Caracas (theassemblymedia.com) — Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said Thursday that her administration would offer “non-essential” state assets to the private sector and return assets nationalized under former President Hugo Chávez to their former private owners.
“Private property is a protected right guaranteed by our Constitution,” Rodríguez said in a national broadcast. She added that Venezuela was undergoing “a major transformation” and stressed that the country’s sovereignty was not negotiable. “We cooperate with everyone, but decisions are made in Venezuela,” she said.
The announcement would mark a major reversal of one of the most prominent policies of the Chávez era (1999–2012): nationalizing key assets across the Venezuelan economy. The expropriations were part of Chávez’s drive to assert national sovereignty and build socialist enterprises.
The oil industry was a central focus of the nationalization drive. Between 2007 and 2009, state oil company PDVSA took majority stakes in major oil ventures in the Orinoco Oil Belt, along with oil rigs, docks, vessels, and other facilities in the western Lake Maracaibo region. Many foreign oil companies accepted the new terms and continued operating. Others, including ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil, left the country and filed multibillion-dollar international arbitration claims.
The Venezuelan state also nationalized Siderúrgica del Orinoco (Sidor) in 2008, after the National Assembly (AN) declared the industrial complex to be of “public utility and social interest.” Latin America’s largest steel plant had been controlled since 1997 by Ternium, an Argentine-Italian corporate group. Sidor’s nationalization followed a 15-month labor dispute and a wave of strikes in which workers unsuccessfully demanded better conditions.
Millions of hectares of idle agricultural land were also nationalized and transferred to campesinos, small-scale farmers, in the name of food security. The land included vast cattle ranches owned by the British company Vestey. In 2010, the agro-industrial giant Agroisleño was expropriated and converted into the state-run company Agropatria, which was tasked with distributing seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs to local producers. Food-processing plants and retail chains were also brought under state control as part of the government’s effort to achieve food sovereignty.
Other major nationalizations took place in the electricity, cement, mining, banking, and telecommunications sectors, as well as in real estate.
In her address on Thursday, Rodríguez did not specify which state assets were being offered to the private sector or returned to their owners before expropriation.
The return of expropriated assets was reportedly proposed years ago under Nicolás Maduro. In April 2022, El País reported that Maduro was quietly preparing to return properties and companies seized under his predecessor, Hugo Chávez. They included agricultural estates, fertilizer companies, food factories, a hotel chain and Caracas’ shopping mall Sambil. Under the reported plan, the assets would be returned to their former owners without compensation.
Presidential elections
On the election timetable, acting President Delcy Rodríguez reiterated that “there will be elections, as required by our Constitution.”
Her remarks came just hours before opposition leader María Corina Machado held her first press conference since returning to Venezuela on Sunday. Machado called for elections in 2027. The far-right leader had left the country in December 2025 to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, and returned without facing any obstacles.
Rodríguez has instructed security forces to ensure that “no one is detained” without a court order, except when someone is caught in the act. “We all have the right to think differently, without fear of reprisals of any kind,” she said.
A longtime anti-Chavista figure, Machado played a prominent role in securing US-led economic sanctions against Venezuela and has advocated US military intervention. She has been barred from holding public office for 15 years since 2023, a ban the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) upheld in 2024.
Washington has outlined a three-phase agenda for Venezuela, with presidential elections as its final step. The Trump administration, however, has prioritized securing access to the country’s oil resources, striking decades-long deals with the Rodríguez government. Since the US abducted Maduro in early January, Washington has taken control of Venezuela’s oil exports and is holding the revenues in a US-controlled bank account.
On October 26, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was pressing for a sweeping overhaul of Venezuela’s judicial and electoral institutions, two central issues in ongoing talks between Caracas and the opposition.
The plan calls for appointing a new Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) by mid-December, followed by a restructuring of the National Electoral Council (CNE). Once both bodies have been replaced, Rodríguez is expected to declare the presidency vacant, triggering a six-month period in which presidential elections must be held.
“Elections should not be a problem or make us regress to times of confrontation that nobody wants anymore,” Rodríguez said on Thursday.
Cabinet changes and wage increases
Rodríguez announced four wage increases planned for 2027 that must match “the economic growth recorded in the preceding quarter.”
She also announced cabinet changes as part of her administration’s efforts to realign Venezuela’s foreign relations. Former opposition activist Oliver Blanco was appointed foreign affairs minister, with a mandate to advance the country’s reforms and cooperation with other nations.
Blanco replaces Félix Plasencia, who will take over as director of international affairs at the Presidency. His immediate task will be to recover 31 tons of Venezuelan gold frozen at the Bank of England since 2019.