Venezuelans Trust Chevron More Than Their President: New Polls

For 27 years, Venezuelans heard that US oil companies were the enemy. Four months after Nicolás Maduro’s capture, the country’s emerging polling data shows the opposite: Venezuela polls put Chevron and the broader US oil sector ahead of the country’s acting president, ahead of Donald Trump, and ahead of opposition leader María Corina Machado in citizen confidence to deliver welfare. ORC Consultores measured 59% trust in oil companies versus only 25.6% for acting president Delcy Rodríguez, while the share of Venezuelans describing themselves as hopeful jumped from 51% in December 2025 to 81% in February 2026.

The Chevron Number

The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, reports the headline finding from ORC Consultores. Asked who they trust to deliver welfare, 59% of Venezuelans named oil companies, 52% named Donald Trump, 49% named María Corina Machado, and only 25.6% named acting president Delcy Rodríguez. The total-distrust ranking inverts the order: Rodríguez leads with 74.4% distrust, while Machado triggers concern in 19% and Trump in 15%.

The reading captures a hierarchy Venezuelans have never publicly expressed before. ORC director Oswaldo Ramírez frames it carefully: citizens are choosing dollar-paying foreign investors over local political actors because hyperinflation and 27 years of state economic management have eroded trust in domestic institutions. Chevron’s stake in the Petroindependencia joint venture rose from 35.8% to 49% on April 13, and the company is targeting 300,000 barrels per day production, up from 260,000 currently.

The Hope Inflection

The most striking shift is on hope itself: in February 2026, ORC Consultores registered that 81% of Venezuelans declared themselves hopeful about the country’s future, the highest level in the firm’s entire historical series. In December 2025, when hundreds of US ships were patrolling the Caribbean ahead of the January 3 operation, the same indicator stood at 51%. The 30-point jump in two months coincides precisely with Maduro’s capture and transfer to a Brooklyn federal court.

Ramírez told reporters that the first observable change after January 3 was not in the polling tables but in cellphone behavior: Venezuelans stopped deleting political messages and started forwarding anti-Maduro memes. Atlas Intel separately measured Rodríguez’s approval at 37% in February and 31% in April, a consistent monthly decline.

The Government Counter-Narrative

Hinterlaces, a polling firm aligned with the chavismo establishment, published a January 14 study showing 91% of Venezuelans support Delcy Rodríguez as interim president, with 95% opposing US military intervention and 94% rejecting the Maduro capture. The same study reported 79% of respondents hold a favorable opinion of Rodríguez. Independent firms including ORC, Consultores 21, Hercon and Meganálisis treat the Hinterlaces numbers as government-friendly outliers and note the consistent gap with their own data.

Saúl Cabrera of Consultores 21, with 40 years of Venezuelan polling experience, calls the current sentiment “watchful expectation”: citizens hopeful enough to express opinions again, but skeptical of the institutional architecture. Two of three respondents in his survey said they would prefer democracy even at the cost of short-term economic stability, while three of four want elections held this year.

Connected Coverage

The economic backdrop to the polling shift was covered in Rio Times’ 100-day analysis of the Delcy Rodríguez economic pivot, which detailed the Hydrocarbons Law rewrite (January 29), Mining Law rewrite (April 9), and Chevron expansion. The opposition’s continued exile and the Washington coordination problem were treated in our reporting on the opposition’s fraying unity.

What to Watch

• Next ORC, Hercon, and Meganálisis monthly polling releases
• Any movement on a 2026 presidential electoral calendar from Caracas
• Chevron production data toward the 300,000 bpd Petroindependencia target
• PDVSA national output trajectory toward 1.3 million bpd by late 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do Venezuelans trust Chevron more than their president?

After 27 years of chavismo and hyperinflation that eroded the bolívar by 99.99%, Venezuelans associate foreign oil investment with dollar wages, functional supply chains, and electricity. ORC Consultores measured 59% trust in oil companies versus 25.6% for acting president Delcy Rodríguez. Chevron‘s Petroindependencia stake rose to 49% on April 13 with a 300,000 bpd output target.

How hopeful are Venezuelans now?

ORC Consultores recorded that 81% of Venezuelans declared themselves hopeful about the country’s future in February 2026, the highest level in the firm’s entire historical series. That number was 51% in December 2025, before the January 3 US military operation that captured Nicolás Maduro and transferred him to a Brooklyn federal court.

Are these polls reliable?

Independent firms ORC, Consultores 21, Hercon, and Meganálisis show broadly consistent patterns: Machado dominant in opposition support (44-76%), Rodríguez trailing far behind (3.86-25.6%), and majority demand for 2026 elections. Hinterlaces, a chavismo-aligned firm, reports 91% support for Rodríguez, treated as a government-friendly outlier by independent pollsters.

What is the economic context?

The IMF projects Venezuelan GDP growth of 4% in 2026 and 6% in 2027, the fastest in Latin America. PDVSA targets 1.3 million bpd output by late 2026 or early 2027. The minimum wage remains frozen at 130 bolívares (about 0.27 dollars at the official rate) since March 2022, illustrating why dollarized oil-sector employment outranks state employment in citizen trust.

Updated: 2026-05-11T19:00:00Z