2025-11-12
Al Raya Newspaper: The US-Venezuela Crisis
American governments' interest in Venezuela dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century, since the discovery of oil in huge quantities, where American energy companies controlled the oil for decades, but the Venezuelan government nationalized it in 1976.
Venezuela suffered a major economic deterioration and political instability until Hugo Chavez came to power in 1998, and Venezuela became close to Russia, China and Iran, and followed socialist left-wing policies until his death in 2013. He was succeeded by Nicolas Maduro, who followed the same socialist approach as Chavez, so the economy deteriorated further and Venezuela became more isolated, as America imposed many sanctions on it and refused to recognize the legitimacy of its presidential elections. In 2020, the US Department of Justice accused President Maduro of drug trafficking and smuggling into America.
Venezuela is one of the richest countries in the world in natural resources, as it ranks first globally in oil reserves, estimated at more than 300 billion barrels, and also has the fourth largest reserve of natural gas in the world with more than 195 trillion cubic feet.
In recent months, America has escalated its actions against Venezuela under the pretext of the war on drug trafficking that reaches it. On August 9th, it deployed three destroyers off the coast of Venezuela, and on September 2nd, it carried out the first air strike against what it claimed was a ship transporting drugs coming from Venezuela. On October 3, the US Secretary of War stated that he had ordered an attack on a boat transporting drugs off the same coast. As for his boss, Trump, he said that he had allowed the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct what he called "covert operations" inside Venezuela. In total, the US authorities have claimed responsibility for 15 attacks in recent weeks, which news reports say have resulted in the deaths of 62 people.
The American newspaper The New York Times published that some officials stated privately to it, saying that the goal behind all of this is to overthrow the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, but officially, America is content with saying that its operations are aimed at pursuing Latin American terrorist gangs working in the field of drugs, which may be heading to the American borders.
What appears is that America, led by Trump, seeks to control Venezuela's very huge natural resources, especially oil, natural gas, gold and rare minerals. What further increases the tension is Venezuela's trade relations with China and Russia, where the volume of trade between China and Venezuela reached $6.5 billion in 2024, and the percentage is still increasing, which raises America's pressure and makes it more hostile towards this rapprochement, as Venezuela and other Latin American countries are considered by America to be its backyard and that it has the right to own its wealth, and that any approach to it is a red line that warrants inciting wars, as it did in the invasion of Panama in 1989 and the arrest of its president Noriega on charges of drug trafficking, and changing the regime in the country in accordance with its interests.
What we hear from conflicting statements from American politicians today about a military operation in Venezuela indicates that there is planning to change the regime in Venezuela in one of three scenarios:
The first: An internal rebellion led by the army, or by a civilian leadership, or in cooperation between them, provided that Washington provides logistical and intelligence support, or even direct military support through its current forces in the Caribbean. This scenario is unlikely to occur due to the division and weakness of the opposition, in addition to the strength of the security and intelligence services in the Venezuelan government.
The second: A crushing direct military force, which includes intensely striking Venezuelan military installations, with the possibility of tasking special forces units to arrest President Maduro and prosecute him. At the same time, creating an atmosphere for America's agents from the opposition, whose strength has recently emerged after the Venezuelan opposition leader Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize, which the international community demanded solidarity with, which is adopted by the Western and American media in particular, which those who hold this view believe that the strike may cause divisions in the structure of the regime, or the discontent of some military personnel, which makes them distance themselves from the collapsing regime.
The third: Political pressure, by Trump declaring victory after a series of naval strikes, and then returning to diplomatic channels to subjugate Venezuela in the fields of energy, immigration, regional security, signing economic cooperation deals and controlling the country's resources, and then the country entering an electoral process through which America guarantees the opposition's accession to power. What appears is that this is the closest scenario to being achieved, given the nature of Trump (the trade negotiator), who is trying to portray himself as a man of peace, and seeks to obtain the Nobel Peace Prize.
What confirms this trend is what Trump himself said on 2025/10/30 that he is not thinking of directing strikes against Venezuela, as he answered when a journalist on board Air Force One asked him about reports that he intends to launch strikes on Venezuela, saying "No." Furthermore, Maduro himself offered to hand over oil resources in exchange for stopping the escalation, but Trump rejected the offer. This means that Venezuela fears direct American intervention and prefers to resolve the crisis through negotiation.
What is remarkable in this crisis and other crises that America has fabricated later, such as annexing Canada, buying Greenland, or taking over Gaza, is that this country behaves with arrogance and unprecedented bullying, and this is not a sign of strength, but rather a sign of its weakness and disappointment, as described by the French thinker Emmanuel Todd in his book "After the Empire": (America uses excessive violence to hide its weakness, not to express its strength). Allah Almighty said: ﴿And never would your Lord have destroyed the cities unjustly while their people were reformers﴾.
By: Professor Khaled Ali - America
Source: Al Raya Newspaper
