Seven in 10 Venezuelans say the country is moving in a positive direction after the U.S. operation that captured Nicolás Maduro, and a majority want new presidential elections held in 2026, according to a new face-to-face poll published by the Financial Times.
The survey, conducted by Gold Glove Consulting found 72% of respondents said Venezuela was moving in the right direction following Maduro’s January 3 capture. At the same time, 58% said security had worsened. The poll interviewed 1,000 Venezuelans in person and reported a 3.1 percentage-point margin of error.
The results marked a sharp shift from Gold Glove polling in June 2024, when about three-quarters of respondents said the country was on the wrong track.
Maduro was taken to New York to face narco-trafficking charges after U.S. commandos seized him in Caracas. His former deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, has led the government on an interim basis with U.S. backing. Nevertheless, opposition leader María Corina Machado—barred from running in 2024 and later awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize—was favored by 67% in a hypothetical new election in the poll, compared with 25% for Rodríguez.
Rodríguez’s own ratings were mixed: 37% said her performance was good or excellent, 41% said it was bad or very bad, and 22% said they did not know. “They do seem to be giving her a second look, a reassessment,” said Mark Feierstein, the former Obama adviser whose firm conducted the poll.
A separate survey conducted by Premise for The Economist in mid January, just days after Maduro’s capture, also found a surge in optimism, with nearly four in five Venezuelans expecting the political situation to improve over the next year. That poll, run via mobile app among 600 residents and weighted for age and sex, reported that two-thirds wanted a new presidential election and that 91% of those respondents wanted it within a year.
The polling comes as U.S.-Venezuelan engagement has moved quickly into the open. This week, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright toured the country’s oil facilities with Rodríguez and said “north of $100 million” would be invested to upgrade a plant operated by Chevron and Venezuela’s PDVSA.
“This is the way forward,” Wright added, describing a “long-term productive partnership,” while Rodríguez told CNN that cooperation was now “the agenda” going forward. Wright also said Washington’s leverage was that it “control[s] the flow of funds from oil,” even as he acknowledged Venezuela’s political transition remained unresolved.
Originally published on Latin Times
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