GOP eyes Venezuela’s untapped oil wealth as Democrats sound alarm over taxpayer risk
Lawmakers are keenly aware of the costs of running a country due to the nation’s skyrocketing debt, but now another expense may be added to Congress’ tab — Venezuela.
President Donald Trump hasn’t backed down from his position that the U.S. will run Venezuela after the surprise strikes and capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. That’s left some on Capitol Hill wondering what the price tag will be, considering Venezuela’s bleak economy.
Like most issues in Washington, D.C., there’s a strong partisan divide on how lawmakers expect running Venezuela will shake out. Senate Republicans believe that the vast petroleum, natural gas and mineral reserves will be enough to foot the bill and cause oil companies to come running to dump money into the region.
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And fiscal hawks in the Senate, who routinely sound the alarm over rampant government spending, believe that running the country will be a financial boon for the U.S.
“I would envision there’s so much money to be made that the oil companies will show up, and they’ll pay for everything,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital.
That’s a shared calculus among several other Republicans, who contend that any cost incurred from stewarding the country during the transition period would be leveraged by the colossal reserves of crude oil creeping underground.
“That’s the whole point,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital.
There could already be a wrench in that plan following a meeting between Trump and several top oil executives at the White House last week. The roster of companies in attendance Friday touched nearly every choke point in Venezuela’s oil sector, including production, services, trading and refining. The sheer weight of that lineup underscored what is at stake for global energy policy, with the United States squarely at the center.
And ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods told the administration that Venezuela was “uninvestable,” which prompted Trump to suggest that he’d be “inclined to keep Exxon out.”
And despite lawmakers’ optimistic outlook, the economic reality on the ground in Venezuela is stark.
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Venezuela once had the makings of an economic powerhouse, but years of mismanagement and international sanctions have hollowed out the economy, leaving behind a much smaller, debt-laden nation.
Precise figures are difficult to verify because Venezuela has not published comprehensive financial data in years. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates the economy will total about $82.8 billion in 2025, which is roughly the size of Maine’s economic output.
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What’s more, Venezuela’s debt is roughly 200% of its economy. In simple terms, the country owes about $2 for every dollar it produces.
Those pressures are compounded by runaway inflation. The IMF forecasts eye-watering inflation, with consumer prices expected to rise by more than 680% in 2026, underscoring the continued strain on Venezuela’s economy and households.
That collapse is inseparable from Venezuela’s oil industry, once the backbone of national wealth. Petroleum revenues long underwrote government spending and social programs, leaving the economy acutely vulnerable as production fell, infrastructure decayed and sanctions tightened.
Even in its diminished state, oil remains Venezuela’s most consequential asset. The country holds more than 300 billion barrels of proven crude — the largest in the world, eclipsing established energy titans like Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait — underlining its potential if production and investment return.
The potential cost of reinvigorating Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, coupled with the prior military operation and any other costs accumulated from running the country, is emblematic of the growing rift between the Hill and the White House, where Trump has routinely run roughshod over lawmakers in his decision-making.
Senate Democrats want to claw back some of that authority through the appropriations process, where they could try to limit the flow of taxpayer dollars toward Venezuela.
“Congress should be involved,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told Fox News Digital. “And we must be involved because we have the power of the purse, we have appropriations authority, and we need better and more information to make these decisions about how the taxpayer funds are spent in support of these military or intelligence operations.”
Some of that action is already taking place.
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Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., whose war powers resolution to curtail future use of military force in Venezuela without congressional approval survived its first procedural test on Thursday, said lawmakers were having discussions tweaking the defense spending bill to “block appropriated defense funds from being used in certain actions that haven’t been authorized by Congress.”
Senate Republicans, despite cries from the other side of the aisle to regain some modicum of congressional oversight over the Venezuela situation, are firm in their belief that Venezuela’s oil, not American taxpayers’ money, will foot the bill.
“We’re going to use Venezuelan resources to reimburse the U.S. Treasury for what we’ve already spent there, and we’re going to use Venezuelan resources to help rebuild their own country,” Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said. “The taxpayer is not going to be on the hook for one cent of this.”
