CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Thursday signed a law that opens the nation’s oil sector to privatization, reversing a tenet of the self-proclaimed socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades.The reform will undoubtedly be her government’s signature policy as it positions the oil sector – Venezuela’s engine – to lure the foreign investment needed to revamp a long-crippled industry.Rodríguez enacted the measure less than a month after the brazen seizure of then-President Nicolás Maduro in a U.S.
military attack in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.Rodríguez, facing oil workers and ruling-party supporters, signed the bill less than two hours after the National Assembly approved it.At the same time, the U.S.
Department of Treasury officially began to ease punishing economic sanctions on Venezuelan oil, which were imposed by the first Trump administration, and expanded the ability of U.S.energy companies to operate in the South American nation.Rodríguez on Thursday also spoke with U.S.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who a day earlier explained to U.S.senators in a hearing how the administration is planning to handle the sale of tens of millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela and oversee where the money flows.
Venezuela has the largest proven reserves of crude in the world.The moves by both governments are paving the way for yet another radical geopolitical and economic shift in Venezuela.“We’re talking about the future.
We are talking about the country that we are going to give to our children,” Rodríguez said of the reform.Rodríguez proposed the changes earlier this month, after Trump said his administration would take control of Venezuela’s oil exports and revitalize the ailing industry by luring foreign investment.The legislation promises to give private companies control over the production and sale of oil, ending the state-owned Petróleos de...