Venezuela’s acting president signs oil industry overhaul, easing state control to lure investors

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez on Thursday signed a law that will open 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.

Lawmakers in the country's National Assembly approved the overhaul of the energy industry law earlier in the day, less than a month after the brazen seizure of then-President Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military attack in Venezuela’s capital.

As the bill was being passed, the U.S. Treasury Department officially began to ease sanctions on Venezuelan oil that once crippled the industry, and expanded the ability of U.S. energy companies to operate in the South American nation, the first step in plans outlined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio the day before. The moves by both governments on Thursday 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.

Rodríguez proposed the changes in the days after U.S. President Donald 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 and allow for independent arbitration of disputes.

Rodríguez’s government expects the changes to serve as assurances for major U.S. oil companies that have so far hesitated about returning to the volatile country. Some of those companies lost investments when the ruling party enacted the existing law two decades ago to favor Venezuela’s state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA.

The revised law would modify extraction taxes, setting a royalty cap rate of 30% and allowing the executive branch to set percentages for every project based on capital investment needs, competitiveness and other factors.

It also removes the mandate for disputes to be settled only in Venezuelan courts, which are controlled by the ruling party. Foreign investors have long viewed the involvement of independent courts as crucial to guard against future expropriation.

Ruling-party lawmaker Orlando Camacho, head of the assembly’s oil committee, said the reform “will change the country’s economy.”

Meanwhile, opposition lawmaker Antonio Ecarri urged the assembly to add transparency and accountability provisions to the law, including the creation of a website to make funding and other information public. He noted that the current lack of oversight has led to systemic corruption and argued that these provisions can also be considered judicial guarantees.

Those guarantees are among the key changes foreign investors are looking for as they weigh entering the Venezuelan market.

“Let the light shine on in the oil industry,” Ecarri said.

Oil workers dressed in red jumpsuits and hard hats celebrated the bill’s approval, waving a Venezuelan flag inside the legislative palace and then joining lawmakers in a demonstration with ruling-party supporters.

The law was last altered two decades ago as Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez, made heavy state control over the oil industry a pillar of his socialist-inspired revolution.

In the early years of his tenure, a massive windfall in petrodollars thanks to record-high global oil prices turned PDVSA into the main source of government revenue and the backbone of Venezuela’s economy.

Chávez’s 2006 changes to the hydrocarbons law required PDVSA to be the principal stakeholder in all major oil projects.

In tearing up the contracts that foreign companies signed in the 1990s, Chávez nationalized huge assets belonging to American and other Western firms that refused to comply, including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. They are still waiting to receive billions of dollars in arbitration awards.

From those heady days of lavish state spending, PDVSA’s fortunes turned — along with the country’s — as oil prices dropped and government mismanagement eroded profits and hurt production, first under Chávez, then Maduro.

The nation home to the world’s biggest proven crude reserves underwent a dire economic crisis that drove over 7 million Venezuelans to flee since 2014. Sanctions imposed by successive U.S. administrations further crippled the oil industry.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez flashes a vee hand sign while greeting oil workers and government supporters at the Miraflores Palace during a rally backing an oil reform bill to loosen state control and open the industry to private and foreign investment in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez takes part in a rally holding up a copy of a new law after lawmakers approved legislation opening the nation's oil sector to privatization, at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez delivers her first state of the union address at the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Workers of Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA oil company rally to back an oil reform bill proposed by acting President Delcy Rodriguez to loosen state control and open the industry to private and foreign investment in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Workers of Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA oil company rally to back an oil reform bill proposed by acting President Delcy Rodriguez to loosen state control and open the industry to private and foreign investment in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Workers of Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA oil company rally to back an oil reform bill proposed by acting President Delcy Rodriguez to loosen state control and open the industry to private and foreign investment in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Federal immigration officials have ceased their “enhanced operations” in Maine, the site of an enforcement surge and hundreds of arrests since last week, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said Thursday.

Collins, a Republican, announced the development after saying she had spoken directly with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

“There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here,” Collins said in a statement, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “I have been urging Secretary Noem and others in the administration to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state.”