Marco Rubio emerges as key Trump power player after Venezuela operation
Early in the second Trump administration, analysts openly wondered how long Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s relationship with President Donald Trump would last.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, has long embraced a Cold War–inflected, hawkish approach to foreign policy that initially appeared at odds with Trump’s worldview.
Trump had been deeply skeptical of U.S. involvement in Ukraine and surrounded himself with prominent anti-interventionist voices, including Vice President JD Vance and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Shortly after Trump won the election in 2024, Pete Hegseth, then set to become secretary of war, described himself as a “recovering neocon.”
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But in 2026, Rubio sits at the apex of his career, emerging as one of the most influential figures in Washington.
He holds two additional titles: national security advisor and head of the National Archives. The last person to serve as the nation’s chief diplomat and national security advisor was Henry Kissinger, widely seen as the architect of foreign policy during the Nixon administration.
“He’s just really smart, really effective, and he’s succeeded at everything he’s done,” Matt Kroenig, a former Pentagon official and current vice president at the Atlantic Council think tank, told Fox News Digital. “He doesn’t see his job as containing Trump. He understands who the boss is and channels those instincts into constructive directions.”
The man of many hats has pursued the fall of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro for nearly a decade.
“I think that U.S. armed forces should only be used in cases of national security threats,” Rubio said in a 2018 interview with Univision. “I think there is a strong argument that can be made right now that Venezuela and Maduro’s regime have become a threat to the region and to the U.S.”
On Jan. 3, Rubio got his wish, when special operators descended on Caracas, Venezuela, to snatch the dictator of 12 years and his wife from their bed.
Maduro appeared to sense the danger early. In a message to Trump, he warned that Rubio “wants to stain your hands with blood — with South American, Caribbean, Venezuelan blood,” as the U.S. kicked off a campaign of airstrikes on drug traffickers in the Caribbean in September 2025.
Trump likely didn’t need much convincing.
“Trump was very focused on Venezuela in the first term,” Kroenig said. “I think he probably saw the outcome of the first term was not what he wanted.”
Though Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, was recently sworn in, Trump has asserted that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela.
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Less than a year ago, media outlets portrayed Rubio as crowded out of diplomatic negotiations, with envoys like Steve Witkoff running point on Iran, Gaza and Ukraine. Vanity Fair reported that Rubio was “frustrated” by being “sidelined” on foreign policy decisions, while The Atlantic ran a profile of Witkoff calling him “the real secretary of state.”
Brian Hook, the architect of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran during the first term, at one point appeared poised for a senior role after leading the 2024 State Department transition team. Instead, Trump ultimately dropped Hook, as he did former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars… YOU’RE FIRED!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in January 2025.
That trajectory shifted months later when Trump launched airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Now, Rubio has become the most visible public face of the U.S. mission in Venezuela, appearing on television to clarify Trump’s remarks about the U.S. “running” the country. Rubio said Washington would rely on economic leverage and strategic tools — including sanctions enforcement and oil quarantines — to shape a transition.
He also laid out a phased plan for stabilization and recovery centered on controlled oil sales, underscoring his role as the administration’s principal explainer after the capture of Maduro.
Rubio’s visibility reflects the moment. Trump’s most consequential moves in recent months, from Venezuela to Iran, have unfolded abroad rather than around domestic initiatives like affordability and job creation.
“The members of President Trump’s national security team who have always executed Venezuela policy, including Vice President Vance, Secretary Rubio, Secretary Hegseth, General Caine, Director Ratcliffe, and Deputy Chief of Staff Miller, will continue to execute Venezuela policy,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital.
“Secretary Rubio has done a great job advancing President Trump’s foreign policy agenda as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, as exemplified by this latest action arresting narcoterrorist Nicolas Maduro,” she went on. “He is a team player and everyone loves working with him in the West Wing.”
Vance and Gabbard have been far less visible on foreign policy.
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Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and other senior Trump advisors sat alongside the president at Mar-a-Lago as he monitored Operation Absolute Resolve, the mission to capture Maduro. Vance participated remotely by video from Ohio due to increased security concerns, according to a Vance spokesperson.
Gabbard, who previously criticized U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, played no public role in the lead-up to the operation. Less than two days before it began, she posted a series of photos on X from Hawaii.
