I left London to go back to Venezuela – here’s the brutal, hopeful truth
Jeanmiguel Uva returned to Caracas after Donald Trump toppled Maduro. He found a patchy recovery and a people yearning to be part of a thriving economy again
When my father moved to Venezuela in the 1960s, the country was open to the world. Waves of immigrants, particularly from Italy, Spain and Portugal, followed the oil boom seeking a better life. The government built huge infrastructure projects, Concorde flew between Caracas and Paris, and Venezuelans regularly travelled to the US to spend their strong bolivares.
There were problems, of course. Corruption and poverty went unaddressed, and that eventually led to Hugo Chavez being elected in 1998.
I left Venezuela in 2013, just as economic and political turmoil began to accelerate. While security has stabilised significantly today, those were chaotic years. I had friends kidnapped, supermarket shelves were bare and protests happened nearly every day. I paused my studies in Caracas to continue in Manchester and eventually London.
Today, the country exists somewhere between those two memories.
Last year, I moved back to Caracas after 12 years living and working in the UK. When I told my British friends my plan, I got a look of genuine confusion. It’s a fair reaction. While it hasn’t been smooth sailing, changes on the ground have accelerated following the US intervention on 3rd January.
Reopening
Just days ago, Trump announced the reopening of airspace to US carriers and OFAC has quietly lifted select oil sanctions. Crucially, a new hydrocarbons law has just been signed, allowing private companies a bigger say in oil production. To top it off, the Americans are reopening their embassy and their Charge d’Affaires met with Delcy Rodriguez on Monday.
For years, Venezuela suffered crippling inflation. In response, Venezuelans adopted the US dollar as an everyday currency. This happened organically from the bottom – a survival mechanism – and it has stabilised the chaos enough to produce a bubble of normalcy in major cities.
The recovery is patchy, but there are reassuring signs. The shopping malls are busy again and the lights are back on. But if you look at the shoppers’ bags, many are empty. People walk the malls to remember what it feels like to be part of a thriving economy, even if they can’t yet afford to participate fully.
Venezuelans are, by nature, international. The appetite for imported goods like Scotch whisky, French fashion and Japanese tech has survived. But the market supplying these goods has changed.
The streets are rapidly filling with Chinese cars, brands like Dongfeng and Changan. This is not simply because they are available, but because Chinese businesses are doing what Western brands currently can’t or won’t: offering financing. This is a missed opportunity for those able to calculate the risk of financing Venezuela’s future growth.
With traditional bank loans non-existent, the private sector has had to innovate or die. One result is a renaissance at the Caracas Stock Exchange. Following strong growth last year, the index is already up over 100 per cent in 2026. It is not the London Stock Exchange, but it is growing in its own scrappy, resilient way.
Yet a healthy dose of realism is necessary. For investors, the risks are tremendous: the institutional framework is fragile, there is no digital Companies House and you cannot run a compliance check from a Canary Wharf terminal. As it stands, there is no straightforward way for retail investors to gain exposure.
The opportunity is huge – from a tourism sector waiting to be reopened, to a food and drink market screaming for imports – but the entry ticket is expensive
If you want to know if a potential partner is solvent or sanctioned, you have to physically go to the registry or ask around. The information gap is a significant risk premium here. The truth is found through reliable, on-the-ground teams.
This creates a paradox. The opportunity is huge – from a tourism sector waiting to be reopened, to a food and drink market screaming for imports – but the entry ticket is expensive. The 8m-strong diaspora, energy majors, and global investors are watching.
Venezuela remains a country of contradictions, but the door is creaking open. There is no underestimating the problems to iron out – those of us on the ground know that better than anybody. But for the years ahead, there is genuine optimism about the future.
Jeanmiguel Uva is a private consultant based in Caracas, Venezuela