In the months before President Trump moved to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January 2026, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) turned to an old friend for advice on who should replace the autocratic leftist.  Former Chevron executive Ali Moshiri told the agency that if the U.S. government tried to oust the entire Maduro regime and install the democratic opposition led by María Corina Machado it would have another quagmire like Iraq on its hands, according to people familiar with the matter. She didn’t have the support of the country’s security services or control of its oil infrastructure, Moshiri argued. His recommendation: Stick for now with another autocratic leftist, Maduro’s longtime deputy and economic manager Delcy Rodríguez. The option was later presented to Trump in a secret CIA assessment.  Moshiri’s hidden hand in Washington spycraft, by the WSJ in March 2026, offers a window into how Trump embraced the energy industry’s unsentimental playbook for dealing with autocratic regimes. And it marks a dramatic turnaround for Chevron’s prospects in Venezuela, where the company’s decision to stay invested during decades of political upheaval now leaves it with a strategic advantage as the oil begins to gush again

Excerpt from Joel Schectman et al., He Was Chevron’s Man in Venezuela—and a CIA Informant, WSJ, Mar. 15, 2026