In 2019, Gabbard wrote that the United States “must stay out of Venezuela.”
After the operation, she praised its execution, writing: “President Trump promised the American people he would secure our borders, confront narcoterrorism, dangerous drug cartels, and drug traffickers. Kudos to our servicemen and women and intelligence operators for their flawless execution.”
“It is unfair to focus on DNI Gabbard’s past views, given other Trump administration officials have also previously voiced disagreement on policy or even slammed the President directly,” an administration official told Fox News Digital, adding that Gabbard provided the president intelligence for the Venezuela operation.
Vance, meanwhile, has focused much of his public messaging on domestic issues, including a fraud investigation involving Minnesota daycare centers and the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent — an incident the Department of Homeland Security has described as an act of self-defense.
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A Vance spokesperson insisted the vice president was “deeply integrated in the process and planning” for the Venezuela operation, as was White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
But, Kroenig said, Vance “is probably skeptical about how this is going, and I think he sees his base among Republicans who are skeptical.”
“While I think things are going well so far, there is still a possibility that they could fail — in which case, when he runs in 2028, he can say, ‘You know, I was never really supportive of this policy anyway.’”
Inside the lightning US strike that overwhelmed Venezuela’s defenses and seized Maduro
The U.S. military launched strikes against Venezuela and captured its dictator, Nicolás Maduro, on Jan. 3 — emerging from the operation largely unscathed as it handicapped Venezuela’s defense systems and potentially conducted cyber operations against Caracas.
Altogether, more than 150 aircraft — including U.S. bombers and fighter jets — were involved in the operation, successfully completing a “large-scale strike” against Venezuela, according to President Donald Trump. Additionally, Caracas, Venezuela, suffered power outages early Jan. 3 — an indication of a potential cyber operation.
Trump signaled that the U.S. may have been behind the blackout in Venezuela but did not provide details regarding the nature of a possible cyber operation targeting Venezuela’s civilian infrastructure.
“The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have,” Trump said.
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Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ defense and security department, said that while it’s unclear what exactly U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) and Space Command (SPACECOM) contributed to the operation, they may have penetrated some of Venezuela’s infrastructure.
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“We don’t really know what cyber did, some of the lights did go out, and Caine did talk about it,” Cancian told Fox News Digital Wednesday. “It’s possible that (they) got into some of their command and control systems.”
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that as U.S. helicopters with the extraction force and other law enforcement assets started to approach Venezuela’s shores, the U.S. “began layering different effects provided by SPACECOM, CYBERCOM, and other members of the inter-agency to create a pathway.”
According to Caine, U.S. aircraft involved in the operation included F-22, F-35, F/A-18 and EA-18 fighter jets, E-2 airborne early warning aircraft, B-1 bombers and “other support aircraft, as well as numerous remotely piloted drones.”
“As the force began to approach Caracas, the joint air component began dismantling and disabling the air defense systems in Venezuela, employing weapons to ensure the safe passage of the helicopters into the target area,” Caine told reporters.
These aircraft involved in the mission also likely employed weapons including the AGM-88 HARM, or high-speed anti-radiation missile, which neutralizes radar-equipped enemy air defense systems and other air-to-ground munitions to take out Venezuela’s air defense systems, according to Cancian.
A spokesperson for SPACECOM said that the command could not comment on the specific details of support SPACECOM provided to Operation Absolute Resolve, due to operational security concerns. But the spokesperson added that space-based capabilities including positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) that the military uses to support electronic warfare, in addition to other things, as well as satellite communications are “foundational to all modern military activities.”
“To protect the Joint Force from space-enabled attack and ensure their freedom of movement, U.S. Space Command possesses the means and willingness to employ combat-credible capabilities that deter and counter our opponents and project power in all warfighting domains,” the spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital Friday.
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CYBERCOM did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Other factors that contributed to the U.S. military’s success undermining Venezuela’s defenses were that CIA assets had been on the ground leading up to the raid, according to Cancian. Trump confirmed in October 2025 that he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
“They gave detailed descriptions of Maduro’s headquarters, and I’m sure located all of the air defense batteries around Caracas,” Cancian said. “So we had an excellent sense about where everything was, combining that with overhead surveillance and also electromagnetic intelligence.”
