President Trump’s massive naval build-up off the coast of Venezuela and the threat of invasion was labelled by the country’s illegitimate President Nicolas Maduro as a bloody grab for oil. Other Latin American leaders, notably Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro, are making similar assertions. A long history of U.S. intervention to secure vital fossil fuel resources, coupled with Venezuela controlling the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves totaling 303 billion barrels, supports this rationale. There are, however, many reasons indicating that Washington’s military campaign is not a thinly veiled attempt to seize control of Venezuela’s vast petroleum reserves.
An autocratic Maduro not only survived Trump’s strict sanctions but treated them as an opportunity to consolidate his grip on power. Even civil dissent manifesting in the form of violent protests and the threat of a coup from within Venezuela’s military failed to topple the authoritarian Maduro regime. By 2021, Venezuela’s economy had returned to growth, thanks to growing oil exports in defiance of U.S. sanctions and the regular flow of condensate from Iran. Tehran even provided the expertise and parts to refit Venezuela’s ailing refineries to boost fuel production, at a time when an energy crisis engulfed the country.
Even with the Trump White House offering a $50 million bounty and ratcheting up sanctions, Maduro thus far has maintained his grip on power.
