The U.S. intervention in Venezuela in January 2026 marked an inflection point in Washington’s approach to Latin America. Trump’s long search for higher control of oil reserves started with the political transition in the country, following Maduro’s capture, and the consequent reforms to Venezuela’s industry. As US based companies start to amplify extraction operations in Venezuela, formal sanctions have been progressively eased. Yet, the easing is selective, and the new US approach towards Caracas operates beyond traditional sanctions.
Since January, The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has been issuing licenses reforming Venezuela’s hydrocarbons and mining sectors. Key licenses authorise oil and gas transactions exclusively through established US-based entities, structuring market re-entry around American jurisdictional control rather than open competition. The revenue-routing mechanism operates at three levels: market-access, revenue-capture, and surveillance levels, giving the US a self-asserted managing role in every transaction surrounding the Venezuelan oil market. Through these instruments, the administration is insulating US commercial access to Venezuelan resources, while structurally creating restrictions to Russian, Iranian, North Korean and Cuban capital. Several Chinese entities have been selectively restricted from re-entering the sector.
The deployment of US officials to evaluate Venezuelan state assets, coordinate oil sales and oversee revenue flows through US-controlled accounts has positioned Washington as a formal actor in Venezuelan macro-economic decision-making. Domestically, the administration has found a willing partner. Delcy Rodríguez’s government has supported amendments to sectoral laws and the Venezuelan parliament has endorsed reforms on the grounds that they will benefit national security and continue to attract investment.
Utilizing sanctions as infrastructure means the U.S. becomes more entrenched in the Venezuelan economic network, in an attempt to engineer its own chokepoint in the region. Traditional geo-economic chokepoints represent the weaponization of a transaction point within pre-existing financial infrastructure, such as SWIFT centrality to cross-border operations. The new policies represent a deliberate construction of a conduit in market participation, where jurisdictional control is embedded in the instrument design rather than discovered in existing networks.
Participation in Venezuelan oil markets is made conditional on passing through a US-controlled gatekeeping node that did not previously exist. Unlike transaction chokepoints, this mechanism operates as a direct revenue collector, this is particularly sensitive for a commodity-dependent economy such as Venezuela. The country has become emblematic of the vulnerabilities of resource-exporting economies, now adding new layers of fiscal intermediation.
The strategic consequences extend beyond the region. Chinese lending exposure amounts to over $60 billion, much structured through oil-backed repayment arrangements. The licensing architecture directly disrupts transactions between Beijing and Caracas, reducing capacity to collect revenue, especially from oil-backed repayment arrangements. In the broader context of US-China tensions, this has further undermined Chinese pursuit of commodity-based de-dollarisation in the West.
The US is, for now, mainly benefiting from this architecture for its short-term control over production and infrastructure.The passing from sanctions as a coercive mechanism to sanctions as infrastructure, from a tool of economic punishment to a mechanism of resource governance, represents a novel strategy in economic statecraft, operating at the center of trade policy and geopolitical strategy. The long-term question is whether such an extractive system can prove durable in a region sensitive to asymmetric economic arrangements and vulnerable to broader geoeconomic moves and countermoves.
Recommended readings
- Fishman (2025) Chokepoints
- Bracewell (2025) United States Eases Sanctions on Venezuelan Oil, Furthering President Trump´s Vision of US Companies Reviving the Long-Inaccessible Industry