Efforts by the United States to assume its transition takeover of Venezuela have been complicated by local politics. The US favor of Maduro's underling Rodriguez (versus Machado) is causing much head-scratching. It appears that Trump/Rubio do not trust Machado, and the US is pleased to stand on its achievement of kidnapping Maduro and cooperation with Rodriguez -- for now.
Populist activism in Venezuela has resulted in political protests there, where segments of the populace express outrage over the kidnapping of Maduro, while others favor installing Machado as leader. However, Machado seems to have somehow upset Rubio, where Machado is either unwilling or unable to comply with US demands, even though Machado claims Rubio to be an ally.
Rubio evidently considers Machado to be politically unreliable and a potential political complication at a time when the former United States is biting the bullet on Iran. Rubio does not wish to repeat the Iraq experience of the L. Paul Bremer Viceroy mistake, where the former United States attempted to create an entirely new political structure in Iraq (after the fall of Saddam) without consideration of the existing Ba'athist political structure. US inability to comprehend or control the intricacy of the Iraqi political divide, has hamstrung the US occupation of Iraq to this day.
Regarding Venezuela, the foregoing relates to the Brzezinski Doctrine, where the former United States must only exploit the resources of the failed states it creates, rather than attempt to responsibly rule those states via historic Colonial/ Imperial reign.
The US jettison of Machado in favor of the Venezuelan 'Bolivarian' status quo, conveniently dovetails with Trump's abject duplicity, a duplicity Trump projects unto others. And an intensely corrupt US political establishment is most reluctant to have a Venezuela fiasco under Machado appear in the news headlines, when the oil is flowing.
Unfortunately many unresolved issues still plague Venezuela, including continued outrage about the January 2026 US capture of its leader. That continuing outrage is especially prevalent among the people of Caracas.
Despite the earthquake in Venezuela, the heavy crude is flowing from there to the former United States, where Venezuela's oil is well-suited for US refineries in that import Gulf PADD. The issue is that the Trump regime is not particularly keen to share the income from that oil with the Rodriguez regime or people of Venezuela. So long as the foregoing holds true, a long term failure of the US to cooperate financially with Venezuela may lead to renewed unrest and dissatisfaction in the country, that may lead to trouble ahead for the former United States. It's a pattern we have seen many times before.
Trump has bankrupted six of his companies, six times between 1991 and 2009... and many observers believe that Trump is destined to bankrupt the former United States, too. It's probable Rodriguez understands that Trump is mentally unstable, suffering from dementia, politically unreliable, and incapable of reason or stable agreements. In that case, and as with all governments now, it's a waiting game to see when Trump will be rendered a lame duck incapable of creating more havoc for all.
But don't count Venezuela out. Venezuela will come back once again one day. Venauela will rise from the ashes to challenge the Vile Empire - a US financial empire plagued by fraud and corruption to its very core.
Steve Brown
