Venezuela’s Oil under Siege, How Trump, U.S. Corporations, and Power Politics Engineered a Global Resource Grab
The recent aggressive measures taken by the United States against Venezuela, along with the Trump administration’s open closeness to the owners of major oil companies, are not the result of coincidence. Rather, they represent a carefully planned political and economic strategy.
When the entire situation is examined closely, a clear sequence emerges: first, the unrestrained use of political power; second, the securing of legal and institutional guarantees; and finally, the calculation of profits on corporate balance sheets.
The U.S. administration’s assurance of “complete protection” to private companies willing to invest billions of dollars in Venezuela’s oil sector makes it evident that this entire process has been designed not to serve the public interest, but to safeguard the interests of specific corporate actors.
Even the dramatic narrative surrounding the arrest of Venezuela’s president was not part of any policy aimed at lowering fuel prices for the American public or restoring Venezuela’s sovereignty. Instead, it reflects an old pattern of global power politics, in which state power is deployed to secure another country’s natural resources for private control.
Venezuela’s extraordinary importance lies primarily in its natural wealth. The country possesses more than 300 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves—widely regarded as the largest untapped energy treasure in the world. Within financial and energy circles, it is well understood that such reserves remain meaningless to capital investors unless political risks are completely eliminated. This is precisely the stage at which U.S. power has historically stepped in to play its role.
It is also important to recognize that Donald Trump’s pursuit of oil for private profit is not a sudden or unprecedented development. The current confrontation between the United States and Venezuela is often compared to Washington’s campaign during the era of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. Such “struggles” have always been rooted in the seizure of oil resources, and each time, the same familiar corporate faces reappear on the global stage.
During Trump’s first term in office, Venezuela’s so-called alternative leadership—fully backed by Washington—made its intentions clear. The U.S.-supported opposition leader Juan Guaidó never concealed his plan to hand over Venezuela’s oil sector to private American companies. According to his representatives, any government formed under Guaidó’s leadership would have granted foreign private companies a significantly larger stake in joint ventures with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA.
This unfolding narrative exposes how global power, corporate interests, and geopolitics intertwine—revealing that behind the language of democracy and stability lies a calculated effort to control one of the world’s most valuable energy reserves.
