What U.S. Meddling Did to Venezuela

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]This is a story about Venezuela, but it starts with Israel.

[00:00:04]See, Israel had stolen the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golden Heights from Syria. [music] So, in 1973, those two countries attacked Israel to try to get that land back. The United States responded by sending Israel more than $2 billion in military aid [music] to fight Egypt and Syria. So, some Arab countries were like, "Okay, you want to support Israel, then we'll stop sending you oil." 10 petroleum exporting [music] countries placed an oil embargo on the US and other countries supporting Israel and the price of oil went up. So what does this have to do with Venezuela? Well, it became one of the few countries the US and others could buy oil from at almost four times the price than the year before. [snorts] This meant that suddenly tons of money were coming into the country. But in Venezuela, it was private companies that extracted and sold the oil and most of them were foreign. So the profit from all that oil wasn't staying in the country. Most of it was going back to [music] the US or Europe where those companies were from.

[00:01:05]At the time, Carlos Andres Perez was the president. People called him comp. And he decided to nationalize oil. In other words, the government took the oil industry [music] back from private companies. Now it was the state in charge of oil operations and managing the profit.

[00:01:23][music] With that oil money, Venezuela built roads, universities, hospitals, public housing. It was the oil bonansa of the 70s.

[00:01:34][music] This is the time when some middle-ass Venezuelans would fly to Miami for the weekend just to go shopping. It's when the phrase became popular, meaning it's cheap, give me two. Because the Venezuela's currency was so strong that they could afford [music] to splurge. But in the midst of all that progress, there was one Venezuelan giving the country a warning.

[00:01:56]He said, "Oil [music] will bring us ruin." There was one Pablo Pereis Alonso. He had been Venezuela's oil minister, but he called oil the devil's excrement because Venezuela was becoming very dependent on it.

[00:02:09]>> The overwhelming majority of what Venezuela exported was oil. The economy revolved around it. So, the highs were high. But when the price of oil inevitably fell, it was going to be painful. [music] Venezuela became Latin America's richest country because of its oil. But the overdependence on it would also be one of the reasons for its downfall. There were also two other concerning things happening in Venezuela at the time. Corruption and debt. A lot of money was being funneled into the pockets of a few through oversized contracts and straight up stealing. The government was also borrowing billions of dollars. Since oil money was pouring in, they expected they would be able to easily pay it back. And then the price of oil crashed.

[00:02:54][music] Venezuela was no longer bringing in enough money to keep up with its spending. The government responded by devaluing dear. Now the wages that working Venezuelans [music] were making were worth less. Prices were doubling from one year to the next, leaving some families [music] struggling to afford food. Less than 10 years after the oil boom began, [music] the party was over in Venezuela. In 1998, Cap ran for president again. Venezuelans elected him, hoping that he could take them back to the golden [music] years of the 70s.

[00:03:27]But this time, when he took office, Venezuela was out of money and in a lot of debt with US and European banks and creditors. [music] And to stay afloat, they would need to borrow more. That's where the International Monetary Fund [music] comes in. The IMF is a global organization but mostly controlled by the United States. They offer to help nations [music] with financial troubles but under certain conditions. They can lend Venezuela more money but Cap would need to reverse what he [music] did in the 70s and go back to private companies being in charge of the oil industry.

[00:03:59][music] The government would also have to devalue the bolat even more which would make life less affordable for people. [music] And on top of that, they would need to cut the subsidies that were giving Venezuelans some relief amid the [music] crisis. In his first term, Cap said the IMF was a way for industrialized [music] countries to force developing nations to submit to abusive policies. [music] Policies that took money from a country's basic needs to send it to Western banks. [music] But in his second term, he agreed. One of the things Cap's government did was raise gas [music] prices. Venezuela was spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year keeping gas prices low [music] for people. When they eliminated that subsidy, bus owners passed the cost on to their customers. And one morning in February 1989, Venezuelans from impoverished towns that were traveling into the [music] city found out their bus fairs had doubled overnight.

[00:04:54]They reacted by overturning [music] buses and burning them. The outrage spread and soon there was rioting in multiple towns. The government responded by ordering the military to shoot. The [music] official death toll was close to 300, but outside groups estimated that as many as 3,000 people were killed.

[00:05:12]That day became known as El Karakaso and it showed Venezuelan's outrage that the [music] poor were being forced to carry the burden of fixing the economy.

[00:05:23]As this sentiment was spreading in Venezuela, the country would first meet Commandante Ugo Chavez.

