All freedom defenders must welcome Maduro’s arrest as the beginning of a democratic transition process in Venezuela. The economic and political debate often ignores that the Maduro dictatorship weaponised the national oil company to use it as a cash machine to enrich the leaders of the socialist regime and finance the demolition of democratic institutions all over Latin America, creating an international group of allies with the main objective of demolishing US, European, and Latin American democracies from the inside.
Some commentators remove from the economic debate the deliberate collapse of PDVSA, Venezuela’s institutional destruction, and the use of oil as an international political weapon as well as a tool for the personal enrichment of Maduro and his allies. Maduro’s personal wealth is estimated at $3.8 billion. $700 million in assets has already been seized.
The selectively outraged now must recognise that Maduro’s arrest was carried out without violating international law—precisely when they admit the reality of more than 800 political prisoners, 10,085 killed and an election process that was stolen by Maduro, who usurped power. By acknowledging that Chavismo is a dictatorship, that Maduro usurps power illegitimately, and that the regime imprisons hundreds of political prisoners, they invalidate all the propaganda from the past week accusing the United States of acting against international law and sovereignty.
The reality is that the only one who has acted against international law, human rights, and sovereignty in Venezuela has been the dictator Maduro. The figures are clear: Provea reports that the regime has murdered 10,085 people since 2014. As of January 2026, major human rights NGOs estimate around 800–900 political prisoners in Venezuela, with a cumulative total of more than 18,000 politically motivated detentions since 2014. Amnesty International reports unfair trials, torture, arbitrary detention, and institutional abuses against dozens of children. Well over eight million Venezuelans had to leave the country. Giordani, the former planning minister, calculated that an uncontrolled diversion of around $300 billion in oil revenues occurred between 1999 and 2014. Credit Suisse estimates that corruption schemes and accounts linked to Chavista executives and politicians drained at least $11 billion between 2004 and 2014. GDP today is still lower than 27 years ago; 90% of the population live in poverty and 76% in extreme poverty.
Maduro and the socialist dictatorship have plundered Venezuela’s oil wealth, and citizens see almost nothing of those enormous riches.
The Chavista dictatorship has weaponised PDVSA, the national oil company, as a cash machine to pillage, steal, and grant favours to political allies who kept Maduro in power. PDVSA’s direct financial debt, including bonds, litigation, and associated obligations, exceeds $150 billion.
After squandering more than $300 billion in oil revenue to finance the Cuban dictatorship, support extremist parties worldwide, strengthen Iran’s ties to Hezbollah and Hamas, and promote the Bolivarian socialist project globally, some individuals have the audacity to complain about the supposed impact on the country’s sovereignty resulting from Maduro’s arrest and the beginning of the democratic transition.
The theft of Venezuela’s oil wealth has been especially obscene on the part of the Cuban dictatorship, which receives more than 50,000 barrels of free oil daily in exchange for sending thugs and agents to repress the Venezuelan people and protect Maduro. This situation is similar to what occurs with Iran. The Maduro dictatorship has been a key factor in financing the regime, sending gold and oil as well as helping fund terrorist groups in exchange for protection and a money laundering scheme for the Chavista regime.
In 1999, Chávez began delivering oil to Cuba almost free, in exchange for military support, including the fearsome “black wasps” and other thugs of the Cuban regime. Venezuela sent up to 115,000 barrels per day of oil and derivatives to Cuba for free. Even with the collapse of Venezuelan production, Cuba continued to receive more than 50,000 barrels per day without payment or benefit to Cubans.
When you read that the US wants Venezuela’s oil, remember that the ones that have drained the country’s oil resources are Cuba, Iran, Russia, and China.
The three companies with the largest reserves after PDVSA in Venezuela are two Chinese (Sinopec and CNPC) and one Russian.
In addition to direct embezzlements, PDVSA accumulates more than $21 billion in unpaid accounts.
Due to the enormous amounts moved in those contracts, Venezuelans have seen nothing but misery.
As I mentioned, Venezuela’s GDP is today lower than it was 27 years ago, with poverty reaching 90% and a currency that lost 12 zeros in ten years. That is a real attack on sovereignty.
Venezuela was not destroyed by sanctions. The economy was already in depression before any U.S. sanctions against the political leaders. Venezuela has trade agreements and financial relations with all the major economies of the world; the US is one of its major trading partners, and it has received tens of billions in aid and investment from China, Russia, and EU countries.
What destroyed Venezuela is socialism.
Venezuela is a relevant country for the US and the West. The use of vast amounts of money stolen from oil wealth to undermine Western democracies, finance terrorism, and demolish U.S. institutions poses a serious problem. institutions are a serious problem. Maduro’s complicity with drug trafficking also facilitates the entry of drugs, weapons, and human trafficking into the United States.
Maduro’s dictatorship is not just a machinery of theft and repression against Venezuelans; it is an international alliance between theocratic and communist dictatorships, united with drug cartels with a common objective: to undermine Western democracies’ institutions, interfere in elections, and destroy the West from inside.
The alliance of the Cuban and Venezuelan dictatorships with the global radical left through the Grupo de Puebla is relevant. It also seeks to whitewash dictatorships, spread their political project, and meddle in key elections, as in Colombia or Chile.
The United States does not need Venezuela’s oil because it is the world’s largest oil producer and is energy-independent; if it requires heavy crude, it can source it from Canada, Mexico, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and many other countries. The Venezuelan people desperately need the plundering of oil wealth to stop so that it can reach citizens in a manner consistent with a normal country that has transparent agreements.
The transition plan outlined by the United States is complex because actions must be taken to enable a democratic transition, and it is difficult when Chavismo has established a system of parallel power networks with Iranian and Cuban “agents” that make it challenging to recover independent institutions. To do this, the transition must be controlled and overseen, and the generals and regime members must be told they can either help or lose everything. Freezing Maduro and his family’s assets in Switzerland are clear warnings.
This transition plan requires that the democratic opposition, led by María Corina Machado, can govern as the ballot boxes unequivocally stated, but with a serious plan that prevents Chavismo from controlling and sabotaging any change. The transition process will therefore require the support of global democracies and some current leaders, but only as pawns who obey what they are told to advance Venezuela’s liberation.
Reconstruction will come by returning expropriated properties, restoring economic freedom, freedom of expression, and legal security, as well as creating a credible investment plan to recapitalise PDVSA, recover the industry, and expel the criminal web. The process will require a significant amount of time and funds, but I am sure it will eventually succeed.
The European elites, which now speak of international law and sovereignty but remained silent when Maduro demolished them, have a problem: their proposal is to do nothing. Doing nothing in Venezuela is to whitewash the murderous dictatorship, perpetuate it, and allow the anti-Western and anti-American international network operating from Caracas to advance in its destructive objective.
Global democracies cannot ignore the threat to all from this anti-freedom network that operated from Venezuela and therefore must join the solution instead of complaining that they were not invited to a committee.