WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. raid and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday marks one of the dramatic escalations in U.S. policy toward Latin America in decades.
The operation has been framed by Washington as "combating drug trafficking," but critics argue that its underlying motives revolve around securing economic control over Venezuela's vast oil reserves and reasserting U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
Since returning to office in January 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump has pursued a highly expansive foreign policy agenda that includes calls to reclaim the Panama Canal, assert territorial claims over Greenland, and suggest that Canada should become the "51st U.S. state." Central to this broader vision is the goal of reclaiming U.S. supremacy in the Western Hemisphere, with Venezuela emerging as a focal point of the strategy.
From a military standpoint, Venezuela's strategic location along the Caribbean Sea and northern South America makes it a vital area for U.S. interests. Its proximity to major maritime routes and airspace has long been considered crucial by Washington, which maintains substantial naval and air forces in the Caribbean, allowing rapid deployment from U.S. bases in Puerto Rico and other locations.
U.S. military strategists believe that a post-Maduro Venezuela could provide the United States with a foothold for intelligence gathering, aerial surveillance, and naval deployments throughout the Caribbean and South America, strengthening what U.S. planners view as a regional buffer zone.
Energy resources also play a central role in the U.S. interest in Venezuela. The country possesses some of the world's largest proven oil reserves, alongside significant natural gas resources and strategic mineral deposits. Trump attempted to remove Maduro during his first term, and analysts suggest that his second administration has renewed that objective, using the fight against so-called "narco-terrorism" as a pretext to install a government more favorable to U.S. commercial interests.
At a press conference on Saturday, Trump made the economic rationale explicit, saying that the United States would "run" Venezuela and open its energy market to American companies.
"We're going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground, and that wealth is going to the people of Venezuela and people from outside of Venezuela that used to be in Venezuela," Trump told reporters in Florida on Saturday. "And it goes also to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused by that country."
Beyond Venezuela, analysts say the U.S. operation sends a broader regional message. The action is widely viewed as a warning to other governments in Latin America that may challenge U.S. interests, while also expanding Washington's influence across the region. During his second term, Trump has repeatedly invoked the Monroe Doctrine, and on Saturday, he claimed his administration had already "superseded" it. "We've superseded it by a lot," he asserted, adding that U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere would "never be questioned again."
The reaction across Latin America has been swift and sharply critical. Venezuelan officials condemned the operation as an invasion, while many governments across the region warned that it could destabilize the region and signal a return to the interventionist politics that many believed had receded. In the United States, protests erupted, and Democratic lawmakers accused the Trump administration of bypassing Congress and misleading legislators about its intentions.
Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, echoed those concerns, accusing the Trump administration of "consistently misleading" lawmakers about its long-term strategy. "If U.S. military action and regime change in Venezuela was really about saving American lives from deadly drugs, then why hasn't the Trump administration taken action against Mexican cartels?" she wrote on X. "And if prosecuting narco-terrorists is such a high priority, then why did President Trump pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into America?"
"Americans' disgust with our own government's never ending military aggression and support of foreign wars is justified because we are forced to pay for it and both parties, Republicans and Democrats, always keep the Washington military machine funded and going," Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said.
For Trump, the gamble is clear. He is betting that decisive force can deliver economic advantage and political leverage while avoiding the costs of prolonged war. Whether that calculation succeeds, or instead accelerates instability at home and abroad, may define not only his second term but Washington's future role in the region. ■