[00:05:31]I want to make a quick pause to tell you why I wanted to make this video. I noticed the stories I've been told about Venezuela were incomplete. They lack context or were just false. And I think part of the reason for this is that the media we consume is skewed. Especially now with algorithms, we often get just one side of the story. Let me give you an example. When the US captured Nicolas Maduro, outlets on the right portrayed the event as a major victory against a ruthless leader and dictator, while outlets on the left frame the action as an attack or illegal assault driven by a desire to run Venezuela and tap oil reserves. I'm able to compare that coverage thanks to Ground News because they don't push or suppress stories to influence your perception of the events.

[00:06:13]Instead, their app and website gather headlines from around the world in one place, so you can see how different outlets are covering the same story.

[00:06:20]They'll tell you if each source is independently owned, corporate controlled, or government funded, if they politically lean left, right, or center, and their history of failing fact checks. I intentionally look to get out of my echo chamber to challenge what I think I know. But it can be overwhelming to sort through so much information. That's why what Ground News offers is so valuable because they make this information accessible and digestible in one place. Ground News is also fully independent and supported by readers like us. That's why I partner with them to get you 40% off the same Vantage plan I've been using. So go to groundnews.com/bianka by clicking the link in my description or scan my QR code to get a great deal on the Vantage plan. These videos are possible thanks to the support of our sponsors. So subscribing supports this channel and the team at ground news working to keep the media transparent.

[00:07:09]Now back to the video. As a lieutenant colonel in Venezuela's military, Chavez led an attack to remove tap, but they failed. [music] Chavez was captured and allowed to go on TV to tell the others to stand down.

[00:07:34]He said [music] they didn't reach their objective of taking over power for now.

[00:07:39]After this, Chavez became a celebrity.

[00:07:41]Not only had he tried to remove a government that had become very unpopular, but he also [music] took responsibility for what happened and hinted that he would be back. He went to prison for the attempted coup, but was [music] freed after a couple of years.

[00:07:55]And in 1998, he ran for president.

[00:07:59]This was a time of large inequality when [music] 5% of land owners controlled 75% of agricultural land. See, Venezuela [music] used to be an agricultural country, but with the oil boom, farming declined. The country started importing [music] its food. Large plots of fertile land sat unused and workers [music] moved to the city. They settled in urban slums. And there it was easy to see that the country's [music] oil riches were not reaching everyone. While Venezuela's elite and upper [music] middle class were living lavishly in the 70s, there were marginalized towns living in misery. Chavez promised to redistribute the country's land and oil [music] wealth. He said in an oil rich country, people should not be going hungry. He gained the support of impoverished neighborhoods around the country [music] and became the president of Venezuela.

[00:08:50]Within his first few years in power, Chavez would pass almost 50 laws. Two of them in particular would upset the country's elite [music] and the United States. See, at this point, the Venezuelan government had opened up the oil industry to foreign investors.

[00:09:04]Private companies used to pay the government a fixed fee [music] of more than 16% for extracting and selling Venezuela's oil. But after the so-called oil opening, some companies like Exom Mobile were able to negotiate that down to as low as 1%. The result was that they made hundreds of millions of dollars in profit from Venezuela's oil.

[00:09:27]When Chavez came to power, he passed a law that raised taxes again on private oil companies, now bringing royalties up to as high as 30%. The money that these private companies used to keep before Chaveis now would go to the state to fund things like health care, education, and housing. Chavis also passed a land law. Large estates that were sitting unused could be expropriated. The government could forcibly purchase the land and give it to small farmers or farmer collectives because according to Chavez, the land should be used for the benefit of the country. Venezuelans and poor communities love Chavez and we're [music] happy with his policies.

[00:10:06]While upper classes wanted him gone, the country was divided along economic class lines.

[00:10:22]opposition business leaders, media owners, and even the Catholic Church organized people [music] against the president. And in 2002, a crowd of Venezuelans took to the streets to protest.

[00:10:50]>> [music] >> Chavis supporters surrounded the presidential palace to defend it. Both groups clashed and almost 20 people were killed. [music] The opposition accused Chavez supporters of killing peaceful protesters. [music] They claimed the president ordered them to shoot and demanded Chavez step down. The protest appeared to suddenly become a coup. The factors in the military removed Chavez and business leader Fedro Carmona declared himself interim [music] president. Over the next few days, other countries would condemn the coup and called for Chavez to be returned to power. [music] While the US seemed to welcome the new government, >> President Chavez has had a rule that has been controversial and has not met with widespread popular support within Venezuela or with among among his neighbors and certainly in the United States with President Bush.

[00:11:37]>> At the time, George W. Bush was president of the US and his administration was not happy with Chavis before the coup. Not only had he increased taxes on [music] private oil companies, which affected US companies doing business in Venezuela, but he had also criticized the [music] US bombing of Afghanistan on TV.

[00:12:18]Chavez had also become close with enemies of the US like Kubas Fidel Castro [music] and Libya's Mu Mar Gaddafi.

