There's all this talk about how the Biden administration is working on a plan to ease sanctions on Venezuela. Coupled with the "scoop" about Jorge Rodriguez and U.S. National Security Council's Juan Gonzalez having met in different parts of the world, for back channel negotiations, it has driven the commentariat to conclude that Venezuela is about to add hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day to the market, which ultimately caused a (momentary) drop in prices.

An "anti graft" drive was launched by Nicolas Maduro in March this year, after "realising" that Tareck El Aissami was, like all its predecessors, looting PDVSA and billions of dollars were unaccounted for. El Aissami was removed and hasn’t been seen since. Pedro Tellechea, PDVSA's new CEO, is meant to be driving a clean up operation that won't leave a stone unturned in its "fight against corruption". For instance, Wilmer Ruperti's petcoke contracts have been scrutinised.

In the league of "corruption that bankrupts nations" Venezuela is an outlier. The corruption is of such scale that over a quarter of Venezuela's population have decided that exile and asylum seeking are better options. Corruption is, and has been, one of the fundamental policies of chavismo. Trillions of dollars have been lost since Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999. Whereas Chavez formulated the policy, Rafael Ramirez was hand-picked as executor in chief.

An electoral event is rising on Venezuela's horizon: primaries that will determine the opposition's candidate. The main premise is that said opposition will present just one candidate against incumbent Nicolas Maduro in 2024's presidential elections. Maria Corina Machado is leading the primaries race. Manuel Rosales, Henrique Capriles, and others less known figures are also participating.