US-Venezuela Relations, Geopolitical Warfare, and Global Security

This article examines the January 2026 military intervention by the United States that resulted in the capture and detention of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. Drawing on qualitative descriptive analysis of secondary sources and framed within realist power theory, the study interrogates how material capabilities, strategic interests, and geopolitical competition influenced U.S. decision making despite prevailing normative constraints in international law. The intervention, justified by Washington as a response to alleged narco terrorism, human rights abuses, electoral irregularities, and threats to U.S. security, also reflects deeper strategic imperatives linked to control over Venezuela’s hydrocarbon resources and the broader politics of energy security. Historically strained U.S.-Venezuela relations shaped by ideological antagonism, sanctions, diplomatic pressures, and competing alignments with external actors such as Russia, China, and Iran provide the broader context for interpreting this event. The article argues that the U.S. action demonstrates enduring hegemonic behaviour in the Western Hemisphere, where power calculations related to regional influence and access to strategic resources can take precedence over institutional legal norms. By situating the 2026 intervention within debates on great power rivalry, resource geopolitics, and the structure of global power, the study contributes to scholarship on intervention, energy politics, and the persistence of power dynamics in the contemporary international system.