Venezuela’s leaders killed the economy. They are still in charge.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Dozens of armed government agents swarmed the offices of shrimp producer Grupo Lamar, a family owned business that had emerged as one of Venezuela’s largest exporters after the collapse of the oil industry. The owners are terrorists, agents told petrified workers.

You now work for the Venezuelan state, the agents said, according to people familiar with what happened. In a news conference about the seizure, Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s interior minister, said Grupo Lamar’s owners had been plotting to overthrow the government, sabotage the electrical grid—and even ruin the holiday season. “It’s the same playbook as always—trying to cancel Christmas in Venezuela," said Cabello, who is responsible for quashing dissent against the regime.

Venezuelan officials fired top managers at Grupo Lamar and took control of operations. Before long, shrimp exports were falling even faster than oil output had dropped years earlier. No one was surprised: The regime has been seizing companies and running them into the ground for more than two decades, turning what was once Latin America’s most affluent country into one of its poorest.

President Trump is now betting those same officials can resurrect Venezuela’s economy and make the country safe for the $100 billion in private investment that he is trying to coax from American oil companies. It is a tall order given the regime’s 27-year record of corruption, lawlessness and the hyperinflation that has led to food shortages. After American commandos whisked former President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, out of the country last month, Delcy Rodriguez, the vice president, was left in charge as interim president.