Disputed elections, an oil embargo, accusations of drug trafficking and the migration crisis are among the main points of tension between the two countries since 2013
Elections, oil embargo, drug trafficking or migrants. Since 2013, numerous issues have opposed Venezuela and the United States, whose president, Donald Trump, announced this Saturday (3) a “large-scale attack” and the capture of
We review the main disputes:
Democracy
Washington, as well as part of the international community, does not recognize the legitimacy of socialist Nicolás Maduro to preside over the . After the violent repression of demonstrations that followed their first election in 2013, the sanctioned several high-ranking officials in the country for human rights violations.
Washington also described as “illegitimate” his re-election in 2018 and, subsequently, that of 2024, which the opposition claims he won.
Between 2019 and 2023, the United States, followed by around sixty countries, even recognized the opponent Juan Guaidó as “interim president”, which caused Caracas to break diplomatic relations.
Accusations of interference
Venezuela has accused the United States of interference on several occasions. In 2019, after an attempted military insurrection, Maduro stated that Washington had ordered “a fascist coup d’état”.
The following year, the Venezuelan president accused his American counterpart, Donald Trump, of having “directly directed” an attempted “armed incursion” from the sea, in which two former American soldiers participated.
Washington denied any involvement. “No to coups d’état promoted by the CIA,” declared Maduro in October, after Trump claimed to have authorized clandestine actions by the intelligence agency against Venezuela.
US oil embargo
With the aim of economically asphyxiating the country and removing Maduro from power, Washington imposed an embargo on Venezuelan oil in 2019, which hit the pillar of the country’s fragile economy.
Before its entry into force, oil represented 96% of national revenues, and three-quarters of oil revenues came from American customers. Now, Venezuela sells its oil production on the black market at much lower prices, especially to China.
In recent weeks, Washington announced a “total blockade” against “sanctioned oil tankers” heading to or leaving Venezuela and confiscated several ships. Caracas classified the announcement as a “grotesque threat”.
Trump this year ended exploration licenses that allowed multinationals to operate despite sanctions. The American company Chevron has enjoyed a special license since July.
According to OPEC, production fell from 3.5 million barrels per day in 2008 to less than one million currently, due to American sanctions and the collapse of the extraction system, undermined by corruption and mismanagement.
Venezuela, which suffered a serious economic crisis between 2014 and 2021, remains in a precarious situation, and Maduro attributes this to sanctions imposed by Washington.
Drug trafficking charges
In March 2020, Nicolás Maduro was accused in the United States of “narcoterrorism”, and Washington offered 15 million dollars for any information that would allow his arrest.
This reward was raised to 25 million at the beginning of 2025, after the Venezuelan president took office for a third term, and then to 50 million (R$272 million) in August, before the United States mobilized an important military device in the Caribbean Sea and launched attacks against alleged drug traffickers.
Washington accuses Maduro of commanding the “Cartel of the Suns”, whose existence has not yet been proven according to numerous experts. Maduro denies this and accuses Washington of wanting to take over the country’s oil.
Image captured from video posted by the US Army Southern Command shows alleged drug trafficking boat being shot down
Migrants
Trump, who made combating immigration a priority of his second term, reproaches Caracas for the arrival of a large number of Venezuelan migrants. The Republican accuses Venezuela of having “pushed” “hundreds of thousands of people from prisons” to the United States, as well as “inmates from psychiatric hospitals”.
According to around eight million Venezuelans — approximately a quarter of the population — have fled the economic and political crisis since 2014, the majority to Latin American countries and others to the United States.
Trump withdrew the temporary protection status enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans due to the crisis in their country and expelled, in 2025, several thousand of them.
In mid-2025, the United States sent 252 Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador accused, without evidence or trial, of belonging to a gang. They remained there for four months before being repatriated to Caracas, which, like several NGOs, denounced the “torture” suffered during their detention.
*With AFP
