September 8, 2026—When the U.S. government announced an historic deal for tapping Venezuelan oil in August, the White House cheered it as a means to expand U.S. oil reserves while critics complained the deal smacked of 19th Century imperialism.
The United States has long engaged with Venezuelan politics, aiming to push the country away from a communist economy towards an open, democratic society. What is clear today is that U.S. policy has shifted away from influencing Venezuelan politics toward a model of ownership, not only of the country’s natural resources but also its diplomatic standing with the rest of the world.
The circumstances of the invasion and capture of natural resources leave observers questioning the legality of the acts and deciphering when and how capitalism in one country collides with and becomes imperialism.
The Pre-Dawn Raid
When the U.S. military invaded Venezuela on January 3, 2026 with overnight airstrikes and a pre-dawn raid on the Caracas home of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump was clear about his objective: Take control of the country and tap its vast oil reserves.
The regime-change operation was a high-stakes pre-dawn venture, one that Trump lauded as a “spectacular assault” and a useful example of deploying U.S. military force for gain.
“This was one of the most stunning, effective, and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history,” Trump said during a press conference.
U.S. Army Delta Force fighters captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, taking them to a highly restricted unit in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center. They await trial in the Southern District of New York on charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, drug trafficking, and weapons ownership.
Maduro’s lawyer Barry Pollack filed a declaration in court asserting immunity. He argued heads of state are “exempt from the criminal process of any national court” except in a court of their own country, ABC News reported. The trial is unlikely to begin before June 2027.
Though the operation lasted under an hour, it involved some 150 military aircraft, more than 200 U.S. special forces, and intelligence services. The cost to taxpayers for the pre-dawn raid was $206.6 million, according to Brown’s Cost of War Project. It is part of larger multibillion-dollar naval operations in South America. U.S. intelligence reportedly laid the groundwork for the operation. A CIA unit landed in Venezuela in August 2025, creating “extraordinary insight into Maduro’s pattern of life that made grabbing him seamless,” PBS News reported.
“It was dark. The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have. It was dark, and it was deadly,” Trump said.
The strategic strike claimed the lives of 75-100 people, including 32 Cuban security guards.
Trump: ‘We Own It’
Trump immediately claimed ownership of the country while announcing the details of the operation from his Mar-a-Lago resort and later in comments to the press on Air Force One.
“We are going to run the country until such time that we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” Trump said. “So we are going to run the country.”
What Trump had in mind was not a plan to bring democratic freedoms to Venezuela but to bring barrels of oil back and profits from eventual oil sales back to the United States. Meeting with oil executives on January 9, Trump foreshadowed what was to come: The United States was staking a claim on Venezuelan oil.
“Yesterday, the number is 30 million barrels – I can’t even imagine. Is that a correct number? Thirty-million barrels was given to us by Venezuela. That’s a lot of oil. That’s about $4 billion worth, and it’s on its way to the United States right now.”
Eight months later, the details of that plan became a formal oil deal. It brings together the Venezuela government, the U.S. government, and a private oil exploration company based in Barbados.
US Government Takes Stake in Oil Deal
The oil deal announced by the White House in August gives the North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), a private oil exploration company headquartered in Barbados, operating rights to 17 Venezuelan oil fields over the next 100 years.
The U.S. government is taking a 35 percent equity stake in the parent company. Interestingly, the name of that parent company is not named. What is publicly known is that the corporate entity managed by controlling owner Alejandro Betancourt.
What is also important is the equity stake in the venture the U.S. government is taking. The agreement gives that stake not to Treasury but to the Defense Department (“Department of War”) through the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital. It also gives the State Department the right to purchase 20 percent of the output at production cost along with the right of first refusal for the remaining production.
According to the White House statement, the agreement Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, signed with NABEP gives the U.S. government “powerful governance rights, economic ownership, and guaranteed low-cost” oil.
Foreign Investments in Venezuela
For her part, Venezuela’s President Delcy Rodriguez welcomed the foreign investments coming to develop the oil sector. She signed agreements with U.S. officials and corporate representatives from Chevron, Repsol, Eni, Shell, and BP. She released a government statement.
“As everyone knows, our country has the largest oil reserves in the world,” Rodriguez said. “But having resources underground is not enough. We need investment, technology, infrastructure, and productive capacity to transform that wealth into well-being for our people. It is useless to have our oil reserves underground only for them to appear in a statistic or an accounting and for us to say, ‘We are the country with the largest reserves in the world,’ when we cannot convert and translate them into development for Venezuela.”
Rodriquez said that if oil is priced at $65 per barrel as an example, $19 per barrel would go to the Venezuelan government. The exact formula is not clear. Rodriguez estimated the minimum royalties to Venezuela around 16 percent and 34 percent in income tax.
“That is why we chose the path of diplomacy with the United States of America, to transform our differences into cooperation, and that cooperation into investment, production, well-being, and concrete results for Venezuelans,” Rodriguez said.
Lasting Consequences of U.S. Use of Force
While many Venezuelans in the diaspora celebrated the capture of Maduro—a leader with vast human rights violations- legal experts in the United States and around the world flagged the operation as a breach of international law protecting national sovereignty.
Trump lauded the operation as a model of military might and began setting his sights on other prospects, namely Iran and Cuba. It led to the troublesome and costly U.S. war with Iran. Immediately following the operation, the Trump administration cut off sales of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, creating an energy crisis there. In July, the Venezuelan government formally notified the International Criminal Court it was leaving the court’s Rome Statute.
Almost as if it orchestrated the departure, the State Department hailed the move as a success.
“The so-called court has been “investigating” Nicolas Maduro since 2018 with no result. The ICC has instead wasted its resources on investigating and charging persons from countries that have competent, independent judicial systems and which never submitted to the jurisdiction of the court.”
‘This Is Imperialism’
Other foreign affairs analysts called it a retreat from diplomacy, democracy promotion, and fair play.
“This is imperialism,” former Amb. Michael McFaul said during an interview with MS Now. “This is 19th Century imperialism…. When countries in the North went to countries in the South and used military power and military force to extract gold, silver, spices, and oil. That’s what President Trump is doing with this deal.”
Additional Sources:
White House statement on “Operation Absolute Resolve” on Jan. 3, 2026:
See story, “The Orange Chavez” for reflections on Trump’s Rhetoric and Style.
