How Venezuelan Oil Factored Into US Seizure of Maduro

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.