By Takis Politis
January 31, 2026
Western mainstream media continue their partial, misleading, and defamatory “journalistic” coverage of news about Venezuela. Unfortunately, this coverage is often reproduced uncritically by left-wing media and left-wing journalists.
- The National Assembly of Venezuela approved, at first reading, the program for the partial reform of the Organic Law on Hydrocarbons [1]. The procedure for organic laws (legislation of a higher hierarchical rank, directly below the Constitution) provides for public consultation—which has already begun [2]—before the law returns to the National Assembly for article-by-article discussion, possible amendments, and final adoption.
- The reform of the law provides for channeling a large portion of oil revenues into sectors of social protection and infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals, housing, and public works, while it was announced that workers will receive wage increases and that the country’s energy self-sufficiency will be strengthened [3]. It is true that provisions and incentives in favor of investors—domestic and international—are included, such as lower taxation and public–private partnership schemes; however, state oversight is not being abandoned, as is incorrectly written.
- Acting President Delcy Rodríguez had indirect contacts with Americans prior to Maduro’s abduction and conveyed to them her intention to cooperate with them, wrote The Guardian, and many Western media outlets reproduced this claim. However, neither Venezuela’s rebuttal of The Guardian article [4] nor Maduro’s message—from prison in the United States—urging trust in Rodríguez [5] received comparable publicity from Western media.
- Rodríguez spoke by telephone with Trump and met in Caracas with the Director of the CIA. What was demanded of her from the American side in neo-colonial terms is presented in detail. Rodríguez’s statements— “if one day I have to go to Washington, I will do so standing up, walking, not crawling,” and “I have no fear whatsoever of engaging in dialogue with the United States within the framework of diplomacy” [6 & 7]—are either silenced or downplayed, leaving the impression that Rodríguez bowed to the Americans.
- Venezuela’s Minister of Defense stated that during the American attack and abduction of Maduro, Venezuela was used as a laboratory for the application of new American weapons and the extensive use of artificial-intelligence applications [-8-]. A few days ago, a Cuban military officer who survived the American attack made a similar reference in his statements [9]. Scenarios alleging cooperation between senior Venezuelan military officers and the United States—scenarios that obviously insult the country—continue to be promoted by Western media.
Processes that had been set in motion before January 3, 2026 are misleadingly presented as capitulation and as signs of Rodríguez’s immediate surrender to U.S. pressure.
- Oil exports from Venezuela to the United States have shown a sharp increase since September 2025, after the U.S. government renewed the license—previously suspended—to the American oil company Chevron, with the upward trend continuing [10]. The export of oil from Venezuela to the United States after January 3, 2026 is not Rodríguez’s capitulation, but the implementation of prior commercial agreements.
- The repatriation of Venezuelan migrants from various countries—including from the United States [11]—continues through the voluntary repatriation program Gran Misión Vuelta a la Patria, a program operating since 2024 and constituting an extension of Plan Vuelta a la Patria, which was activated in 2018. At the same time, since March 2025, Venezuela has been receiving Venezuelan migrants who migrated to the United States and are now being deported by the Trump administration [12]. Some forget (or do not know) this history and also attribute the recent returns of repatriated or deported Venezuelans from the United States to a retreat by Rodríguez.
- The releases from prison during the two-month period of December–January [13]—a practice that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has applied for years since the Chávez era—are misleadingly attributed to American pressure for the “protection of political rights” in the country and to an alleged immediate disciplining of Caracas to governance directives coming from Washington.
By contrast, the exemplary participatory democratic processes that continue in the country—such as the community electoral processes for the identification of their own priorities [14] to be submitted for popular consultation, and the national electoral process for the selection of local projects with public funding, announced by Rodríguez for March 8, 2026—a date not chosen at random [15]—are not topics of interest for Western media and are systematically silenced, thus sustaining the false image of a lack of democracy in Chávez’s country.
Is Venezuela likely to make concessions—some of them unpleasant—under American pressure? Yes; since it has a “gun to its temple,” it is possible. Our own harsh criticism, however—often based on one-sided, partial, and even false information—the criticism of all of us who proclaim our abhorrence of imperialism and colonialism, does not help it today. In this unequal battle that Chávez’s country is now waging against American terrorism, let us stand clearly on its side. And when the dust settles, when the country is no longer under threat and can walk the path it itself has charted, there will be ample time for criticism—criticism that would do well to be made after taking off the glasses of white supremacy that, unfortunately, most of us in the Western world wear.
Sources:
- https://www.resumenlatinoamericano.org/…/venezuela…/
2. https://venezuela-news.com/trabajadores-sector-petrolero…/
3. https://avn.info.ve/gobierno-nacional-impulsa-reforma…/
4. https://www.telesurtv.net/venezuela-fake-news-the…/
5. https://avn.info.ve/mensaje-de-nicolas-maduro-confien-en…/
6. https://www.20minutos.es/…/delcy-rodriguez-responde…
7. https://www.sinembargo.mx/…/delcy-rodriguez-afirma-que…/
8. https://venezuela-news.com/ministro-padrino-lopez…/
9. https://www.cuballama.com/…/militar-cubano-que-rescato…/
10. https://www.bancaynegocios.com/ventas-de-petroleo…/
11. https://www.telesurtv.net/arriban-183-venezolanos-plan…/
12. https://www.abc.es/…/venezuela-acoge-180-migrantes…
13. https://espanol.almayadeen.net/…/venezuela-ha…
14. https://avn.info.ve/campesinos-venezolanos-eligen-este…/
15. https://venezuela-news.com/consulta-popular-nacional…/
Translated from Greek by Christian Haccuria
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