Chavista loyalists call Rodríguez's U.S. oil deal 'an act of pillage'

Thousands rally for Rodríguez in Caracas as Cabello hails New York visit

Nine months after a U.S. military operation captured Nicolás Maduro, one of the most passionate propagandists of Hugo Chávez’s Bolivarian revolution has turned on the interim government that replaced him. Mario Silva, 66, whose state-funded television show The Razorblade was cancelled, is livid about the revolution’s direction under Maduro’s former deputy, acting President Delcy Rodríguez. He has spent recent weeks on YouTube, his home since his programme on state TV was axed, berating those he blames for Venezuela’s “shameful and utterly illegitimate surrender” to the U.S.

Silva’s devotion to Chávez was such that he often hosted his programme with the late president’s portrait behind him and had El Comandante’s curly signature tattooed on his left wrist. In a rare interview at his home studio in the mountains outside the capital, Caracas, he said he feels “a lot of disappointment – depressed … and sometimes I wake up and feel like the world is collapsing around me.”

The immediate focus of Silva’s anger was last week’s meeting between Rodríguez and President Trump on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York, where the two posed for a smiling photograph that left diehard Chavistas aghast. Trump recently trumpeted that the two governments had struck “the biggest oil deal in world history.” Since January, a parade of high-ranking U.S. officials — including the head of the CIA, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff and the energy secretary, Chris Wright — has visited Caracas.

“I thought it [the photo] was artificial intelligence or something like that. But it’s surrealism, utter surrealism … It’s impossible to understand,” Silva fumed on YouTube as a red flag emblazoned with the faces of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin hung behind him.

“They have surrendered this country and surrendered it the most vile and despicable way,” Silva said. “Honestly, they are dragging the country’s name through the mud. They are dragging Chávez’s name through the mud.” In another broadcast, he seethed: “Traitors and lackeys, you will have to answer for this!”

Silva is not the only Chavista loyalist struggling to comprehend the ideological U-turn. Elías Jaua, a vice-president and foreign minister under Chávez, said the feeling is widely shared. “What I hear from comrades across the country is bewilderment, disagreement and indignation,” Jaua said. He said he believes Trump’s oil deal “amounts to an act of pillage against an entire nation.”

Juan Barreto, a former member of the ruling Socialist party (PSUV) and mayor of Caracas, said such an agreement would have been unimaginable when the Bolivarian revolution began after Chávez’s 1998 election. Barreto said Chavistas who had once vowed “Not a drop of oil to the empire if Venezuela is attacked!” were now in effect saying “All of the oil reserves [for the US], for as long as you want!” “The current situation is one of tutelage,” he said.

Rodríguez has defended the deal, claiming it will create more than $209bn (£158bn) in revenues that will help improve healthcare and education. “We are thinking of Venezuela’s future,” she said in a recent TV broadcast. Héctor Rodríguez, another prominent Chavista politician, has sought to deflect criticism by recalling how Chávez was forced to make a tactical retreat after his failed coup attempt in 1992. “No one can tell me Chávez was a coward. He understood that the balance of power had shifted … and decided to take a step backwards,” Héctor Rodríguez said.

Last week, as Rodríguez met Trump in New York, thousands of people joined a pro-government rally in Caracas, where supporters chanted “Delcy avanza, tú tienes mi confianza!” (“Move forward, Delcy. I trust in you!”). Her interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, told the crowd: “No matter how much they kick and scream, there’s nothing they can do to try to cover up the success of President Delcy Rodríguez’s visit to New York.” Unlike at previous marches, there was scant mention of Maduro and few calls for his release.

The depth and potential consequences of Chavista anger remain unclear. Orlando Pérez, a Latin America expert at the University of North Texas at Dallas, said there was indignation at what some consider a sellout of their anti-imperialist ideals. “There are Chavistas that are pissed off, there’s no question about it,” he said. “There are Chavistas who see this as a betrayal of Hugo Chávez and the betrayal of the movement.” Pérez said that for many Chavistas who remained in power after the U.S. operation, the “pragmatic reality” was that working with Washington was “a necessary evil” if it meant keeping Venezuela’s opposition out of power. “If that means negotiating with Trump, if that means dealing with the CIA etc, it’s fine,” he said. “Beyond whatever ideological position they might have … I suspect most of them are gritting their teeth and just going along with this process as long as they can stay in power and keep their jobs. I think for most it’s as simple as that: it’s about their material wellbeing.”

Pérez said Rodríguez’s government would need to show supporters “tangible benefits to the cooperation” with the U.S. to avoid a backlash. “They’re going to have to show that these things have a material consequence to the lives of their social base … if you don’t deliver, then it is going to get very volatile,” he warned.

So far there has been no sign of significant resistance from outraged supporters of Chavismo. But Silva claimed the government’s new direction and economic policies could eventually trigger a social uprising and protests. “Worsening economic conditions will degrade [people’s] quality of life, and that pressure is bound to explode. It has to explode – it’s not just wishful thinking. This isn’t a prediction born of desire, it’s an inevitability,” said the broadcaster, who has said he is facing investigation for alleged acts of “aggravated defamation and slander against the interim government.”

Silva lit one cigarette after another as he recalled the early hours of 3 January 2026, when U.S. troops entered Venezuela’s capital and the revolution he had spent more than 20 years defending did not defend itself. He said he moved from one strategic point to another across Caracas before finally calling the commander at his assigned post. Silva recalled the moment: “Hey, what happened? Where are the weapons?” “Go to sleep, Mario,” he was told. “You have no idea how disappointed I was.”

MSI previously reported that Venezuela’s Chavismo movement was fracturing as acting President Delcy Rodríguez deepened U.S. ties in Venezuela’s Chavismo movement fractures as Rodríguez deepens U.S. ties. The dissent aired in recent weeks extends that fracture to veteran loyalists and former officials as the interim government formalizes its alignment with Washington.