Venezuela’s leadership is sounding the alarm over what it views as a tightening vise from Washington, with President Nicolás Maduro appealing to fellow OPEC states for support as tensions escalate with the United States and President Donald Trump. His message, delivered in a sharply worded letter released on Sunday through state broadcaster TeleSUR, portrays a country under mounting geopolitical pressure and fighting to protect what it considers its most vital asset: oil.
Maduro accused the US of pursuing a campaign designed to “seize” Venezuela’s vast petroleum reserves, the largest known deposits on the planet. He urged OPEC members to recognize the stakes, saying the pressure now extends beyond Venezuela’s borders and threatens the stability of global energy markets. He asked the group, along with the wider OPEC plus coalition, to help curb what he called “growing and illegal threats” directed at his government.
The letter arrived a day after Trump abruptly announced on his Truth Social platform that Venezuelan airspace should be considered closed. Caracas dismissed the message as a “colonialist threat,” but it landed in a climate already charged with military activity. Over recent months, the US has expanded its Caribbean presence, positioning warships, aircraft and thousands of troops near Venezuelan waters. Washington frames the deployments as part of a drug trafficking crackdown, however independent analysts point out that American data shows Venezuela is not a significant source of narcotics entering the US.
Read also: Venezuela Airspace Closure Announced By Trump
Human rights groups have reacted with alarm to a series of lethal American strikes on vessels Trump labelled drug carriers. More than eighty people have died in those operations, prompting accusations of extrajudicial killings and violations of international law.
Venezuela’s oil industry, once a pillar of its national identity, has been battered by years of sanctions. Despite holding reserves estimated at more than 300 billion barrels, the country exported only a fraction of the revenue generated by other major producers last year. Maduro argues that this imbalance is the outcome of punitive measures dating back to the first Trump administration.
While Trump campaigns on promises to expand US drilling, many Caribbean nations warn that a future built on fossil fuels is a dead end for them. Rising seas, stronger storms and climate volatility have already pushed their resilience to the edge.