On 3rd January 2026 US conducted an attack on the capital city of Venezuela and captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro under “Operation Absolute Resolve”.
This was a historic moment of capture that the entire world was witnessing. This capture of Venezuelan president sent shockwaves in other parts of the world. It raised deep concerns and questions about sovereignty, international law, and oil geopolitics.
But the question is: Why did the US attack Venezuela?, Let’s understand the crisis in detail.
The present geopolitical shift involves a long history of chaotic events and turmoils that shaped present geopolitical conditions.
The roots of the present US-Venezuela Crisis can be traced back to 1999, when Hugo Chávez came to power in Venezuela.
Because before 1999, Venezuela was one of the richest countries in the world. The country was making huge profits from extracting the oil and it used to do it with the help of the United States.
The economy of Venezuela was flourishing at a rapid scale, but there was a problem with that rapid growth. This growth of the economy was limited to rich people of the country and the poor people remained alienated from that growth. Hence Hugo Chavez wanted to transform the Venezuelan economy to make poor people rich as well.
Therefore, when Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999, he introduced numerous socialist policies to eradicate poverty from the country. He started changing his policies and nationalized the oil industry.
As a result he successfully reduced poverty in Venezuela through high oil revenues. But this move created two challenges for Venezuela,
First, the US-Venezuela relations started worsening because trade deals between both the partners started affecting negatively. It became a nightmare for Venezuela as it started destroying the country. Because the US started targeting Venezuela by imposing sanctions on the country.
Second, the Venezuelan economy became heavily dependent on oil exports. And that dependency forced Venezuela towards economic downfall because it started facing severe economic collapse due to falling oil prices, international sanctions, mismanagement, and corruption.
The Venezuelan GDP shrank by over 75%, and hyperinflation reached an all time high. That resulted in shortage of food, medicine, electricity and other essentials. People were struggling financially and normal living had become a distant dream. It created the migration crisis and humanitarian collapse, resulting in instability in the region.
Apart from that, Venezuela also faced sanctions from the United States, European Union, Canada, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and others.
While justifying the actions, these countries said they have imposed sanctions on the grounds of rampant corruption, drug trafficking and narco-terrorism, human rights violations, rigging of elections and undermining democracy.
But Venezuela argued that sanctions represent unlawful interference, economic warfare, and imperialism. These sanctions primarily aimed at regime change and control over oil reserves.
The reality is, it was not only about oil reserves or influence, the United States sees Venezuela as a “National Security Threat”. And the main reason is the US believes that providing a strategic foothold for rivals like Russia, China, and Iran in the Western Hemisphere (The Americas: North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean) violates the Monroe Doctrine.
Monroe doctrine is one of the significant pillars of US foreign policy, which establishes the principle that the western hemisphere is the United States “sphere of influence” and limits the interference from the foreign powers.
In the recent operation, President Trump introduced “Donroe Doctrine”, this is a modern version of Monroe Doctrine that says the U.S. will not only block foreign influence like Russia and China but will actively “run” or stabilize nations in the hemisphere to secure U.S. interests and resources.
And if we monitor current actions by the Trump administration, it can be clearly seen in the present geopolitical shift. Now after the capture of Venezuelan president Maduro, the country has come under the control of the United States.
However, Trump stated the US will run Venezuela temporarily but sovereignty of the country will remain the same as it was before and the country will be led by an interim government.
But in reality, the world’s largest oil reserves are now effectively being managed and controlled by the United States. And the countries like Russia, China and Iran will be kept out of the region by the US to ensure national interest and security of the nation.
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