In its pursuit of Venezuela's vast petroleum reserves, the Trump administration has chosen as its central partner a businessman, Alejandro Betancourt, who operates under the shadow of multiple ongoing investigations. The arrangement reflects a broader preference for private intermediaries over traditional diplomacy — a posture that trades institutional caution for speed and flexibility. Yet when a single individual of contested legal standing becomes the fulcrum of a major foreign policy objective, the credibility of that objective becomes inseparable from his own. History has often reminded u