U.S. Forces Remove Maduro; Trump Vows American-Led Revival of Venezuela’s Oil

Washington’s abrupt ouster of a sitting Latin American leader over oil echoes the CIA-backed 1953 coup that toppled Iran’s Mossadegh after he nationalised Anglo-Iranian assets, and recalls 2003 Iraq when WMD rhetoric masked resource aims. Over the past century, U.S. policy toward the hemisphere—rooted in the 1823 Monroe Doctrine—has oscillated between laissez-faire and direct intervention whenever energy supply or rival powers (today, China) loom large. The raid spotlights two long-running trends: the clash between resource nationalism and multinational capital, and the widening use of military force to secure supply chains amid low prices and a global surplus. On a 100-year horizon this moment may matter less for immediate oil prices than for rewriting norms about sovereignty, contract sanctity and great-power competition in the Western Hemisphere; if Washington really “runs” Venezuela, it could mark the most explicit U.S. energy protectorate since the 1914 occupation of Veracruz—and set a template, or cautionary tale, for future climate-era struggles over dwindling fossil rents.