Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Ninety days after the United States’ dramatic kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the bombing of Caracas, US-Venezuela relations have witnessed a historic turnaround. The two countries have restored diplomatic ties, Venezuelan oil and mining sector sanctions have been lifted, and Trump has praised the leadership of Maduro’s vice president Delcy Rodríguez while seemingly sidelining opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Yet while high-ranking US officials and executives flock to Caracas, the country’s political and economic decisions remain largely under US control, the threat of renewed military action looms overhead, and the restoration of sovereignty over some of Venezuela’s internal affairs appears to be indefinitely delayed.
The Quincy Institute held a discussion with prominent regional experts to discuss the future of the United States’ economic, political and security relationship with Venezuela in the wake of the first of the first US military intervention in South American history and what this portends for US strategy toward Latin America and the Caribbean under the second Trump administration. We heard from Francisco Rodríguez, senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Julia Buxton, regional head for Latin America at Oxford Analytica and Orlando J. Perez, professor of Political Science at the University of North Texas at Dallas. Lee Schlenker, research associate in QI’s Global South program, moderated.
*Download the full webinar transcript here*:
quincyinst-2.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/02162223/What-is-the-New-Paradigm-of-US-Venezuela-Relations-Post-Maduro_.docx.pdf
Ninety days after the United States’ dramatic kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the bombing of Caracas, US-Venezuela relations have witnessed a historic turnaround. The two countries have restored diplomatic ties, Venezuelan oil and mining sector sanctions have been lifted, and Trump has praised the leadership of Maduro’s vice president Delcy Rodríguez while seemingly sidelining opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Yet while high-ranking US officials and executives flock to Caracas, the country’s political and economic decisions remain largely under US control, the threat of renewed military action looms overhead, and the restoration of sovereignty over some of Venezuela’s internal affairs appears to be indefinitely delayed.
The Quincy Institute held a discussion with prominent regional experts to discuss the future of the United States’ economic, political and security relationship with Venezuela in the wake of the first of the first US military intervention in South American history and what this portends for US strategy toward Latin America and the Caribbean under the second Trump administration. We heard from Francisco Rodríguez, senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Julia Buxton, regional head for Latin America at Oxford Analytica and Orlando J. Perez, professor of Political Science at the University of North Texas at Dallas. Lee Schlenker, research associate in QI’s Global South program, moderated.
*Download the full webinar transcript here*:
quincyinst-2.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/02162223/What-is-the-New-Paradigm-of-US-Venezuela-Relations-Post-Maduro_.docx.pdf