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Although Venezuela “on paper” has powerful air defense systems, Cancian said that success pulling off the operation stemmed from solid efforts from the U.S. military to destroy and disrupt Venezuela’s air defense system, in conjunction with poor training for Venezuela’s military.
Venezuela is equipped with Russian S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile systems, as well as Buk-M2E and Pechora-2M medium-range surface-to-air missile systems, according to the Modern War Institute at West Point.
Of the more than 150 U.S. aircraft involved in the operation, only one was hit, and zero were shot down. An administration official told Fox News Digital that seven U.S. service members were injured during the operation, but were “well on their way to recovery.”
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“Seems those Russian air defenses didn’t quite work so well, did they?” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told reporters in Newport News, Virginia.
Trump announced that U.S. special forces conducted a strike against Caracas, Venezuela, and seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The two were taken to New York and appeared in a Manhattan federal court Jan. 5 on drug charges. Both pleaded not guilty.
The raid came after months of pressure on Venezuela amid a series of strikes in Latin American waters targeting alleged drug traffickers in alignment with Trump’s effort to crack down on the influx of drugs into the U.S.
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The Trump administration repeatedly stated that it did not recognize Maduro as a legitimate head of state and insisted he was the leader of a drug cartel. Trump also said in December he thought it would be “smart” for Maduro to step down.
The Trump administration has since claimed that its actions seizing Maduro were justified as a “law enforcement” operation, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said congressional approval wasn’t necessary since the operation didn’t amount to an “invasion.”
Even so, lawmakers primarily on the left have questioned the legality of the operation in Venezuela, which was conducted without Congress’ approval.
“This has been a profound constitutional failure,” the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said in a statement Jan. 3. “Congress — not the President — has the sole power to authorize war. Pursuing regime change without the consent of the American people is a reckless overreach and an abuse of power.”
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“The question now is not whether Maduro deserved removal. It is what precedent the United States has just set and what comes next.”
US raid in Venezuela signals deterrence to adversaries on three fronts, experts say
The U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro has ignited sharp debate in Washington and abroad over whether the move undermines international norms — or delivers a deliberate deterrent message to rivals like China and Russia.
Critics argue that seizing the leader of a sovereign nation risks setting a dangerous precedent — one that adversaries could cite to justify their own military actions beyond their borders.
“My main concern now is that Russia will use this to justify their illegal and barbaric military actions against Ukraine, or China to justify an invasion of Taiwan,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said in a statement.
“What will we say now if Putin tries to capture Zelenskyy?” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., asked.
Others counter that such norms have never constrained Moscow or Beijing, and that deterrence is shaped less by legal arguments than by demonstrations of power, speed and capability.
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“I don’t think Putin or Xi ever doubted that power overrides sovereignty,” said Pedro Garmendia, a Washington-based geopolitical risk analyst. “What we’ve seen consistently from China and Russia is that they use rhetoric around international law when it suits them and ignore it when it doesn’t.”
Lethality
For U.S. adversaries, the most jarring signal may not be diplomatic fallout but the stark demonstration of American lethality.
The operation resulted in the deaths of dozens of Venezuelan and Cuban security personnel, according to Venezuelan and Cuban authorities, as U.S. forces pushed through layers of armed resistance protecting Maduro. Cuban officials acknowledged the loss of multiple military and intelligence personnel deployed in Venezuela, while Venezuelan authorities confirmed heavy casualties among elite security units. Independent estimates place the total death toll — security forces and civilians combined — at several dozen.
President Donald Trump publicly acknowledged the nature of the mission, describing it afterward as a violent operation by necessity, given the threat environment and the presence of armed foreign forces embedded within Maduro’s security apparatus. Trump argued the level of force reflected the reality of penetrating a defended capital and preventing Maduro from escaping or rallying loyalist units.
Analysts say that willingness to use decisive force — and to own it publicly — carries its own deterrent value.
Garmendia noted that Venezuela was no marginal partner for U.S. adversaries.
“Both countries have invested tens of billions of dollars in the Chávez and then Maduro regime,” he said. “Having the leader of that regime captured and taken into U.S. custody so suddenly — especially when a Chinese special envoy had just met with Maduro hours before — is frankly embarrassing to both countries.”
