{"id":493702,"date":"2026-01-05T08:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T08:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493702\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T08:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T08:49:12","slug":"before-toppling-maduro-the-us-spent-decades-pressuring-venezuelan-leaders-over-its-oil-wealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493702\/","title":{"rendered":"Before toppling Maduro, the US spent decades pressuring Venezuelan leaders over its oil wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"

After US special forces swooped into Caracas to seize Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and topple his government, US President Donald Trump said the United States will now \u201crun\u201d Venezuela<\/a>, including its abundant oil resources. <\/p>\n

US companies were poised to invest billions to upgrade Venezuela\u2019s crumbling oil infrastructure, he said, and \u201cstart making money for the country\u201d. Venezuela has the world\u2019s largest oil reserves<\/a> \u2013 outpacing Saudi Arabia with 303 billion barrels, or about 20% of global reserves.<\/p>\n

If this does eventuate \u2013 and that\u2019s a very big \u201cif\u201d<\/a> \u2013 it would mark the end of an adversarial relationship that began nearly 30 years ago.<\/p>\n

Yes, the Trump administration\u2019s military action in Venezuela was in many ways unprecedented<\/a>. But it was not surprising given Venezuela\u2019s vast oil wealth and the historic relations between the US and Venezuela under former President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez and Maduro.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A long history of US investment<\/p>\n

Venezuela is a republic of around 30 million people on the northern coast of South America, about twice the size of California. During much of the early 20th century, it was considered the wealthiest country in South America<\/a> due to its oil reserves.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s location in South America.
\n Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n

Foreign companies, including those from the US, invested heavily in the growth of Venezuelan oil and played a heavy hand in its politics. In the face of US opposition, however, Venezuelan leaders began asserting more control over their main export resource. Venezuela was a key figure<\/a> in the formation of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1960, and it nationalised much of its oil industry in 1976. <\/p>\n

This negatively impacted US companies like ExxonMobil and has fuelled the recent claims by the Trump administration that Venezuela \u201cstole\u201d US oil<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Economic prosperity, however, did not follow for most Venezuelans. The mismanagement of the oil industry led to a debt crisis and International Monetary Fund (IMF) intervention in 1988. Caracas erupted in protests in February 1989<\/a> and the government sent the military to crush the uprising. An estimated 300 people were killed, according to official totals<\/a>, but the real figure could be 10 times higher.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, Venezuelan society became further split between the wealthy, who wanted to work with the US, and the working class, who sought autonomy from the US. This division has defined Venezuelan politics ever since.<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s rise to power<\/p>\n

Hugo Ch\u00e1vez began his career as a military officer. In the early 1980s, he formed the socialist \u201cRevolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200\u201d<\/a> within the army and began giving rousing lectures against the government. <\/p>\n

Then, after the 1989 riots, Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s recruitment efforts increased dramatically and he began planning the overthrow of Venezuela\u2019s government. In February 1992, he staged a failed coup<\/a> against the pro-US president, Carlos Andr\u00e9s P\u00e9rez. While he was imprisoned, his group staged another coup attempt later in the year that also failed. Chavez was jailed for two years, but emerged as the leading presidential candidate in 1998 on a socialist revolutionary platform.<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e1vez became a giant of both Venezuelan and Latin American politics. His revolution evoked the memory of Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar<\/a>, the great liberator of South America from Spanish colonialism. Not only was Ch\u00e1vez broadly popular in Venezuela for his use of oil revenue to subsidise government programs for food, health and education, he was well-regarded in like-minded regimes in the region due to his generosity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Supporters of Venezuela\u2019s President Hugo Chavez wave images of him, second from right, and Venezuela\u2019s independence hero, Simon Bolivar, in Caracas in 2013.
\n Fernando Llano\/AP<\/p>\n

Most notably, Ch\u00e1vez provided Cuba with billions of dollars worth of oil<\/a> in exchange for tens of thousands of Cuban doctors working in Venezuelan health clinics<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He also set a precedent of standing up to the US and to the IMF at global forums, famously calling then-US President George W Bush \u201cthe devil\u201d<\/a> at the UN General Assembly in 2006. <\/p>\n

US accused of fomenting a coup<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the US was no fan of Ch\u00e1vez.<\/p>\n

After hundreds of thousands of opposition protesters<\/a> took to the streets in April 2002, Chavez was briefly ousted in a coup<\/a> by dissident military officers and opposition figures, who installed a new president, businessman Pedro Carmona. Ch\u00e1vez was arrested, the Bush administration promptly recognised Carmona as president, and the The New York Times editorial page celebrated the fall of a \u201cwould-be dictator\u201d<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Chavez swept back into power just two days later, however, on the backs of legions of supporters filling the streets. And the Bush administration immediately faced intense scrutiny<\/a> for its possible role in the aborted coup.<\/p>\n

While the US denied involvement, questions lingered for years<\/a> about whether the government had advance knowledge of the coup and tacitly backed his ouster. In 2004, newly classified documents showed the CIA was aware of the plot<\/a>, but it was unclear how much advance warning US officials gave Chavez himself.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Supporters of Venezuela\u2019s President Hugo Chavez march at an event marking the 10th anniversary of Chavez\u2019s return to power after a failed coup in 2002.
\n Ariana Cubillos\/AP<\/p>\n

US pressure continues on Maduro<\/p>\n

Maduro, a trade unionist, was elected to the National Assembly in 2000 and quickly joined Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s inner circle. He rose to the office of vice president<\/a> in 2012 and, following Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s death the following year, won his first election by a razor-thin margin<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But Maduro is not Ch\u00e1vez. He did not have the same level of support among the working class, the military or across the region. Venezuela\u2019s economic conditions worsened and inflation skyrocketed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

President Nicolas Maduro addresses supporters after electoral authorities declared him the winner of the presidential election in 2024.
\n Fernando Vergara\/AP<\/p>\n

And successive US administrations continued to put pressure on Maduro. Venezuela was hit with sanctions<\/a> in both the Obama and first Trump presidency, and the US and its allies refused to recognise Maduro\u2019s win in the 2018 election<\/a> and again in 2024<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Isolated from much of the world, Maduro\u2019s government became dependent on selling oil to China as its sole economic outlet<\/a>. Maduro also claims to have thwarted several coup and assassination attempts allegedly involving the US and domestic opposition, most notably in April 2019<\/a> and May 2020<\/a> during Trump\u2019s first term. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

US officials have denied involvement<\/a> in any coup plots; reporting also found no evidence<\/a> of US involvement in the 2020 failed coup. <\/p>\n

Now, Trump has successfully removed Maduro in a much more brazen operation, with no attempts at deniability. It remains to be seen how Venezuelans and other Latin American nations will respond to the US actions, but one thing is certain: US involvement in Venezuelan politics will continue, as long as it has financial stakes in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After US special forces swooped into Caracas to seize Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and topple his government, US…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":493703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[50,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-493702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115841634487906042","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}