The announcement came after President Donald Trump seemed to signal a willingness to ease tensions in Minneapolis after a second deadly shooting there by federal immigration agents.

Collins said ICE and Border Patrol officials “will continue their normal operations that have been ongoing here for many years.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it would “continue to enforce the law across the country, as we do every day.” ICE, which is part of DHS, said in a statement that it performed its duties despite meeting resistance from demonstrators. Neither statement addressed whether ICE was drawing down in Maine.

“The early success of this operation displays how effectively ICE officers can operate anywhere and in any environment,” said ICE Deputy Assistant Director Patricia Hyde.

Collins’ announcement comes more than a week after ICE began an operation it dubbed “Catch of the Day.”

Federal officials said about 50 arrests were made the first day and that roughly 1,400 people were operational targets in the mostly rural state of 1.4 million residents, 4% of whom are foreign-born.

In Lewiston, one of the cities targeted by ICE, Mayor Carl Sheline called the scale-down welcome news, describing the agency's operations as “disastrous” for the community.

“ICE operations in Maine have failed to improve public safety and have caused lasting damage to our communities. We will continue working to ensure that those who were wrongfully detained by ICE are returned to us,” said Sheline, who leads a city where the mayoral position is required to be nonpartisan.

ICE has also launched immigration operations in Minnesota, Chicago and other cities. While Trump has pushed to deploy National Guard troops to crack down on both immigration and crime, as of early January, the White House said it was backing down after facing several legal roadblocks.

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin last week said some Maine arrests were of people “convicted of horrific crimes including aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and endangering the welfare of a child.”

Court records painted a slightly different story: While some had felony convictions, others were detainees with unresolved immigration proceedings or who were arrested but never convicted of a crime.

Federal authorities highlighted the case of Elmara Correia, saying she was “arrested previously for endangering the welfare of a child.” However, Manuel Vemba, who has a four-year-old son with Correia, said Thursday that a neighbor called police about the boy playing outside with friends, and that he doesn’t believe any charges were brought.

“She does not have any criminal record, and she’s not the type of person they’re labeling her,” he said. “Elmara is a mother, just like many other mothers out there, who loves her child and has sacrificed for her child.”

Vemba described his former partner as trustworthy, hardworking and devoted to their son, who is on the autism spectrum and loves to play soccer and run.

“She did everything she could to guarantee that my son was safe and happy,” he said.

The boy is now staying with Vemba, who has told him, “Mommy’s traveling. Mommy will be back.” On Wednesday, a Massachusetts judge granted her request for a bail hearing.

Collins is up for reelection this year. Unlike a handful of Republican senators facing potentially tough campaigns, Collins has not called for Noem to step down or be fired. She's also avoided criticizing ICE tactics, beyond saying ICE should not target people who are in the U.S. legally.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who announced her Senate candidacy in October and could face Collins in the general election, has challenged immigration officials to provide judicial warrants, real-time arrest numbers and basic information about who is being detained in Maine. She also accused Collins of governing “without any courage” shortly after the Republican voted in favor of funding the DHS and several other agencies Thursday.

ICE must account for its actions in Maine even if it is scaling back, Mills said Thursday.

“We still do not know critical details about the 200 individuals ICE says it has detained, many of whom appear to be here legally, who have no criminal record and who are not ‘the worst of the worst.’ The people of Maine deserve to know the identities of every person taken from here, the legal justification for doing so, where they are being held, and what the federal government’s plan for them is,” Mills said.

First-time Democratic candidate Graham Platner — who is challenging Mills in the primary — has criticized both Mills' and Collins' handling of ICE and has demanded the agency be dismantled. Platner organized a protest Thursday outside Collins' office in Portland, Maine.

This story has been corrected to show Mills accused Collins of governing “without any courage,” not “without any coverage.”

Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island, and Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writer Kathy McCormack contributed from Concord, New Hampshire.

Anti-ICE sentiment is expressed on a traffic sign, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, in Biddeford, Maine.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

FILE - Protesters rally against the presence of U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement in Maine, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, in Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

FILE - Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, departs the chamber at the Capitol in Washington, on July 24, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)