Did we just lose an enemy? After harshly sanctioning Venezuela for years, the United States has suddenly changed course. “Maximum pressure” is over. Reconciliation and compromise are the new bywords. Eager to find new sources of oil, we’re finally acknowledging two truths: Venezuela does not threaten us, and our efforts to depose its leftist government have failed.

For years the United States has piled economic sanctions on Venezuela. They were first imposed during the presidency of Hugo Chavez, an anti-imperialist firebrand who once told the United Nations General Assembly that President George W. Bush was “the devil.” Since Chavez died in 2013 and was replaced by Nicolás Maduro, we have intensified our sanctions. President Obama declared them necessary because Venezuela — bankrupt, without a functioning navy, and more than 1,000 miles from our shores — posed an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

fter Maduro won dubious reelection in 2019, the US State Department announced that we no longer recognized him and would henceforth consider an opposition congressman, Juan Guaidó, to be Venezuela’s true president. We cajoled more than 50 countries into recognizing this nonexistent government. The Justice Department then accused Maduro of narco-terrorism, described him as “former president of Venezuela,” and offered $15 million for information leading to his capture. 

In 2020 “President” Guaidó enjoyed a hero’s welcome in Washington. He was given a bipartisan ovation at the State of the Union ceremony. President Trump embraced his “righteous battle for freedom.” Meanwhile, sanctions on Venezuela were tightened yet again. Economic collapse plunged millions of Venezuelans into poverty and set off a flood of migration. A squad of 60 armed men, including two Americans with military backgrounds, was intercepted while trying to storm a beach near Caracas, hoping to stage a coup. Nothing worked. Trump’s national security advisor, John Bolton, later wrote that the frustrated president “began blaming me for the opposition’s failure to overthrow Maduro.