In the early hours of January 3rd 2026, just days after the new year, The United States unleashed a surprise attack on Venezuela. They took the then president Nicolas Maduro and his wife from their home and transferred them over to the United States to face charges of narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
US and Venezuelan conflict isn’t anything new; it first started back in 1999 when former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez took office. The relationship between the two countries only began to deteriorate further when in 2006, President George W Bush paused the sale of US military weapons from Venezuela, citing lack of cooperation during the ongoing War on Terror.
Between accusations of human rights violations, allegations of stolen elections, multiple sanctions and oil embargos, the US and Venezuela haven’t always had a great relationship. This all came to a head in 2020 when the US put a bounty worth $50 million on Maduro, claiming he was a narco-terrorist and was leading “Cartel of the suns.” No experts have found any concrete evidence to back such accusations.
With Maduro out of office, the country of Venezuela is currently in a bit of a grey area. While many Venezuelans both inside and outside of the country are breathing sighs of relief to be out of the hands of Maduro. The rest of the world is wondering, who’s in control now?
Currently there are three contenders for who gets to control the Latin American country: Vice president who is the current acting president Delcy Rodriguez, Nobel Peace prize winner Maria Corina Machado and The United States of America.
Pushback has come with the idea of Rodriguez running Venezuela, as there have been claims of gross negligence of human rights and corruption matching the rule of Maduro over the country. Similar concern has come over the US throwing its hat into the ring, mostly about what diplomatic precedent this sets for the future. There’s also worry that there are ulterior motives for US involvement in Venezuela, namely getting in on Venezuela’s oil industry.
So far, only time can tell what will happen to the country of Venezuela.
