U.S. Partners With Venezuelan Oil Baron: Trust Issues Sold Separately
KEY POINTS
- •U.S. officials partnered with Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt through North American Blue Energy Partners to gain access to oilfields.
- •The Pentagon now holds a 35% equity stake, and the U.S. secured rights to buy 20% of the oil at cost after Venezuelan taxes.
- •Despite Betancourt's past legal troubles, including a federal indictment of relatives and Swiss raids on his property, U.S. officials defended the deal as strategic.
In a plot twist worthy of a telenovela, the U.S. Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital snagged a 35% stake in Alejandro Betancourt's North American Blue Energy Partners, giving America preferential access to 17 massive Venezuelan oilfields. Betancourt, 46, who once dodged $1.2 billion money laundering charges tied to Miami mansions and Swiss bank accounts, is hailed as a 'proven operator' by U.S. officials who acknowledged, 'Geopolitics is often not the choice between the ideal and the imperfect.' After a Swiss raid on his Spanish castle and some diplomatic wheeling and dealing, his UK passport was restored just in time for him to jet between Caracas and D.C. Chevron plans an expansion there, proving nothing says geopolitical finesse like working with a dude whose company once got federal investigations and accusations of kickbacks from an ex-U.S. ambassador.
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(1 of 3)Nothing screams foreign policy brilliance like teaming up with a billionaire under criminal investigation to fix Venezuela’s oil while playing musical passports across Europe.
Hiring a money-laundering ‘proven operator’ to boost democracy in Venezuela sounds like Netflix pitched a dark comedy called 'How to Fix Oil in 4 Easy Bribes.'
If honesty were oil, the U.S.-Venezuelan deal would be drilling dry, but hey, at least they’ve got a guy with a castle under raid on speed dial.
Source: Axios | Published: 9/1/2026 | Author: Ben Geman
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