One week after the United States formally recognized Delcy Rodríguez as Venezuela’s interim head of state, the first concrete consequence of that recognition arrived Monday in the form of a PDVSA board resolution that puts a man named Chávez back in charge of America’s seventh-largest oil refiner.
Acting President Rodríguez designated Asdrúbal José Chávez—first cousin of the late President Hugo Chávez—as president of PDV Holding Inc., Citgo Holding Inc., and Citgo Petroleum Corporation, the principal U.S.-based subsidiaries of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA.
The decision was formalized on March 16 during PDVSA board meeting number 2026-11, whose minutes were subsequently leaked on social media. The board also incorporated three new directors: Nelson José Ferrer Sánchez, Alejandro José Escarrá Gil, and Ricardo Javier Gómez Rincón.
The appointment represents the first practical effect of the U.S. Justice Department and State Department’s submission of a letter in a New York federal court formally validating Rodríguez’s authority to represent Venezuela in matters related to the country’s foreign assets—including Citgo.
The recognition allows the Rodríguez government to recover decision-making authority over Citgo, which since 2019 had been mired in judicial disputes, asset freezes, creditor claims, and forced auction proceedings initiated to satisfy judgments from plaintiffs, including Elliott Management.
Asdrúbal Chávez, born May 18, 1954, is a chemical engineer who graduated from the Universidad de Los Andes. He began his career at the El Palito Refinery in Carabobo state and worked his way up through PDVSA’s ranks over four decades—serving as Venezuela’s Minister of Petroleum and Mining from 2014 to 2015, and as PDVSA president from 2020 to 2023 under Nicolás Maduro.
Chávez previously held the Citgo presidency—and was denied a U.S. visa to assume those functions in 2018, at the height of the sanctions regime.
The Treasury Department’s Veto Power
The appointment is dramatic in its symbolism—and constrained in its practical effect, at least for now.
Both Asdrúbal Chávez and his team must wait for authorization from the U.S. Department of the Treasury before they can take effective control of Citgo’s operations. Without Washington’s approval, any attempt to exercise direct control over Citgo could be blocked by the sanctions still in force against Venezuelan entities.
Legal analyst José Ignacio Hernández noted explicitly: “The recognition of Delcy Rodríguez leaves intact the controls derived from the economic sanctions regulation.” The designation of administrators at PDV Holding must be authorized through an OFAC license—meaning Washington effectively holds veto power over who runs one of its own country’s major refiners.
The situation is further complicated by the ongoing judicial process over the company’s ownership. A U.S. court organized an auction of PDV Holding—Citgo’s parent company—which could produce a change of control if the Treasury approves the results. That auction process, initiated under the sanctions regime to satisfy creditor claims, now sits in legal limbo as the Rodríguez government’s recognized authority over Venezuelan assets reshapes the entire legal landscape.
A Name That Carries History
The choice of Asdrúbal Chávez is not purely technocratic. He is the cousin of the late President Hugo Chávez—the founder of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, the architect of the PDVSA-Citgo relationship, and the figure whose legacy Rodríguez’s government is simultaneously trying to preserve and modernize as it navigates the most dramatic shift in Venezuelan foreign policy since Chávez himself came to power in 1999.
Placing a Chávez at the helm of Citgo sends a signal to Venezuela’s domestic political audience—particularly the armed forces and the Chavista base whose loyalty the Rodríguez government still depends on—that the normalization process with Washington does not represent a surrender of the Bolivarian project’s most valuable assets.
It also places a figure with genuine institutional knowledge of both PDVSA and Citgo in a role that will require navigating the most complex legal and regulatory environment in the company’s history.
Whether Asdrúbal Chávez ever physically walks into Citgo’s Houston headquarters depends entirely on a Treasury Department license that has not yet been issued—and on the outcome of legal proceedings that could still redirect ownership of the company before he gets the chance.