Execution
Beyond casualties, the operation sent a second signal through its execution: speed, precision and deep preparation.
U.S. special operations forces spent months rehearsing the raid, including training on a full-scale replica of Maduro’s compound. CIA officers built a detailed picture of Maduro’s daily routines — tracking when he slept, where he traveled, how his security rotated and which locations offered the narrowest escape routes.
That intelligence allowed planners to identify a precise window when Maduro was most vulnerable. Airspace suppression, rapid insertion and coordinated ground movement unfolded in minutes, denying Venezuelan and allied forces time to respond effectively.
Trump later pointed to that preparation as evidence the operation was deliberate rather than impulsive, arguing that speed and overwhelming force were essential to prevent Maduro from slipping away or turning the operation into a prolonged firefight.
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Former FBI counterintelligence operative Eric O’Neill said those details are likely to matter more to Beijing and Moscow than legal debates at the United Nations.
“At least while Trump is in office, it’s going to look a lot like deterrence to China and Russia,” O’Neill said. “They didn’t even get a chance to blink before Maduro was gone.”
O’Neill added that the execution underscored a broader message.
“That sends a strong signal that the United States can find its adversaries anywhere in the world,” he said, arguing rivals already inclined to violate international norms are unlikely to be emboldened by an action they lack the capability to replicate.
Experience
The final deterrent signal lies in experience: the institutional ability to plan and execute complex, intelligence-driven operations built on decades of counterterrorism and special operations campaigns.
U.S. officials point to the seamless integration of intelligence collection, rehearsal, logistics and kinetic force as evidence of a mature operational system that can be activated with little warning — an advantage adversaries must assume exists even when they cannot see it.
Concern has nevertheless been echoed by international institutions.
Ravina Shamdasani, chief spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office, warned the operation could weaken global norms.
“It sends a signal that the powerful can do whatever they like,” Shamdasani said, arguing the intervention “damages the architecture of international security and makes every country less safe.”
China said it was “deeply shocked,” condemning what it called the U.S.’s “blatant use of force against a sovereign state and its action against its president,” and claiming it “seriously violates international law” and threatens stability in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The criticism comes as Beijing has intensified military pressure on Taiwan, including near-daily air incursions and large-scale exercises meant to signal its own willingness to use force.
Russia likewise denounced the U.S. operation at the United Nations as a violation of sovereignty and international law, even as it continues its war in Ukraine while rejecting international legal judgments and condemnation.
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For U.S. strategists, that contrast reinforces the intended message: adversaries may invoke international law rhetorically, but what shapes their calculations is demonstrated capability — especially when paired with the experience to plan, rehearse and execute without warning.
As Trump urges deal, Cuban president warns that the country will defend itself ‘to the last drop of blood’
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez declared Sunday that the island nation would defend itself “to the last drop of blood,” responding to pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to strike a deal with Washington.
President Trump had spoken about Cuba in a Truth Social post earlier in the day, urging that “they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”
“Those who blame the Revolution for the severe economic shortages we suffer should hold their tongues out of shame. Because they know it and acknowledge it: they are the fruit of the draconian measures of extreme strangulation that the U.S. has been applying to us for six decades and now threatens to surpass,” the Cuban wrote on X, according to a translation of the Spanish-language post.
“#Cuba is a free, independent, and sovereign nation. No one dictates what we do. Cuba does not aggress; it is aggressed upon by the United States for 66 years, and it does not threaten; it prepares, ready to defend the Homeland to the last drop of blood,” he wrote in another post, according to the translation.
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U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., who was born in Cuba, responded to the foreign figure’s post.
“You dictators, henchmen, and executioners of the Cuban nation think you own the island. You don’t have much time left,” he declared, according to the translation of his post, also written in Spanish.
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Trump declared in a Truth Social post on Sunday, “Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided ‘Security Services’ for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE! Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last weeks U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years.
“Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” he warned.
TRUMP ULTIMATUM TO CUBA: ‘MAKE A DEAL, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE’ OR FACE CONSEQUENCES
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Rep. Gimenez thanked the president.
