Trump admin. Officials are flying the first direct flight between the US and Venezuela in 7 years

Trump administration officials were on the first non-stop flight between the US and Venezuela in seven years there left Thursday in Miamiheaded to Caracas.

Jarrod Agen of the National Energy Dominance Council led the American delegation, while the newly appointed Venezuelan Ambassador to the US, Félix Plasencia, was also on the American Airlines flight.

Agen told CBS News that the White House delegation to Caracas plans to follow up on some deals between US companies and Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA and some of its mining companies. HKN Energy, a company backed by Ross Perot Jr., and Hunt Energy, are among the recent American entrants into the Venezuelan market. Agen is expected to meet with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez, as well.

The trip comes nearly four months after US forces arrested Rodríguez’s predecessor, Nicolas Maduroand his wife in a special forces raid. Both were returned to New York they faced drug trafficking charges and since then they have denied the charges.

Ever since Maduro was removed from power, the administration has sought to promote it US investment in Venezuela’s oil sectorrolling back sanctions to allow US oil companies to spend on infrastructure and production. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum also led delegations to Venezuela, which holds the world’s largest oil reserves.

“The opening of the economy in Venezuela is on the train. The democratic process is on the chicken wagon,” former US diplomat Juan Gonzalez told CBS News, while returning from a business trip to Caracas. Gonzalez served as the State Department’s deputy secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs during the Biden administration. He said it was surprising to see Maduro’s old posters in Caracas being taken down and said Chavismo – the left-wing socialist ideology of Hugo Chávez and Nicolas Maduro – was dead and gone. But right now, Maduro’s regime is standing still – or removing Maduro himself.

Chevron, America’s second largest energy company, has been active in Venezuela, including under the Maduro regime. The Trump administration has tried to urge the Rodríguez government to make regulatory changes to facilitate more investment to stabilize the country’s economy.

In an interview that will be broadcast on the program “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said that progress has indeed been made by Rodríguez regarding changes in the country’s hydrocarbon laws, effectively changing the terms under which companies can invest in Venezuela.

“Some work is still needed. It’s probably not enough to deliver the level of investment that would be desirable,” Wirth told CBS News. He spoke to CBS News before a meeting at the White House last week.

Venezuelan oil is the type of heavy crude that US Gulf Coast refineries are designed to process. He said he supports changes in the plan to increase energy production in Venezuela but described it as “a work in progress.” Wirth said Chevron retains high-quality workers in Venezuela but acknowledged that some described them as skilled workers who fled the country two decades ago during Chavismo.

Wirth also told CBS News that he is speaking with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and has heard him discuss the need to hold elections in a timely manner in Venezuela. He did not have a timeline for that democratic transition. The US has re-established its diplomatic presence in Caracas and appointed foreign service official John Barrett as charge d’affaires.

The Trump administration is tight-lipped about the timing of the election. Many US and Venezuelan officials have indicated that it may take two to three years before the country is ready for elections. The Trump administration has made national stability a top priority, with democracy a secondary goal. Rodríguez appears to be planning to finish out the remainder of Maduro’s six-year term, which would mean elections in 2030.

Opposition leader María Corina Machado he told “Face the Nation” in February that a secure and precise timeline for transition away from Maduro’s regime is needed before the exiles will feel safe enough to return. He has consulted at least twice with President Trump and more recently with Rubio about his future plans to return to Venezuela. He confidently told CBS News that “I will be president when the time comes.”

Machado’s party he won the last presidential election in 2024, according to the State Department, which estimated that 12 million Venezuelans went to the polls peacefully. Nevertheless, the Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner, and his representatives sought to arrest Edmundo Gonzalez (Machado’s representative in the race) and Machado as part of what the US described as a power grab.

Rodríguez – Maduro’s former vice president – was officially recognized by the Trump administration as the “sole head of state” in March, almost three months after the lightning strike. US military attack he abducted Maduro in January and took him to US custody on drug-trafficking charges linked to the Cartel de los Soles.

The US reduced the sanctions on Rodríguez earlier this month, though Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello withheld $25 million from the US government for his role in the Cartel de los Soles, the same drug-trafficking organization the US has designated as a terrorist group. He was in charge of Maduro’s repressive security forces but today he is an important figure in the government. Cabello, once Maduro’s chief conspirator, can now be seen sitting next to Trump’s top officials in meetings discussing business deals.