On January 3rd, 2026, Delta Force stormed Nicolás Maduro's compound in Caracas in Operation Absolute Resolve. Within hours, the Venezuelan president was shackled aboard the USS Iwo Jima, bound for Guantanamo Bay. Trump announced America would "run" Venezuela indefinitely. The prize? The world's largest oil reserves—303 billion barrels sitting beneath a nation producing less than a million barrels daily. It's regime change theatre: sanctions turned kinetic, liberation sold as law enforcement. International critics cry “land-grab”. Venezuelans are on the edge. Many express their joy on social media and thank Trump. Now the real questions emerge: Will India's Reliance and ONGC reclaim their Venezuelan stakes? Can China's sanctioned oil pipeline survive American control? And when US companies balk at investing in a country with no political legitimacy, what then? ET’s energy expert Sanjeev Choudhary and host Anirban Chowdhury decode the geopolitics, the markets, and the messy aftermath of America's latest intervention.

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Credits: Global News, dannypryp, AP Archive, The Guardian