“I was born in Cuba & forced from home shortly after the Communist takeover. Today, I represent my community in Congress. Thank you, President Trump, first Venezuela & next is Cuba. We will be forever grateful. Our hemisphere must be the hemisphere of liberty,” the lawmaker wrote in a post on X.
DEA zeroes in on Cartel of the Suns bosses as Maduro is hauled into US narco case
The early-morning arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro sent shockwaves around the world, marking the most consequential move by the United States in its war against the dictator’s notorious “Cartel of the Suns.”
Maduro was indicted alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, son and three alleged co-conspirators with federal gun and narcotics trafficking charges. The case, which mirrors original charges filed in the Southern District of New York in 2020, adds charges against Flores and was filed under seal last month.
Maduro is facing four charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Federal prosecutors allege that for years, the Cartel of the Suns – or “Cartel de los Soles” – has worked in tandem with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) under Maduro’s leadership to execute a complex and large-scale cocaine trafficking network to funnel narcotics into the U.S.
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“The Venezuelan regime, once led by Nicolás Maduro Moros, remains plagued by criminality and corruption,” then-Attorney General William Barr said in a 2020 news release. “For more than 20 years, Maduro and a number of high-ranking colleagues allegedly conspired with the FARC, causing tons of cocaine to enter and devastate American communities.”
U.S. officials’ war against Venezuela’s trafficking empire dates back to 1996, after the country was deemed one of the largest drug transit hubs within the Western Hemisphere, according to a 2009 report published by the United States Government Accountability Office.
Venezuela’s shared border with Colombia – along with ongoing corruption within the country’s government – has long provided criminals with consistent resources to transport narcotics throughout the region.
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Since 2005, Venezuela’s cooperation with the U.S. regarding counternarcotic operations has significantly dwindled, denying visas to U.S. officials in 2007. One year later, then-President Hugo Chávez expelled the U.S. ambassador and recalled his ambassador from Washington, D.C., marking a significant blow to the two countries’ collaboration efforts.
While Venezuela and the U.S. agreed to reinstate their ambassadors in 2009, Venezuelan officials insisted the country did not need to work alongside the U.S. in counternarcotic efforts due to the country’s own programs.
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In an effort to crack down on Venezuela’s trafficking networks, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has worked both within the country and domestically to capture the cartel’s key players.
In 2018, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Padrino Lopez, a general in the Venezuelan armed forces, to its Specially Designated Nationals List.
In 2020, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Maduro and 14 co-conspirators, with charges stemming from investigations conducted in collaboration with the DEA.
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Five years later, Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, a top general known as “El Pollo,” pleaded guilty to the same charges brought against Maduro. His conviction marked a notable victory for U.S. officials, with co-conspirator Cliver Antonio Alcala Cordones also pleading guilty to providing material support, including firearms, to the FARC.
In 2025, OFAC sanctioned the Cartel of the Suns as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist due to its history of providing material support to Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel. Despite the accusations, a U.S. intelligence assessment comprised of 18 agencies later found no direct evidence of a connection between the cartels, according to The Associated Press.
However, the indictment filed against Maduro alleges he, along with his family, facilitated “cocaine-fueled corruption to flourish for his own benefit, for the benefit of members of his ruling regime, and for the benefit of his family members.”
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Federal prosecutors allege Maduro “provided law enforcement cover and logistical support,” such as facilitating transport – such as boats and airplanes – to cartels moving drugs throughout the region.
“This cycle of narcotics-based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States,” the indictment adds.
The DEA did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Expert warns of ‘extreme violence’ in Venezuelan mining as Trump admin eyes mineral reserves
The Trump administration’s renewed interest in tapping Venezuela’s mineral reserves could carry with it “serious risk,” an expert on illicit economies has warned in the wake of the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
A day after the U.S. military seized Maduro in Caracas, Trump administration officials highlighted their interest in the country’s critical mineral potential.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters on Jan. 4, “You have steel, you have minerals, all the critical minerals. They have a great mining history that’s gone rusty,” he said aboard Air Force One alongside President Donald Trump.
Lutnick also said that Trump “is going to fix it and bring it back – for the Venezuelans.”
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“Venezuela’s gold, critical mineral and rare earth potential is substantial, which makes mining resources very much on the menu for Trump,” Bram Ebus told Fox News Digital.
