Venezuela and the impact of U.S. actions

The U.S. shocked most when they attacked Venezuela and literally captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife and brought them to New York and locked them up in the notorious Brooklyn detention center. At the same time, the U.S. seems to support the remaining government including the VP Delcy Rodriguez as long as they and she do what Trump wants. Not surprisingly, the strategic adversaries quickly condemned Trump’s decision to order U.S. strikes on Venezuela and the raid to capture now-former President Maduro. Many countries across the spectrum called it a violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty and international law. Many democrats, including all far-left democrats, also condemned the attack.

Many countries which had maintained close economic and political ties with the Maduro regime, the dramatic, unilateral U.S. action is likely to have some impact on them, and while that impact may not be tremendous financially in all cases, the message sent by Trump could be just as important. Some of the rules, some of the unthinkables like captured a President and his wife in their palace, some of the things that we would not have previously imagined being part of the operation are now on the table as options. China, which buys most of Venezuela’s oil, said it was “deeply shocked” by the weekend strikes and removal of Maduro, and the foreign ministry in Beijing said the U.S. had “clearly violated international law” with its actions.

China’s official foreign policy is broadly based on a position of neutrality when it comes to foreign conflicts, and despite Beijing’s continuing economic support for Venezuela and unwavering political ties amid the standoff between Caracas and Washington, some analysts say China is unlikely to intervene directly. But that economic bond was likely far more vital to the geopolitically isolated Maduro regime than it was to China. China’s purchases have amounted to a whopping 80% of Venezuela’s total, relatively paltry petroleum exports, which amounted to less than a million barrels per day during 2025 compared to about 3 million barrels per day 25 years ago. Venezuelan exports amounted to only about 4% of the oil China has purchased in recent years. Even if Trump does get U.S. oil firms to move in and start rebuilding Venezuela’s decrepit infrastructure to boost production, there are still financial implications for Beijing.

Venezuela was sending about 80% of its oil to China. Much of that was to service debt. If China all of a sudden doesn’t get that 80% of Venezuela’s exports, it is not only losing energy security, but also in a situation where Venezuela is now no longer repaying its debts.

In the non-economic front, there’s also concern that Chinese President Xi Jinping could use Trump’s move as justification to launch his own unilateral military action, with an invasion of Taiwan, the U.S.-backed democratic island just off mainland China’s coast. Since coming to power in 2012, Xi has reiterated his policy of unifying China with Taiwan, and he has never ruled out the use of force to do so.

One could also argue that the U.S. actions were not surprising as Trump has brought up the Monroe doctrine and the U.S. sphere of influence in the Americas region to behave how they wish. This is the same thinking when the Biden regime threatened Russia by constant talking about Ukraine joining NATO.

Trump is also keeping an eye on the key adversary in the Middle East, Iran. Trump said last week that if Iran, “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the U.S. will come to their rescue,” warning that his administration was “locked and loaded and ready to go.” For some Iranians, desperate to see the end of more than four decades of rule by hardline Islamic clerics, the U.S. action against Venezuela has fueled hope that Trump might wield similar pressure tactics against their own authoritarian leadership.

Another country on Trump’s radar screen is Cuba. One of the demands of the new government in Venezuela would be to cut off the shipments of barrels of oil to Cuba, some of which is used to satisfy the domestic demand within Cuba, but also a lot of it sent onwards and sold to other markets for profit. Maduro was an important economic and political partner to Cuba, and the government in Havana said 32 Cuban nationals were killed in the U.S. operation in Venezuela, security forces who were there serving at Venezuela’s request.

Trump has also mentioned Colombia as a potential target against the far-left government accused of sending drugs to the U.S. as well as mentioned the unhappiness with the Mexican government which according to Trump is fully in the hands of the drug cartels. The problem with many of these nations is that they have weak leaders, are isolated and are fundamentally corrupt. The U.S. has shown that certain behaviors, definitely not drugs, are acceptable and that the U.S. will take action if the White House deems it appropriate.