After Maduro: the US, Venezuela's oil, and the price of 'regime change'

Published May 28, 2026 · 09:00 GMT

The US captured Nicolás Maduro in a January raid, tightened a maritime blockade on Venezuelan oil, then lifted sanctions and handed production licences to private firms. Was it liberation — or an oil-driven intervention?

The summary above is a neutral framing. Below, each side reports the same story in its own words — judge for yourself.

Washington & backers

Supporters say the operation ended a narco-dictatorship indicted for drug and arms trafficking, restored order, and freed Venezuela's vast oil for legitimate trade under new licences.

Critics & sovereignty

Critics call it an illegal, oil-driven regime change with serious legal and human-rights concerns — a foreign power seizing a country's leader and rewriting who controls its oil.

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