US pressure on Venezuela has not eased, as the rest of the world is turning to Iran
America’s pressure on Venezuela is unrelenting, even amid the war the US is waging with Iran overseas.
Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, is trying to manage the demands of the Trump administration as he seeks American support more than two months after the ouster of Nicolás Maduro, observers say.
Venezuela is on the administration’s radar, even though the US now has an ongoing war in the Middle East.
“I The Trump administration hangs over him like the sword of Damocles, forcing him to heed America’s demands,” Imdat Oner, a senior at Florida International University and a former Turkish diplomat who served in Caracas, said in an email.
There are other signs that Washington’s reputation is on the rise in Caracas, with US President Donald Trump sharing this week that he believes the US has shown that its actions in Venezuela have worked.
Trump told reporters on Monday that he believed the “formula” that saw an internal candidate replace Maduro in Venezuela could be a model for what the US would like to see happen in Iran.
“I like the insider’s view, because it works well,” Trump said during Monday’s news conference in Doral, Fla., while answering a question about Iran’s next leader, turning to Venezuela as a point of comparison. “I think we’ve confirmed that, so far, in Venezuela.”
Phil Gunson, the chief analyst of the International Crisis Group (ICG) in the Andes region, said that the new side of this American influence is that Rodríguez “obviously has the full support of the US, as long as he continues to play by the rules of Washington.”
Washington’s demands
Since Maduro’s ouster, the Trump administration has taken control of Venezuela’s oil and continues to push Caracas toward US-friendly tariffs on its oil and mining industries.
A steady stream of top US officials – including CIA Director John Ratcliffe, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum – have all traveled to Venezuela for meetings to promote US interests there.
Oner says that Rodríguez “so far” has complied enough with US demands that the pressure on him may decrease to some extent, as Washington is preoccupied with overseas war.
“He follows a 180-degree change in policy from a strong anti-Americanism to a more friendly approach to the American administration.,” said One.
Meanwhile, Trump is publicly proposing a plan for the US to target oil from Venezuela and decide how it is distributed.
“The relationship is amazing with Venezuela,” Trump said, saying on Monday that 100 million barrels of oil had been “removed” from Venezuela and brought to the side of the regime for refining.
The president said the program is “like a partnership” that works for both countries.
Burgum also told Fox News on Wednesday that the Trump administration’s actions have turned Venezuela “from a punished enemy … to a strategic ally.”
The ICG’s Gunson, however, says US control of Venezuela’s oil amounts to “a form of colonialism,” contradicting the long-standing pro-sovereign and anti-regime rhetoric of the Caracas government over the past 25 years.
Even so, he says Trump remains a “very popular” figure among some Venezuelans, who are just happy to see Maduro ousted.
“Venezuelan people have reasons to thank the US right now,” Gunson said.
But serious problems persist: A UN fact-finding mission said Thursday that Venezuela’s “machinery of repression” is still at work, even without Maduro.
The campaign told the UN Human Rights Council in a report that “organizations that have continued to be persecuted for years have not been completed, and State policies have not been announced to begin that process.”
And it said that 87 people have been arrested because of politics since Maduro was ousted.
The 15-member United Nations Security Council met at UN headquarters in New York hours before Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appeared in Manhattan federal court on drug charges, including a narco-terrorism conspiracy. Most member states openly criticized the US for its actions, and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a statement read by UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo, said ‘I am very concerned about the possible intensification of instability in the country.’
It’s been a tumultuous year so far
The Trump administration began pressuring Caracas late last year, with a build-up of US military assets in the region.
The US also began seizing oil tankers, depriving Venezuela of control over important revenues.
That was followed by a dramatic move by the US targeted strikes in Venezuela, enter the country again force Maduro out of power.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were then brought to the US, where they face criminal charges.
Even though those amazing events are over, Oner says Rodríguez still needs to stay in the good plans of the US president.
“We can say that he still depends on keeping Trump’s favor because the biggest challenge for him is to have a free and fair election.,” Oner said, adding that Rodríguez and his team could be out of power if that happens.
His connection to the presidency comes from Maduro, who was declared the winner of Venezuela’s 2024 election, despite the opposition being deemed to have won the election.
Rodríguez previously served as vice president under Maduro.
Meanwhile, the leader of the opposition party María Corina Machado, winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, remains out of government as the Trump administration supports it. Rodríguez after Maduro’s ouster.
And that didn’t change even after Machado gave Trump his Nobel Prize, which he openly coveted.
“It’s very funny,” Gunson said.
