On January 3rd 2026, the US military force conducted airstrikes on Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
This news shaken the world and sent shockwaves through international diplomacy. The situation divided the world in two, some condemning United States for sovereign violation while some supporting the invasion reasoning it as legitimate intervention against an authoritarian regime.
United stated given several statements, justifying the invasion to drug and dictatorship.
President Trump announced,
“We will run Venezuela”
temporarily until the situation is stabilised. In past, many times he threatened and showed his interest in taking over Venezuela soil for its vast oil reserves.
The operation lasted for about 30 minutes, involving several explosions in Caracas and other locations, which marked as the most assertive American regime change action since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Venezuela’s situation is shaped by many connected factors such as its past relationship with the U.S., attempts at regime change, economic collapse, mass migration, rich oil and mineral resources, and wider geopolitical effects.
This Articles will provide a deep and understandable dive into the Venezuela’s situation.
Venezuela: World’s largest oil reserves, government failure, economy collapsed, highest migrant and reportedly increased in poverty.
Understanding the Venezuela-US operation requires understanding a brief history and current situation of Venezuela, also what’s at stake beneath Venezuelan soil.
The country possesses approximately 303 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, representing nearly one-fifth of global reserves and exceeding even Saudi Arabia’s 298 billion barrels, with the most heavily crude concentrated oil.
Hugo Chávez government (1988-2013), made the country heavily dependent on oil, weakened private industries, and increased state control. After Chávez’s death, Nicolás Maduro became president in 2013 inheriting an economy already vulnerable to falling oil prices.
Under Maduro, mismanagement, corruption, international sanctions, and lack of investment caused oil production to fall from about 3.2 million barrels per day in the late 1990s to under 1 million barrels per day, while factories and refineries shut down due to broken machinery, lack of spare parts, and skilled workers leaving the country.
Alongside oil, the country holds vast mineral wealth, including an estimated 8,000–10,000 metric tons of gold, roughly 2.3 billion tons of iron ore, around 320 million tons of bauxite, notable reserves of coal, copper, coltan, and diamonds.
That ultimately makes Venezuela one of the most resource-rich countries globally, indirectly making it a center of intense geopolitical interest and external pressure.
Venezuela was once one of the richest countries in Latin America, mainly because oil made up over 90% of its export earnings and around 25–30% of government revenue.
What changed then?
Oil production collapsed, Hyperinflation peaked at over 1,000,000% in 2018, and poverty deepened pushing more than 90% of the population into poverty, forcing over 7 million Venezuelans to migrate, turning a once-wealthy oil nation into one of the world’s worst economic and humanitarian crises. .
Once the country contributed in producing 7% global oil output, production fallen to approximately 1.1 million barrels per day, just 1% of global production
Now Why United Nations took the step to invade Venezuela and changed its regime?
The world is asking the same question as why the U.S violated sovereignty of a nation, air strike Venezuela and captured their president?
As per the claims by the U.S government, they framed the operation due to Maduro’s alleged involvement in drug- trafficking, narco-terrorist and illegal activities that’s causing harm to the internal security of Unites States.
However, the bitter history between Venezuela- United States has many times captured the world attention.
What is the these tension between America & Venezuela?
Beyond the physical oil lies a more strategic concern for Washington:
How that oil is traded?
In 1999, Hugo Chávez came into power, and launched “Bolivarian Revolution.” He later nationalizes oil and critized U.S influence stating that Venezuela be no longer “subordinate to imperial states”.
The U.S President Obama signed an executive order imposing sanction in 2015. In the response, Venezuela called it an “imperialist aggression.”
DE-dollarisation:
Since 2018, Venezuela has been at the forefront of what Economists call “DE-dollarization“, the move away from the U.S. dollar in international transactions after attempt of Iraq. Everyone in the world is aware of the consequences faced by Iraq by not trading oil in U.S dollars.
Venezuela began selling 100% of its oil exports to China, with transactions settled in yuan rather than dollars. Every barrel of Venezuelan oil shipped to China, bypassing the dollar, effectively weakened U.S. financial leverage.
What U.S did?
Under the Obama and Trump administrations, they stricken the international sanctions, further constraining Venezuela by financing, technology transfers, and export routes.
In 2023, President Trump explicitly stated his desire to “take over” Venezuela and “keep all that oil.”
Trump administrators called Maduro “the cartel of suns”, wherein 2020 the justice department charged him with cocaine-trafficking conspiracy, providing a legal framework for his arrest.
Following the Maduro’s capture, he announced at Mar-a-Lago: “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies — the biggest anywhere in the world — go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”
Further stated that if the left-over government in Venezuela doesn’t cooperate, they strongly threatened to restrike on Venezuela.
Why U.S is so desperate regarding oil trade?
In Petrodollar system, the countries need dollars to buy oil, global demand for U.S. currency remains artificially high.
This allows the U.S. to run massive trade deficits, borrow at low interest rates, and effectively export inflation to the rest of the world. Today, 80% of international payments are made in U.S. dollars, despite the U.S. representing only 22% of global GDP.
As per the one analysis, the petrodollar has been more important for U.S. global dominance than either arms exports or cultural influence, because it allows America to export the currency the rest of the world needs to purchase energy.
When Venezuela, moved away from dollar and centralised oil trade, got U.S triggered. It sanctioned heavily on Venezuela, which however survived such heavy sanctions backed by the China and BRICS institutions.
U.S felt the threat as this step may influence other countries to do so.
