FROM PETROSTATE TO COLLAPSE: VENEZUELA'S CRISIS AND U.S. INVOLVEMENT

The U.S. put forward opposition figures it favoured – such as María Corina Machado, a prominent anti-Maduro politician – but made clear that no Venezuelan would take power immediately without U.S. oversight, ostensibly to ensure a stable transition.

- TDG NETWORK

Venezuelans protest against the results of the country's July 2024 presidential election, in Caracas.

On January 4, 2026, the world witnessed an extraordinary spectacle: Venezuela's long-entrenched leader, Nicolás Maduro, appeared in U.S. custody, handcuffed and blindfolded, after an audacious raid by American special forces. U.S. President Donald Trump hailed “the extraordinary extraction of Maduro”, declaring that “we will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition”.

For many, the image of a Latin American president whisked away to face drug charges in New York was “Washington's most controversial intervention in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama”, hearkening back to the capture of Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. How did it come to this? To understand the dramatic turn of events - Venezuela's economic collapse, the U.S.'s self-appointed role as arbiter, and the clashing narratives surrounding this crisis - one must trace the history of Venezuela's downfall and its fraught relationship with the United States.

RICHES TO RUIN: THE MAKING OF AN ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

Venezuela was once one of Latin America’s wealthiest nations, sitting atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves. However, in the past decade the country has suffered a catastrophic economic collapse almost unparalleled in modern history. By 2023, living standards in oil-rich Venezuela had plummeted by 74% compared to 2013, a collapse on a scale typically seen only in wartime or state collapse. This implosion was rooted in years of disastrous policy decisions under the socialist governments of Hugo Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro, compounded later by external shocks and sanctions.