CABIMAS, Venezuela — His helicopter buzzed the wells of Lake Maracaibo as Alejandro Betancourt — the secretive 46-year-old billionaire anointed by the Trump administration to be Venezuela’s new petroleum king — smiled and theatrically spread his arms.

Democracy Dies in Darkness

Mysterious billionaire shows off ‘America’s oil’ — and Trump’s Venezuela

A visit to the petroleum-rich Orinoco Belt revealed a nascent U.S.-backed oil empire in a vassal state where officials once railed against the imperial north.