After the US seized the Venezuelan leader and his wife Cilia Flores in the early hours of Jan. 3, President Donald Trump asserted that the US would “run” the country until a transition could take place, though it wasn’t clear how the US would assume control. The president also said the US would “rebuild” Venezuela’s oil industry.
Venezuela’s oil has been a core dimension of the years-long US campaign against strongman Nicolás Maduro. Successive administrations used the country’s vital export as a wedge to pressure Caracas, first through oil sanctions in 2019 and more recently through a partial blockade of oil tankers in the run-up to US airstrikes and the capturing of Maduro.
Venezuela isn’t the powerhouse oil producer it used to be. But the country’s abundant oil reserves would be critical to rebuilding its shattered economy.
