By Joel Schectman

In the months before President Trump moved to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Central Intelligence Agency turned to former Chevron executive Ali Moshiri for advice on who should replace the autocratic leftist.

Moshiri's involvement offers a window into how Trump has come to embrace the energy industry's unsentimental playbook for dealing with autocratic regimes. Some takeaways:

Moshiri helped steer the CIA toward supporting Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez

The executive, who led Chevron's operations in Venezuela for decades, told the agency that the opposition helmed by María Corina Machado wouldn't be able to stabilize the country. Backing her would lead to a regime-change morass like Iraq, he argued.

Moshiri had worked with Rodríguez for decades and saw her as tough, pragmatic and able to get the oil flowing. His input was part of a CIA assessment shared with the White House that supported the decision to back Rodríguez over the opposition. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Moshiri said he couldn't disclose any relationship he had with the CIA.

In response to detailed questions from The Wall Street Journal, CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons said: "This story is fantastical and relies on false, unverified, anonymous claims."

Chevron said it no longer has any business relationship with Moshiri and didn't authorize anyone to engage with the CIA in advance of Maduro's ouster.

When at Chevron, Moshiri convinced the company to stay in Venezuela during the Hugo Chávez years, even as most of its American rivals got fed up and left

When Chávez began nationalizing oil fields in 2006, sharply raising taxes and rewriting contracts with multinational energy firms, Exxon Mobil and other Western companies abandoned the country. But Moshiri, who had developed a friendship with Chávez, convinced Chevron to stay.

Moshiri was already working with the CIA, sharing what he learned of Chávez, with the support of the company's top executives. A Chevron spokesman said: "We have no knowledge of the validity of the claims made by anonymous sources about conversations that may or may not have taken place nearly two decades ago."

In Trump's first term, his administration supported a failed coup attempt in Venezuela

In 2019, the National Security Council attempted to oust Maduro and help then-opposition leader Juan Guaidó ascend to the presidency, according to former officials familiar with the operation. U.S. government officials offered Venezuelan generals millions of dollars to switch sides; attempted to have pilots steal jet fighters and fly them to Colombia; and launched a cyberattack to paralyze the military's salary-payment system to get officers to rise up against the regime. It all failed.

The CIA didn't have a strong presence on the ground to smooth out the operation, and when the plan began to unravel, Washington officials were left scrambling to try to learn what was happening by telephone.

Chevron could be a big winner in post-Maduro Venezuela

As oil prices surge, Chevron is poised to take the lead in developing Venezuela's massive oil reserves. It's the only major American oil company to have stayed in the country and is positioned to quickly increase its output. The company has said it wants to boost production in Venezuela by up to 50% in the next 18 to 24 months.

Since Maduro was hauled away by American commandos, the company's stock price is up almost 30%. Chevron said it has been in the country for more than a century providing jobs for Venezuelans and energy security for America. "That longstanding record should not be recast to suggest motives or actions that are inconsistent with Chevron's history, values, or conduct," the company said.

Moshiri himself may do quite well

The man has a close, trusted relationship with Rodríguez and others in her circle. His Amos Fund is raising $3 billion for Venezuelan oil projects, and he is advising state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela, known as PdVSA, as it rebuilds its leadership team.

And many are crediting his prescience in getting Chevron to stay in the country all those years.

Write to Joel Schectman at joel.schectman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 16, 2026 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT)

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