[00:12:25]>> We have been concerned with some of the actions of U. Venezuelan President Chavez and his understanding of what a democratic system is all about.

[00:12:34]>> The US had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups opposed to Chavez, [music] including some that were later involved in the protest that led to the coup. The Bush administration said the funding [music] was to support democracy in the country. But US officials also admitted to meeting [music] with the leaders of the coup in Washington months before.

[00:12:54]After the coup, the US tried [music] to frame what happened as a protest by the people that forced Chavis to resign. But declassified documents showed the [music] US knew there would be a coup before it happened. Less than a week before the protest, US officials [music] discussed that quote to provoke military action. The plotters may try to exploit unrest stemming from opposition demonstrations [music] slated for later this month. In other words, they expected the protest to turn violent to have a reason to remove Chavez. [music] What they didn't expect was what happened next.

[00:13:28]The streets of Venezuela [music] filled again, but this time with supporters of Chavez demanding his return. The military complied and brought him back just two days later.

[00:13:50]But the opposition was not done trying to remove him. Executives and senior management at the stateowned oil company [music] led a strike. Almost half of the workforce at Petro de Venezuela walked off the [music] job and production came to a halt. Without the one expert that fueled Venezuela's economy, the country was [music] paralyzed for weeks and the government was left without the money to function properly. The opposition [music] hoped Chavez would be forced to resign, but he responded by firing 18,000 employees and replaced them with people loyal to him. Oil workers took control of the company and ended [music] the strike. And then in 2004, opposition groups gathered [music] signatures to try to remove Chaveis. More than 2 million people signed in favor of a recall, but almost 6 million people voted against removing [music] Chavez.

[00:14:40]He cleared the recall with 59% of the vote. 2 years [music] after the US claimed that Chavez didn't have widespread support, he won by a higher percentage than [music] the first time he was elected.

[00:14:54]>> After the vote and with oil [music] prices going up, Chavez was strengthened and emboldened. He went on to carry out his political agenda. Travis's government had set up [music] distribution centers to sell subsidized food below market price so poor households could afford it. They had also started Mission Rowing to teach adults who didn't know how to read and write [music] and misolent to bring free health care to poor communities in collaboration with Kuba. Venezuela sent oil to Kuba and Kuba sent doctors to Venezuela. 13,000 clinics were set up around the country. UNICEF praised it as a model of universal primary health [music] care. During his presidency, Chavis would even announce a national rail plan, a three billion dollar transportation system that was going to connect the country. [music] Under Chavez, poverty drop, so did unemployment [music] and inequality.

[00:15:54]Venezuela had its longest oil boom during Chavez's [music] presidency, and its main buyer was the United States, importing more than 1 million barrels of oil a day [music] from Venezuela.

[00:16:07]All while tensions between the two countries kept rising.

[00:16:12]The US invaded [music] Iraq in 2003, and Chavez became a harsh critic of the war.

[00:16:17]He called the US a terrorist [music] state. Chavez called Bush the devil.

[00:16:32]Fto >> and a donkey.

[00:16:35]>> You are a donkey, Mr. Bush.

[00:16:37]>> Meanwhile, he kept developing relationships with US adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran. He also spoke of uniting Latin America against the [music] United States and imperialism.

[00:16:49]And in 2008, Chavez kicked the US ambassador out of the country.

[00:17:00]The following year, Barack Obama became president. The two met, shook hands, and Chavez gave Obama a copy of Open Veins of Latin America, a book about the decades of exploitation of the region at the hands of the [music] US and Europe.

[00:17:14]Some wondered if the relationship between the two countries would improve, and compared to the Bush years, things did cool off. But then, Chavis intensified his condemnation of one of the US's closest allies, Israel.

[00:17:30]Between 2008 and 2009, Israel [music] killed 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza, including hundreds of children. Chavis accused the country of committing genocide [music] and broke diplomatic relations with Israel.

[00:17:46]>> Then, Israeli soldiers killed 10 activists that were taking aid to Gaza and a flotillaa. [music] Chavez called it terrorism.

[00:18:17]>> [applause] >> Meanwhile, when Obama was asked about Venezuela, he would question the state of democracy in the country. At this point, Chavez had pushed for a constitutional amendment that allowed him to be elected indefinitely. People voted for it and approved it. Chavez also denounced critics as traitors and some of the people who signed to recall him in 2004 were fired from state jobs.

