Just about all Venezuelans in Venezuela applaud President Donald Trump's ouster of their dictator, according to a new poll. But most also believe he cares more about oil than human rights — and they strongly disagree with him about opposition leader María Corina Machado, whom he's slated to meet Thursday at the White House.
The survey of more than a thousand Venezuelans across the country, conducted by the Caracas firm Meganálisis, is a snapshot of how Venezuelans inside Venezuela feel after the stunning Jan. 3 American military ouster of authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro, who was under indictment in the U.S. for drug trafficking.
More than 90% say they’re grateful to President Trump for Maduro’s removal. But otherwise, the findings are more pessimistic.
More than half, for example, believe Trump is more interested in controlling Venezuela’s oil reserves, the world's largest, than he is in restoring its democracy.
More than two-thirds don’t buy Trump’s claim that he and the U.S. are running Venezuela now; they believe holdovers from Maduro's brutal socialist regime, including acting President Delcy Rodríguez are still in control.
What's more, 94% said they don't believe they should be at the helm of Venezuela's post-Maduro transition to a more democratic system.
And, despite Trump’s assertion that democratic opposition movement leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado "doesn’t have enough support or respect" inside Venezuela to lead the country, 78% said they’d vote for her in a new presidential election.
READ MORE: For anxious Venezuelan diaspora, 'actual regime change' and a Machado presidency remain key
Venezuelan democracy advocates hope that while Trump endorsed handing the reins to Rodríguez temporarily in order to maintain stability, he'll move more quickly than he's so far indicated toward a transition to regime change and democracy restoration in Venezuela — especially new elections.
They feel that's especially important since vote tallies show the Machado-led opposition defeated Maduro by a landslide in the 2024 presidential election, which critics say he stole.
(Opposition candidate Edmundo González, who was a substitute for Machado since Maduro had barred her from running, received more than two-thirds of the vote, according to precinct records secure by opposition activists.)
Almost all of the Meganálisis poll's respondents said Rodríguez and the regime hierarchy should initiate the transition process by releasing all of the almost 900 political prisoners in Venezuela. Human rights monitors there say fewer than a hundred have been confirmed as released since last week after the U.S. military operation.
Three-fourths said what Venezuela needs most at the moment is "justice, order and rule of law," while only 13% said "pardon, reconciliation and unity." More than 80% also said Venezuela's military and security forces need to be rebuilt "completely from scratch."
And while they suspect Trump is most interested in oil, almost three-fourths said Venezuela's state-run oil monopoly, PDVSA, should now be privatized — and 90% said the U.S. should now become the country's principal ally and provider of products for the Venezuelan state.
Under the Trump administration's post-Maduro Venezuela strategy, the U.S. will control Venezuela's oil production — Trump recently said the country will give the U.S. as many as 50 billion barrels of crude — and keep the revenues protected in U.S. accounts to be used "for the benefit of the Venezuelan people."
