Ledn's Mauricio Di Bartolomeo on Venezuela: "The Blackouts Today Are Worse"

Ledn co-founder Mauricio Di Bartolomeo used his appearance on Simply Bitcoin to raise an issue he said has been eating at him for months: life inside Venezuela has not improved since the U.S. captured Nicolás Maduro, and by some measures it has gotten worse.

WHAT HAPPENED IN VENEZUELA

U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a strike on Caracas in early January and flew them to New York to face drug trafficking charges. President Trump said Venezuela's interim authorities would transfer between 30 million and 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the United States, an announcement that followed the U.S. military action that led to Maduro's capture. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was installed as acting president, and the administration has since pursued deals to rebuild Venezuela's oil sector with U.S. involvement.

THE TRADE VENEZUELANS THOUGHT THEY WERE MAKING

Di Bartolomeo said many Venezuelans, himself included, were prepared to accept a version of that trade: the U.S. takes an interest in the oil, and Venezuela gets a real path back to democracy. He said that was the expectation after Maduro's removal, and that he and his family were initially hopeful, including about Secretary of State Marco Rubio's Cuban-American background as a sign the administration understood the region.

WHAT HE SAYS HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED

Di Bartolomeo said that instead of a transition, large parts of the old regime remain in place, no election has been scheduled, and daily life for people still in the country has deteriorated. He said rolling blackouts that used to run four to five hours before Maduro's capture now run seven to eight hours, and that he learned about the change directly from his mother, who told him it was getting harder to reach relatives because there was less power for phone service. He attributed the worsening outages to authorities directing scarce power toward keeping central Caracas running while other areas go dark. He also said he is now seeing people attempt to leave the country again, comparing it to the migration wave that followed Maduro's disputed election win, and that some deportations back to Venezuela are being carried out on the premise that the country is safe again, which he called wrong.

THE TAKEAWAY

Di Bartolomeo was careful to say Venezuela's internal politics are not Washington's responsibility to fix, and that U.S. officials answer to American voters, not Venezuelan ones. His point was narrower: the public case for the operation leaned heavily on restoring democracy, and by his account that promise has stalled while the oil arrangement has moved forward on schedule. He said trust built on that kind of promise erodes fast once people on the ground see the difference between what was promised and what showed up.

This story comes from the Simply Bitcoin Live show. Watch the full episode.