The United States offered a varied and shifting set of justifications while carrying out a months-long military intimidation campaign against Venezuela, culminating on January 3 with the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro and his removal from power.
اضافة اعلان
When Maduro was arrested and plans were announced to try him in the United States, officials claimed he was involved in drug trafficking. However, former President Donald Trump also made it clear that he had interests in Venezuela’s oil resources. Removing Maduro from power could also serve additional interests of his administration.
What Does the Trump Administration Claim Are Its Goals?
Trump and senior administration officials stated that their main goal was to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. According to the administration’s narrative, Maduro’s government is a “narco-state” that enables drug cartels to smuggle fentanyl and cocaine into the country. The administration accused Maduro himself of running Venezuela’s drug trade from the highest levels of government, a charge that formed the basis of a 2020 indictment during Trump’s first term. U.S. officials also described Maduro, who took office in 2013, as an illegitimate leader posing a direct threat to U.S. national security.
In recent months, this narrative formed the basis for a dramatic military operation, which included mobilizing warships, aircraft, and troops near Venezuela; striking vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific allegedly operated by drug cartels; a covert strike on a facility claimed to be used for drug trafficking; and imposing a blockade on sanctioned oil tankers bound to and from the country. This was followed by a series of air raids on Venezuela and the arrest of Maduro and his wife on January 3.
The Trump administration said the blockade—alongside other measures to curb Venezuela’s oil exports—cut off revenue sources funding drug trafficking groups. Trump also expressed interest in accessing Venezuelan oil. After Maduro’s arrest, he said, “We will take back the oil that frankly we should have taken back a long time ago.” Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
What Role Does Venezuela Play in the Flow of Illegal Drugs to the U.S.?
In September 2025, Trump told U.S. military officials that every boat intercepted leaving Venezuela carried enough drugs to kill 25,000 Americans, describing the shipments as “mostly fentanyl and other drugs as well.”
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, accounted for about 48,000 of the 80,000 overdose deaths in the United States in 2024. However, U.S. authorities say Venezuela plays a negligible role in the flow of fentanyl into the United States. Fentanyl is almost entirely produced in Mexico, where cartels such as Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation manufacture it using precursor chemicals imported from China. Mexico is the main exporter of this drug to the U.S.
The Trump administration also portrayed Maduro’s government as running one of the largest cocaine trafficking networks in the world. Cocaine caused about 22,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2024. Venezuela’s role in cocaine trafficking is relatively larger but still limited; the country primarily serves as a transit point for cocaine grown and processed in Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Only a small portion of cocaine passing through Venezuelan routes is believed to be destined for the United States. Most cocaine entering the U.S. comes through Mexico, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Why Does Trump Say the U.S. Deserves Venezuelan Oil?
American oil companies were the main architects of Venezuela’s oil industry a century ago, building the country into a key supplier for the United States. The industry was nationalized in the mid-1970s and reopened to foreign investment in the 1990s. Maduro’s influential predecessor, Hugo Chávez, expropriated major U.S. oil projects in 2007. ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips later withdrew, winning extensive international arbitration awards for the seizure of their assets.
Chevron remained the only U.S. oil company operating in Venezuela. The Houston-based company currently holds a limited license from the U.S. Treasury to work on four joint projects with Venezuela’s state oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
On social media on December 17, White House deputy senior official Stephen Miller described the expropriations as an injustice to the United States, writing: “American labor, innovation, and effort built Venezuela’s oil industry. Its authoritarian expropriation was the greatest theft of American wealth and property on record.”
After the January 3 operation, Trump said Venezuela “stole our oil. They took it… and we did something about it.”
What Else Could the Trump Administration Gain from Ending Maduro’s Rule?
The Trump administration objects to the presence of around 700,000 Venezuelan migrants in the United States who received protection allowing them to remain in the country during President Joe Biden’s term. They are part of a mass displacement estimated at 7.7 million people caused by Venezuela’s economic collapse and Maduro’s authoritarian rule.
Trump’s administration took steps to revoke protections for these migrants but faced legal challenges. If conditions improve in Venezuela without Maduro, many of these migrants could return home, sparing the U.S. government the challenge of forced deportations.
Removing Maduro also serves Trump’s goal of undermining Cuba’s communist government, a priority for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants. Under Maduro, Venezuela supported Cuba’s economy with cheap oil. Rubio said at a press conference following the U.S. operation that ousted Maduro: “If I were living in Havana and in the government, I would be worried.”
