AFP columnist
Almost 20 years have passed from the first US sanctions against Venezuela in 2006 to the recent attacks on suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean.
Two decades in which tensions rose, culminating with the US announcement of the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
Relations between Washington and Caracas have been terrible since Hugo Chávez, a representative of Latin America’s radical left, came to power in 1999.
In 2006, the United States, under the leadership of Republican George W. Bush, banned the sale of American weapons and military equipment to Venezuela due to a lack of cooperation in the fight against terrorism. Four years later, in 2010, both governments withdrew their ambassadors.
Following the death of Hugo Chávez in 2013 and the presidential election won by his dolphin Nicolás Maduro, the administration of Democrat Barack Obama imposed sanctions on several senior Venezuelan officials in late 2014 and early 2015, including an asset freeze in the United States and a visa ban.
Washington accused them of human rights violations because they were involved in the violent suppression of demonstrations against Maduro’s election.
Starting in 2017, during Republican Donald Trump’s first term, Washington imposed financial sanctions on several senior Venezuelan officials, including members of the Supreme Court, for undermining the authority of parliament, which has been controlled by the opposition since late 2015.
Trump spoke of a “possible military option” in Venezuela, a threat he made during his first term.
After Maduro’s re-election in 2018, which was “illegitimate” for Washington and irregular for the international community, Trump tightened economic sanctions in 2019 with the aim of strangling the country’s economy and thus forcing the president’s resignation.
Caracas broke off diplomatic relations when the United States, followed by some sixty countries, recognized Juan Guaidó as “interim president.” In 2023, the opposition dissolved its self-proclaimed government. In the same year, the USA imposed sanctions on the oil company PDVSA and the central bank.
Oil embargo
On April 28, 2019, Trump further tightened the screws on Maduro: a U.S. embargo on Venezuelan oil went into effect, and then he froze the Caracas government’s assets in the United States.
The oil embargo was temporarily relaxed in 2023 under the administration of Democrat Joe Biden as part of negotiations to hold elections in Venezuela. The relief also served to offset the decline in crude oil imports to the U.S. due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
After the July 2024 presidential election, Washington reinstated oil sanctions because it believed Maduro had failed in his commitment to provide fair elections.
Trump, at the start of his second term in 2025, ended the licenses granted to some international oil companies to operate in Venezuela.
Only the American Chevron received an operating license again in July, but was not allowed to deliver money to Venezuela.
$50 million for the arrest of Maduro
Maduro, like some of his allies in the region, was accused of “narcoterrorism” in the United States, for which Washington offered $15 million for any information that would enable his arrest.
Biden increased that sum to 25 million after Maduro’s inauguration for a third term. And in August 2025, Trump doubled the amount of that reward to $50 million.
Washington accuses Maduro of leading the Suns cartel, which is on its list of terrorist organizations, although the existence of such a gang has not been proven.
The United States dispatched an unprecedented fleet of warships to the Caribbean in August. Since the beginning of September, this contingent has been carrying out attacks on ships allegedly carrying drugs. Washington accuses Caracas of being behind drug trafficking aimed at the United States.
The White House announced on December 10 that it had hijacked an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. Caracas, which believes the U.S. military operation is aimed at toppling Maduro and taking over the country’s vast oil fields, called the ship’s seizure an “act of international piracy.”
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