The primary reason for America's interest in Venezuela is to secure access to its vast oil reserves, which are the largest proven reserves in the world, estimated at over 300 billion barrels. Despite this immense resource, Venezuela's production has collapsed due to decades of mismanagement, corruption, and the impact of U.S. sanctions targeting the Maduro regime. Latest developments show that while the U.S. has occasionally eased some sanctions (like allowing Chevron operations) in exchange for democratic commitments, sanctions relief has been largely reimposed due to a lack of progress on free elections, coinciding with increased U.S. military presence in the Caribbean, officially aimed at counter-narcotics but viewed by critics as pressure for regime change to secure future oil access, especially as the U.S. refinery structure is well-suited for Venezuela's heavy crude.
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