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The arrest in Maracaibo of Evanan Romero, a veteran Venezuelan consultant with U.S. nationality, has raised alarms in Caracas at a particularly sensitive time for the country's energy future.
The arrest occurs as the White House encourages discussions with major companies to revive oil production following the capture of Nicolás Maduro and the beginning of a transition overseen by Washington.
Romero, 86 years old, was arrested on Friday while preparing to travel to Caracas to attend a series of meetings with international companies interested in the Orinoco Belt, reported the Spanish newspaper ABC.
According to his account from a private clinic, where he remains in custody due to his age and health condition, he was detained at the airport without being formally charged. "I've been here since Friday," he stated, after spending the first night in an Interpol office in Maracaibo.
The consultant, who holds dual Venezuelan and American nationality, had entered the country a few days earlier with his American passport.
Romero claims that he was never informed of any judicial proceedings and linked his detention to an old administrative dispute over a family investment, which —according to him— was resolved in his favor by the Supreme Court of Justice. He also stated that no charges have been read to him and that the hearing held on Saturday was postponed.
The importance of the case transcends the personal level. Romero was the founder of INTEVEP, the research arm of PDVSA, and held key positions during the Oil Opening period in the 1990s, when Venezuela attracted foreign investment and increased its production. In recent decades, he has worked as a consultant in Houston and maintained contacts with energy companies in the United States and Europe.
In recent months, his name has been linked to preliminary discussions between the administration of Donald Trump and companies such as Exxon and ConocoPhillips to evaluate a potential return to Venezuela in a post-Maduro scenario. These talks would include compensation for expropriated assets and the allocation of new blocks in the Orinoco Belt.
In addition, Romero is part of a group of hundreds of former technicians and former executives from PDVSA who are crafting proposals for the institutional reconstruction of the industry, ranging from governance of the state-owned company to the level of openness to private capital.
His agenda in Caracas included meetings with executives from Repsol and a video conference with executives from Reliance in India, as part of the energy stabilization strategy that Washington is promoting following the decline of Maduro's actual power.
The arrest occurs just a few days after the visit to Caracas by the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Christopher Wright, and amid pressure from the White House to demand clear legal guarantees as a condition for new investments.
For analysts in the energy sector, the case sends a troubling signal to potential investors.
The decision made by the court in the coming hours will be seen as a test of the actual room for maneuver of the current interim administration of Delcy Rodríguez and the viability of an orderly transition that allows for the recovery of Venezuela's main economic engine.
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