Guillermo Zubillaga on ABC about the Aftermath of Nicolás Maduro's Capture

Guillermo Zubillaga, senior director of public policy programs and corporate relations at AS/COA and head of the organization's Venezuela Working Group, was interviewed on ABC about the situation in Venezuela following the the capture of Nicolás Maduro by the United States.

Anchor Elizabeth Schulze asked Zubillaga about the situation in the country and its current leadership. The expert said that while Delcy Rodríguez, who served as Maduro's vice president, has been sworn in as leader, the fundamental mechanics of the state have remained.

"Not much has happened in terms of the problems that many of the Venezuelans were facing before like hyperinflation or civil liberties. Political prisoners are still in jail," notes Zubillaga. "A lot of those issues and challenges that we were facing with Maduro in power are still in place."

Regarding the pro-Maduro marches, the senior director explained that these movements are often orchestrated by the state or enforced by paramilitary groups known as colectivos.

Finally, Zubillaga spoke about the prospect of U.S. oil companies returning to rebuild Venezuela’s energy sector. While he agreed that developing these resources is an opportunity to give Venezuelans a "better life," he also mentioned the challenges companies could face. "A lot of investors have negative experience investing in Venezuela. They have been expropriated. So there really needs to be a legal framework—institutionality—for them to return and really have confidence in that this really expensive investments will pan out in the future, because the country really needs a lot of capital given the state of the infrastructure, especially the oil infrastructure after years of mismanagement and corruption and sanctions."

Watch the full interview.