadinejad to Caracas. On national television, I remember seeing Maduro acknowledging his Sephardic Jewish origins and abjuring them, yet never cursing the State or the people of Israel. These same conspiracy theorists claim that because he did not curse the Jewish people, he made it out of power alive—even if he went straight to a cell in New York.

I don’t know if he is alive solely for that reason, but I can tell you that the Maduros are one of the wealthiest families in Curaçao and are Sephardic Jews, so Nicolás’s claim may have a strong foundation.

In fact, the first Jewish cemetery in the American continent was long believed to be the one in Coro, Falcón State, Venezuela. Families such as the Curiels, the Maduros, the Capriles, and the Henríquezes are buried there—descendants of the Sephardic diaspora that traveled from Holland via Brazil. Before this cemetery existed, Venezuelan Jews had to be buried in Curaçao due to the intransigence of the Venezuelan Catholic Church. The cemetery was founded in 1832 by Joseph Curiel, who purchased the land to bury his young daughter, Hanah.

However, research later showed that the oldest Jewish cemetery in the Americas is located in the city of Recife, in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. The cemetery was linked to the Kahal Zur Israel synagogue, the first synagogue in the Americas, founded in 1636 during the Dutch occupation. The original cemetery was in an area called Peixinhos, between Recife and Olinda, established around 1640. When the Portuguese regained control of Brazil in 1654 and expelled the Dutch, the Jewish community was forced to flee. Many of those Sephardic Jews ended up founding communities in New Amsterdam (now New York), Curaçao, and eventually reached the shores of Falcón in Venezuela.

By the way, when Henrique Capriles Radonski and Nicolás Maduro competed for the presidency in 2013 following Chávez’s death, it was a contest between two descendants of Sephardic Jews—Capriles being ‘doubly’ Jewish, as the surname Radonski from his maternal family is Ashkenazi.

My friends could hardly believe what I was telling them, but it was absolutely true. Thus, the relations between Israel and Venezuela—which had been peaceful and productive for decades—became strained due to Chávez’s delusions of grandeur and his fantasies of shifting the global geopolitical order, allying us, without consulting Venezuelans, with factors as alien to us as jihadists and Islamic terrorists.

Is that going to change in the immediate future? I believe so.

After World War II, the reconstruction and unity of Western Europe were forged through coal and steel. In 1951, France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg created a common market for these products—an organization called the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community).

From that point on, unity expanded to other countries through a zone of free transit and trade, which would become the European Common Market and eventually the European Union. The lesson seems to be that commercial exchange, licit profit, beneficial trade, and wealth are indeed capable of smoothing over many profound political and religious differences, leading to peace between nations that have long been in conflict.

This could be exactly what is happening in the case of Israel and Venezuela.

The Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, stated in The Times of Israel that following the fall of Nicolás Maduro, the time would be ripe for the restoration of relations between Israel and Venezuela. Sa’ar declared that the United States ‘acted as the leader of the free world,’ while expressing ‘hope that Jerusalem and Caracas can reestablish ties’ (TOI, January 3, 2026).

Subsequently, Sa’ar held a meeting with María Corina Machado in the U.S., after which the opposition leader stated that Israel will be a reliable partner for Venezuela in the future.

None of the above is surprising, given the political line of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and Machado’s plans should she reach the presidency. What might be surprising, however, are the words of Nicolás Maduro Guerra (“Nicolasito”), son of Nicolás Maduro Moros and a deputy in the National Assembly.

In a public speech reported by El Nacional, Maduro Guerra affirmed that ‘the country must have relations with the entire world’ and that opening embassies in Tel Aviv and Washington (he did not say Jerusalem) would represent a necessary step to foster dialogue and cooperation. ‘Venezuela should reestablish relations with Israel,’ said Maduro’s son. He added that even in the presence of divergent positions, differences should be addressed ‘within the realm of politics’ without closing doors to international interlocutors (La Nación, Buenos Aires, January 19, 2026).

And what about the oil?

Bloomberg reported this past February 10, 2026, that Venezuela sent its first shipment of crude oil to Israel in years. According to the agency, the cargo is destined for the Bazan Group, Israel’s primary crude processor located in Haifa. This would mark the first sale of Venezuelan oil to Israel since mid-2020.

As is customary in the Israeli energy market, the details are not public, and according to the report, tankers often ‘disappear’ from radar as they approach the Israeli coast for security reasons. Upon arrival, this will be the first such shipment since mid-2020, when Israel received approximately 470,000 barrels, according to Kpler data. Bazan, also known as Oil Refineries Ltd, declined to comment. Israel’s Ministry of Energy also declined to report on the origin of the crude the country consumes.

The Venezuelan government (through the Vice President of Communication, Miguel Ángel Pérez Pirela) labeled the report as ‘Fake News’ on February 11, denying any crude shipment to Israel and claiming the information seeks to ‘discredit’ the country. I know Pérez Pirela, and I tell you: if I have to choose between a report published by Bloomberg and a denial from him, I would choose Bloomberg as a reliable source of information without any hesitation.

Are these indicators enough to be optimistic? For me, yes.

Don’t ask the Jews living in Venezuela. Most of them will always tell you no—that everything is headed toward the apocalypse, that there is no salvation, that the transition will fail, and we shall fall into an even worse state. That is, if they answer at all, because fear keeps them in the shadows, avoiding public comments, which I understand, of course.

I have the impression that most Venezuelan Jews think being pessimistic makes them more intelligent. It’s a bit bizarre. The very existence of the State of Israel is a miracle. Therefore, every Jew—as Maimonides said—besides having hope, should believe in miracles and the coming of the era of the Mashiach, which represents the ultimate state of redemption for the world. But the Jews in Venezuela are the only Jews I know who don’t believe in miracles.

I do believe, and that is why I am still here.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)