Oil gambit tests Venezuela's pride as US deal grows

Venezuela’s fortunes have long rode on oil wealth: Chávez used high oil revenues to fund social programs and tighten state control of PDVSA, while later years saw Maduro’s era plagued by corruption, mismanagement, and U.S. sanctions that battered production, sparked shortages, and driven mass emigration. A new US-backed oil venture promises investment and access to large fields, but experts warn recovery will be slow due to decades of infrastructure decay, leaving the country caught between national pride in its oil and the realities of a battered economy.