Venezuela has the largest oil reserves of any nation and the U.S. once gorged itself on the wealth that Venezuelan oil provided. But since the oil industry in Venezuela was nationalized in 1999, America has been starved, attempting to return the balance to favor itself by destabilizing the Venezuelan government.
Now, armed conflict is America’s only natural next step in accruing oil. This is why, on Jan. 3, 2026, President Donald Trump captured President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela.
Under the guise of a righteous fight against drugs for the protection of Americans, the U.S. is currently fighting an illegal war for its own lucrative profits. Trump himself fully claims Venezuelan oil as America’s own.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America. It will only get bigger… until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the oil, land and other assets that they previously stole from us,” Trump said.
The Trump administration carried out at least 21 strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, baselessly claiming they were Venezuelan drug smugglers. These actions, which were not approved by Congress and are illegal under both international and domestic law, killed up to 83 people.
The Declare War Clause of Article One of the Constitution mandates that Congress issue formal declarations of war and authorize the use of armed forces for limited operations. However, Trump has exercised little regard for following the Constitution throughout his time in office.
“Democrats… all they do is complain,” Trump said. “They should say, ‘You know what, we did a great job’… They do say, ‘Oh, gee, maybe it’s not constitutional.’ You know, the same old stuff that we’ve been hearing for years and years and years.”
The U.S. later seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coasts on Dec. 21, 2025, baselessly claiming that it was used to fund narco terrorism. The Trump administration’s true motivations could not be more clear, though: oil wealth.
“We keep it [the oil tanker], I guess,” Trump said to AP News.
The seizure of the tanker was a severe escalation and a decision heavily motivated by acquiring oil.
“It sounds a lot like the beginning of a war,” Kentucky senator Rand Paul said.
Other senators echoed this statement. The Venezuelan government responded by rightfully accusing the U.S. of an act of international piracy.
The strikes are part of an escalating pressure campaign against Maduro, whom U.S. officials accused of being the leader of a drug cartel that the State Department designated a foreign terrorist organization in November. Maduro has rightfully accused the Trump administration of fabricating a war and trying to take control of Venezuela’s lucrative oil resources.
The fact that Maduro is a dictator who committed human rights violations does not make America’s intervention in a sovereign nation legal or democratic.
The Trump administration has attempted to justify its actions by painting the attacks as part of a wider drug war, but conveniently pardoned former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández. Hernández took bribes and allowed cocaine drugs to be smuggled into America.
In addition, Trump has falsely argued that drug trafficking of lethal drugs, like fentanyl, poses a direct national security threat warranting the use of military force.
“Whatever actions taken in the Caribbean have no effect on fentanyl,” expert on drugs and counternarcotics policies at the Brookings Institution Vanda Felbab-Brown said to NPR.
Trump confirmed that he authorized the CIA to carry out secret operations in Venezuela. In addition, he has deployed the world’s largest aircraft carrier, thousands of troops and F-35 military jets to the Caribbean.
María Corina Machado, the extremist U.S.-backed Venezuelan coup leader at the center of the U.S.-Venezuela conflict, has promised a massive privatization of the Venezuelan oil industry if Trump can put her in power. Machado has helped to lead numerous violent coup attempts in Venezuela.
Trump himself has stated that he now intends for the U.S. to be strongly involved in Venezuela’s oil industry after the capture of Maduro.
The U.S. government is willing to enact war for short-term gains from oil wealth, using the threat of drugs to placate the American public into believing the government’s actions are righteous.
America has spent a fortune and countless human lives to dominate other nations, like Afghanistan and Iraq, for oil. Both were marked by poor military strategy that rendered these sacrifices useless. In their wake, these costly wars left behind destruction, violence and destabilized nations. Citizens of said countries are still reeling from the effects of America’s intervention to this day.
The U.S. government learned nothing from its actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, still continuing to create widespread suffering and destabilization in Latin America for the same purpose. It is this truth that proves that America seeks to benefit only itself as it intervenes in Venezuela.
