Venezuela has released a prominent oil consultant who also has US citizenship after four days in detention, a case that highlights the country's persistent risks as the Washington-backed administration in Caracas seeks to revive the petroleum industry.
Evanan Romero, 86, is a Venezuelan-born, Houston-based consultant for international oil companies and advises opposition leader María Corina Machado.
Romero was released Tuesday following his arrest in the western city of Maracaibo on Friday, according to people who requested anonymity to discuss private matters. He had been moved to a private clinic in the city as a health precaution. But he had remained under guard because of an outstanding legal dispute over alleged fraud dating back to 2010, a case that Venezuelan authorities had reported to Interpol, the people said. The previous government frequently reported cases against political opponents to the international law enforcement agency.
Venezuela lacks a credible independent judicial system, making it difficult for outside observers to determine whether arrests are politically motivated or legitimate.
Calls to Romero's cellphone on Tuesday were not answered.
Romero isn't the first American citizen arrested in Venezuela following the US capture of the country's former President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in early January. At least one other dual national was arrested last month, said people familiar with that case who weren't authorized to speak publicly. The person was later released and flew back to the US on Jan. 30 along with a Peruvian-American who had been arrested in late 2025 and was also freed on the same day.
Another US-Venezuelan citizen, José Ignacio Moreno Suárez, counsel to mining firm Gold Reserve, was imprisoned in 2023 and remains detained amid an ongoing arbitration dispute, the company said in January.
Venezuela says it has so far released over 800 people -- mostly Venezuelans -- as a "peace gesture," but independent organizations say they have only been able to verify half of them. More than 800 remain behind bars, according to Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón, a local non-governmental organization that tracks detentions.
The State Department didn't immediately comment on Romero's detention and subsequent release. The department maintains a "do not travel" warning for Venezuela.
Venezuela's Information Ministry didn't respond to a request for comment.
The Romero detention shows that while the new leadership in Caracas is treading more carefully than its predecessor, "their repression campaign is ongoing," said Geoff Ramsey, who tracks Venezuela at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington.
Relaxing Sanctions
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has eased sanctions but is keeping tight control over oil revenue as current leader Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro's former vice president, consolidates power.
Chemical Corp. is currently the only US oil company with active operations in Venezuela. European companies BP PLC, Eni SpA, Repsol SA and Shell PLC now have a US green light to operate there as well.
It isn't clear how the Trump administration will respond to the Romero case in light of its big oil plans for Venezuela, Ramsey said. "The big question is how this will be received in Washington, and whether the US will lean on Rodríguez to make clear that any arrests that could jeopardize energy investment are off limits."
Over his decades-long career, Romero helped establish Intevep, the research arm of Venezuela's national oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA, and served as deputy oil minister in the late 1990s. He was also a PDVSA board member.
The veteran oil engineer graduated from the University of Tulsa, a background typical of a generation of Venezuelans who studied in the US and contributed to making the South American nation a top oil producer after nationalization in the 1970s.
The state-controlled industry started to decline after late socialist leader Hugo Chávez took power in 1999 and ushered in a wave of expropriations. Current production is around a third of its 1990s level.