Venezuelan officials are looking to strike debt, energy, and mining deals at this week’s UN General Assembly, underscoring the country’s ambitions to return to international markets. Caracas was a pariah state for years, and foreign direct investment flows plummeted. But investors have begun returning since the Trump administration took effective control of the country: The Inter-American Development Bank on Monday announced a new plan to boost the country’s electricity and social welfare systems.
Venezuela’s democratic transition remains on the back burner, however, with Washington preventing a leading opposition figure from going back over fears her presence could destabilize politics, a decision she vowed to defy. “The moment to return has arrived,” María Corina Machado told The Wall Street Journal.