One opinion piece in The Edge Malaysia argued that the intervention wasn’t primarily about drugs or democracy: “Allowing Venezuela to continue experimenting — openly and defiantly , risked turning de-dollarisation from abstraction into rehearsal”.
So, it’s not just about oil there so much beyond this- POWER
What are the views of Nations on the recent Venezuela invasion?
UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated he was deeply alarmed by the action, calling it a “dangerous precedent” that disregards international law and the UN Charter.
Russia:
Russia condemned the operation as “an act of armed aggression” and emphasized that the pretexts used were unfounded.
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement carries particular significance given the war in Ukraine.
As Chatham House analysts noted: “Russia will use US actions to bolster its justifications for its invasion of Ukraine”.
If the United States can strike Venezuela to remove a leader it considers illegitimate, Moscow might argue, why should Russia’s actions in Ukraine be treated differently?
China:
China issued a strong condemnation, emphasizing that force should never be used against sovereign nations.
China has provided Venezuela with loans totalling $62.5 billion since Hugo Chávez’s rise to power.
Venezuela owes China more than any other creditor.
Analysts suggest “China may cite Venezuela in its rhetoric regarding Taiwan”, pointing to U.S. willingness to use force for regime change.
Iran:
Iran represents perhaps the most concerned observer. Like Venezuela, Iran has moved away from dollar transactions for its oil exports since 2012, facing continuous sanctions pressure as a result.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei condemned the Venezuela operation as arrogant American imperialism
Iran’s leaders now face the demonstrated reality that Washington will pursue regime change militarily when opportunity presents itself.
Spain urged the U.S. to de-escalate hostilities and offered to provide good offices to achieve a peaceful and negotiated solution to the crisis.
Many countries have even supported, appreciated and justified the action of United States.
Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei offered support, as did El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa. These leaders have framed the action as legitimate intervention against an authoritarian regime, prioritizing the removal of Maduro over concerns about sovereignty violations.
What Venezuela needs, to improve their economy and situation overall?
As per the sobering historical perspective, by Jorge Leon, head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy,
“History shows that forced regime change rarely stabilises oil supply quickly, with Libya and Iraq offering clear and sobering precedents”.
Challenges:
Economy collapsed:
Venezuela’s state has largely hollowed out over the past two decades. Institutions lack capacity, infrastructure has decayed, and millions of skilled professionals have fled the country.
Rebuilding will require not just investment but years of patient work to restore technical capacity and institutional functioning.
Migration: humanitarian crisis
Millions have already fled the country’s economic collapse over the past decade. A new surge could overwhelm neighbouring countries’ capacity to respond, creating a humanitarian emergency across the region.
Heavy investment:
Reviving Venezuelan oil production will require massive investment. Current estimates suggest tens of billions of dollars would be needed to repair deteriorated infrastructure, restore technical capacity, and ramp up production to even half its historic levels.
Such investments would need to be borne entirely by private oil investors, given Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis, foreign currency shortage, and the $190 billion in outstanding foreign debt obligations.
Arne Lohmann Rasmussen from Global Risk Management noted that “If developments ultimately lead to a genuine regime change, this could even result in more oil on the market over time. However, it will take time for production to recover fully”
Quick wins are unlikely.
Why many Venezuelans overwhelmingly celebrated this invasion by United States? Why they are happy about it?
To understand the celebration of citizens after U.S captured Maduro, you should know these certain facts about what Venezuelans have endured under the Maduro regime:
- Venezuela’s GDP contracted by 73% from the start of the crisis to 2020 making it the largest economic collapse outside of war in at least 45 years
- 400% rise in poverty and more than half of the population didn’t have enough income to meet basic food needs
- Proven dictatorship of Maduro by stealing votes as per opposition claims
- Annual inflation skyrocketed to over 130,000 percent in 2018
- As of May 2025, more than 8 million people have left Venezuela, migrated to nearby states, making it one of the largest external displacement crises in the world
Some Venezuelan residents and citizens living across the world celebrated the Trump administration’s intervention, including in Chile, Spain, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and multiple U.S. cities
However, the reaction is mixed, with many questions, fear and uncertainty. Venezuelans inside the country were anxious because Trump’s announcement that the U.S. will “run the country” contributed to heightened anxiety and apprehension.
Uncertainty, whether the U.S. would genuinely help or just exploit oil resources?
Geopolitical impact of Venezuela Invasion:
What changes would be expected in international norms after Venezuela regime change? Will it give power to nations to take over the weak ones?
If the United States can conduct regime change in Venezuela with relative impunity, other major powers may feel emboldened to pursue their own military adventures.
The post-World War II international order, already under strain from conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, faces another serious challenge to its foundational principles.
The paradox is sharp:
the operation intended to prevent DE-dollarization may accelerate it. If nations conclude that holding dollar reserves makes them vulnerable to U.S. pressure, and that even full compliance with U.S. demands offers no protection against intervention, the rational response is to diversify away from dollar dependence—exactly what Washington sought to prevent.
The difficult question still remains :
when, if ever, does protecting human rights and supporting democracy justify violating sovereignty?
The international community remains deeply divided on this question, and the Venezuela crisis will likely intensify rather than resolve those divisions.
What is clear is that the airstrikes of January 3, 2026, represent far more than a single operation against a single regime. The operation exposed several uncomfortable truths: international law constrains only those who choose to be constrained; U.S. military power remains overwhelming but finite.
An alternative financial system can function even under severe pressure; and the post-Cold War era of unchallenged American hegemony has definitively ended
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