The main disputes between the United States and Venezuela

Election regularity, oil embargo, drug trafficking and migration: A history of U.S.–Venezuela tensions. Since 2013, the United States and Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela, the country Donald Trump said on Saturday was the target of a “large-scale attack,” have clashed on multiple fronts. Here’s a look at the main disputes:

Democracy

Washington, along with parts of the international community, does not recognize socialist Nicolás Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela.

After violent repression of protests following his first election in 2013, the United States sanctioned several high-ranking officials for human rights violations. It also deemed his 2018 re-election “illegitimate,” as well as the 2024 election, which the opposition claims to have won.

Between 2019 and 2023, Washington, followed by about 60 countries, even recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as “interim president,” prompting Caracas to sever diplomatic relations.

Accusations of interference

Venezuela has repeatedly accused the United States of meddling in its affairs. In 2019, after a failed military uprising, Maduro claimed Washington had orchestrated a “fascist coup d’état.”

The following year, he accused U.S. President Donald Trump of “directly leading” a failed armed incursion by sea, in which two former U.S. soldiers participated. Washington denied involvement.

“No to coups fomented by the CIA!” Maduro declared in October 2020, after Trump said he had authorized clandestine CIA actions against Venezuela.

U.S. oil embargo

In 2019, Washington imposed an oil embargo to economically strangle Venezuela and remove Maduro from power, targeting the backbone of the country’s fragile economy.

Before the embargo, oil accounted for 96 percent of national income, with three-quarters of revenues coming from U.S. buyers. Venezuela now sells oil on the black market at lower prices, particularly to China. In recent weeks, Washington announced a “full blockade” against “sanctioned tankers” entering or leaving Venezuela, a “grotesque threat,” according to Caracas, and seized several ships.

This year, Trump ended operation licenses that allowed multinationals to work despite sanctions. Chevron has operated under a special license since July. Oil production has fallen from 3.5 million barrels per day in 2008 to less than one million today, according to OPEC, due to U.S. sanctions and the collapse of infrastructure, compounded by corruption and mismanagement.

Venezuela, which suffered a severe economic crisis from 2014 to 2021, remains in a precarious situation, which Maduro attributes to Washington’s sanctions.

Drug trafficking accusations

In March 2020, Maduro was indicted in the United States for “narco-terrorism,” with Washington offering $15 million for information leading to his arrest.

The reward increased to $25 million at the start of 2025 after his third-term inauguration, then to $50 million in August, coinciding with a large U.S. military presence in the Caribbean and strikes against alleged drug traffickers.

Washington accuses Maduro of leading the “Cartel of the Suns,” though many experts say its existence has yet to be conclusively proven. Maduro denies the claims and accuses the U.S. of seeking to seize Venezuela’s oil.

Migration

Trump, who has made immigration a top priority in his second term, blames Caracas for the large influx of Venezuelan migrants. He claims the government “pushed” toward the United States “hundreds of thousands of prisoners” and “patients from psychiatric hospitals.”

According to the UN, around eight million Venezuelans, about a quarter of the population, have fled the political and economic crisis since 2014, most to Latin American countries and some to the U.S.

Trump ended the temporary protected status that hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans had benefited from and expelled several thousand this year.

In the spring, the United States sent 252 Venezuelans, accused without trial or proof of gang membership, to a prison in El Salvador. They spent four months there before being returned to Caracas, which, along with NGOs, denounced “torture” during their detention.