[00:18:54]Chavez was also accused of surrounding himself with a new elite class, one that was using their access to the government to get rich. And one of the most common ways this happened was through the currency exchange system of the Chavis government. See, on the street, one US dollar would cost you more than 100 bolivares. But the government offered a special rate of little more than six bolivares per dollar. This rate was supposed to be reserved for people who were going to import goods. The thinking was that they would in turn keep prices low for Venezuelans. But what ended up happening was that people would buy dollars for six bolivar from the government and sell them for 100 in the black market and turn a profit without having to import anything. Billions of dollars were stolen like this. Chavis officials were also accused of taking bribes in exchange for government contracts like in the case of Brazilian company Odish. The company pleaded guilty in the US to paying millions of dollars to Venezuelan officials and then in turn they ended up scoring $40 billion worth of contracts. Most of the projects were not completed and this was a story repeated around the country.

[00:20:02]Projects started and never finished.

[00:20:05]factories that never produced anything and hospitals that were never built.

[00:20:09]Remember the National Rail Plan? Well, out of the more than 8,000 miles of railway promise, only about 1% was built.

[00:20:19]Billions of dollars went towards plans that were not completed. And that money was either borrowed or from selling oil.

[00:20:25]Remember this graph? How Venezuela's exports were almost entirely oil under cap. [music] Well, by the end of the Chavis years, that number was practically the same. When Chavez was elected, there was also a rainy day fund. By law, the government was required to save a portion of oil revenues for when prices dropped, but the president and his legislature [music] eliminated that loan. By 2013, the fund had just $3 million, while the country was more than $100 billion in debt.

[00:20:53]Remember the cap years? [music] High debt, corruption, and almost complete dependence on oil. All of these were present during the Chavis years, too.

[00:21:01][music] And just like with CAP, there was prosperity while there was a boom. But as always, there would be a bust. Over the next few years, oil prices would tank.

[00:21:29]Chavez died in 2013 [music] and his successor was Nicolas Maduro. At this point, Venezuela didn't have enough money to pay its debt and continue to import [music] essentials like food and medicine. So, Maduro chose to pay the debt and cut imports by as much as [music] 80%. The result was shortages and soaring prices. Poverty more than doubled and the number of malnourished Venezuelans went from 1 million to 4 million. The country was in crisis. The government food distribution centers that Chavez had set up [music] now had long lines and few items on the shelves.

[00:22:03]Most museum barro clinics were abandoned and millions of Venezuelans [music] left the country. And then when Venezuela was already suffering, the US made it worse.

[00:22:16]In 2017, Donald Trump became president and made John Bolton his national security advisor. Bolton was part of the Bush administration and one of the loudest voices arguing the US should invade Iraq, saying the country had weapons of mass destruction. Today, we know this was false, but the US still invaded and killed about 1 million Iraqis.

[00:22:38]Now, Bolton was advocating for an aggressive approach towards Venezuela.

[00:22:42]The Trump administration cranked up the pressure with sanctions. They prohibited US companies from buying Venezuelan oil unless they had a special license. They also restricted Venezuela's ability to sell oil to other countries. And for a country that depends on oil sales, this was devastating. Production of oil in Venezuela was already struggling. After the sanctions, it fell off a cliff and shortages of food and medicine deepened.

[00:23:09]As the situation got worse, Maduro's government became more repressive.

[00:23:13]Opposition candidates were banned from participating in elections and leaders of workers movements were jailed and tortured for speaking against the government. [music] The very groups that once put Chavez in power were now being persecuted. [music] And then in 2019, something stunning happened. [music] The president of Venezuela's National Assembly declared himself interim president of the nation. [music] Wanguaido was a member of the opposition and since he considered Maluda's re-election in 2018 to be illegitimate, he declared the presidency vacant.

[00:23:46]Minutes after taking the oath, the US [music] recognized Guaido as Venezuela's interim president and urged other countries [music] to do the same.

[00:23:55]>> Joining us in the gallery is the true and legitimate president of Venezuela, [music] Juan Guyaido. Mr. President, [cheering] please take this message back to you.

[00:24:06]>> [applause] >> Wido never stepped foot in the presidential palace. But one year later, Trump was still calling him the leader of Venezuela. And in 2026, Trump finished [music] what he had started. He succeeded in removing Maduro by invading the country and [music] kidnapping him.

[00:24:22]Maduro's vice president became the president. But Trump says it is [music] the US calling the shots in Venezuela.

[00:24:28]>> Don't ask me who's in charge because I'll give you an answer and it'll be very controversial.

[00:24:32]>> What does that mean?

[00:24:33]>> It means we're a [music] judge. Now, it is the United States selling Venezuela's oil and managing [music] the revenue.

[00:24:41]As always, there's so much more to the story. For example, you might have noticed that I didn't get into the topic of socialism or that we didn't talk about Maria Cororina Machalo, who has become the face of the opposition in Venezuela. But I did talk about those two things and much more with the Venezuelan journalist that I collaborated with for this story. He's one of the authors of Venezuela in Crisis: Socialist Perspectives. I'm going to leave a link to that conversation so that you can check it out. In the meantime, thank you for being here and I'll see you soon.