“But this illicit economy involves extreme violence,” he said, before describing abuses that include forced labor, criminal control of mining zones and punishments such as “hands being cut off for theft.”
Ebus, a consultant for International Crisis Group, cautioned that without strict safeguards, transparency and security, Trump’s efforts to tap Venezuela’s mineral wealth could entangle the U.S. in criminal networks.
“The sector is already dominated by transnational crime syndicates, deeply implicated in human rights abuses, and intertwined with Chinese corporate interests,” Ebus, the founder of Amazon Underworld, a research collective covering organized crime, said. “If corporations or foreign private security firms were to become directly involved in mining in Venezuela’s Amazon region, the situation could deteriorate rapidly and violently.”
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Despite the renewed focus on oil and mineral wealth, “when it comes to mining, the situation is more complex than oil,” Ebus added. “The illicit extraction of gold, tungsten, tantalum, and rare earth elements is largely controlled by Colombian guerrilla organizations, often working in collaboration with corrupt Venezuelan state security forces. Much of this output currently ends up in China.”
Ebus also described dire conditions inside mining zones. “Mining districts are effectively run by criminal governance,” he explained. “Armed groups decide who can enter or leave an area, tax legal and illegal economic activity, and enforce their own form of justice.” He also described how “punishments for breaking rules can include expulsion, beatings, torture or death.”
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“We have documented summary executions, decapitations, and severe physical mutilation, such as hands being cut off for theft,” he added. “Sexual exploitation, forced labor, and torture are widespread with crimes not limited to non-state actors.”
He also noted that “Venezuelan state forces, including the army, National Guard, and intelligence services are deeply involved and work in direct collaboration with organized crime groups.”
Ebus described how Colombia’s largest guerrilla organizations, including the ELN and factions such as the Segunda Marquetalia, along with Venezuelan organized crime groups operating locally – or “sistemas” – dominate illegal mining operations, noting that “there are at least five major ‘sindicatos’ operating across Bolívar state alone.”
“Together, all these actors make up the core criminal panorama of Venezuela’s mining sector,” Ebus added.
In 2016, Maduro established the Orinoco Mining Arc, a 111,843-square-kilometer zone rich in gold, diamonds, coltan and other minerals.
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The area has since become synonymous with illicit mining and corrupt officials.
In 2019, the U.S. sanctioned Venezuelan gold exports with at least 86% of the country’s gold reportedly being produced illegally and often controlled by criminal gangs.
However, from a U.S. perspective, Ebus said, the objective behind critical minerals could be limiting China’s access.
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“With gold prices expected to peak around 2026, access to gold represents a major benefit for national economies and government investment stability,” he said. “Beyond gold, controlling critical mineral supply chains offers enormous geopolitical leverage for the U.S., especially if it allows it to deny access to China.”
US used sonic weapon on Venezuelan troops, report shared by Leavitt claims
A viral story from a man claiming to have witnessed the U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro states that the U.S. used sonic weapons during the mission to incapacitate opposing forces.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared the eyewitness interview on X, encouraging her followers to read the statement. The witness in the interview claims to be a guard who was serving at the Caracas military base where the U.S. captured Maduro.
“We were on guard, but suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation,” the witness said. “The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn’t know how to react.”
The witness then described watching roughly 20 U.S. soldiers deploy out of roughly eight helicopters over the base.
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“They were technologically very advanced,” the guard said. “They didn’t look like anything we’ve fought against before.”
“We were hundreds, but we had no chance,” he said. “They were shooting with such precision and speed; it felt like each soldier was firing 300 rounds per minute.”
The witness then describes the U.S. deploying some sort of sonic weapon against Venezuelan forces.
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“At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it,” he said. “It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside.”
“We all started bleeding from the nose,” he added. “Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move. We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon — or whatever it was.”
“Those twenty men, without a single casualty, killed hundreds of us,” the witness claimed. “We had no way to compete with their technology, with their weapons. I swear, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
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The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital when asked whether Leavitt’s sharing of the post constituted confirmation of its veracity. The Pentagon also did not immediately respond when asked if the U.S. deployed sonic or energy weapons in Venezuela.