Oil has long been the backbone of Venezuela’s economy. The state-owned oil company PDVSA was once regarded as one of the most capable national oil firms globally, producing over 3 million barrels per day at its peak.

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.

Once a critic of entanglements abroad, Trump now appears willing to embrace regime change as a tool of American influence, risking a backlash from his MAGA base.