Laboratorio de Paz calls for institutional guarantees to sustain oil investment in Venezuela

Venezuela needs oil investment, but Laboratorio de Paz warns that capital committed for decades cannot rest on institutions whose legitimacy is disputed. The organization says recent petroleum agreements may offer an opportunity for economic recovery while creating a serious challenge over the security of investors’ commitments.

The group argues that Venezuela needs domestic and foreign capital to reactivate the oil industry, restore jobs and public services, respond to needs arising after the earthquake and rebuild housing and infrastructure. Attracting money, it says, is not enough. The country must create conditions that allow investment to remain over time.

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Venezuela needs national and international investment to overcome the complex humanitarian emergency.

Its concern centers on the authorities signing contracts and making decisions over state resources. Laboratorio de Paz says doubts about the origin and duration of a mandate can move directly into the economic sphere, creating uncertainty for investors making long-term commitments. “A contract can meet formal requirements, last 25 or 50 years, and still have a fundamental weakness: the lack of legitimacy of the institutions that made it possible,” the organization said.

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A contract can meet formal requirements, last 25 or 50 years, and still have a fundamental weakness: the lack of legitimacy of the institutions that made it possible.

Laboratorio de Paz points to Article 5 of Venezuela’s Constitution, which says sovereignty resides irrevocably in the people, and Article 6, which requires government to be democratic, elected, alternating and accountable. It also cites Article 138, stating that usurped authority is ineffective and its acts are void.

The organization says those provisions matter especially for oil agreements because hydrocarbon deposits belong to the Republic and form part of the public domain. Agreements involving strategic resources, it argues, should be public, transparent and subject to constitutional oversight. Such controls, it says, do not block investment but protect both the country and investors.

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That is why agreements on strategic resources must be public, transparent and subject to the corresponding constitutional controls. This is not an obstacle to investment: it is a guarantee for the country and also for those who invest.