https://www.newsweek.com/us-took-over-venezuela-how-is-it-helping-country-now-12119116

The US ‘Took Over’ Venezuela Months Ago. How Is It Helping The Country Now?

President Donald Trump declared he was "in charge" of Venezuela six months ago, as the world reeled from the U.S. sending its special forces sweeping into Caracas to capture the South American country's long-time leader Nicolás Maduro in the dead of night.

Now, as the country reels from two huge earthquakes, feared to have killed thousands, the spotlight is on whether the U.S. will step up to the plate.

Trump said he had ordered U.S. agencies to "get ready to move quickly" after two "massive" earthquakes struck northern Venezuela in quick succession on Wednesday evening local time.

Under U.S. stewardship, Trump previously said, Venezuela would bloom, fed by oil investment that would then fund the reconstruction of the country's dilapidated hospitals, crumbling roads and rickety power grid.

But this change hasn't come as quickly as many in the beleaguered nation had hoped. Overwhelming national debt running into hundreds of billions of dollars is still blocking Venezuela's return to the world's financial markets, and while Maduro may be holed up in a New York jail, there's still no clear path for Venezuela toward democratic elections—nor concrete plans to eliminate corruption from the country's courts and government.

Without these, some experts say, the private investment the U.S. banked on to rejuvenate Venezuela likely won't materialize, particularly with the Trump administration reluctant to push Caracas back into chaos while it's tied up in Iran.

So, what has the U.S. actually been doing for Venezuela since January, and how will it respond to the devastating quakes?
US 'Immediately' Deploying Relief Teams

Trump has pledged to "be there for our new and great friends," Trump said after Wednesday's earthquakes in a post on Truth Social. "Early reports are not good!!!"

At least 164 people have been killed and another 1,000 injured, with the death toll expected to rise dramatically in the coming days.

Buildings collapsed in the capital, Caracas, while acting Venezuelan leader and Maduro's former deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, described La Guaira, just north of Caracas, as a "disaster zone." The area is home to the major international airport, which was quickly shut down as footage emerged showing ceiling panels at the Simón Bolívar International Airport tumbling toward panicked travelers.

The U.S. is "immediately" sending search and rescue teams, as well as medical supplies and unspecified humanitarian assistance to Venezuela, said U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

Rodríguez, said Thursday she had spoken with Rubio, and the top U.S. diplomat had "expressed his solidarity and support toward the Venezuelan people in these difficult moments."

The U.S. is also providing aerial images, so Venezuelan authorities can more clearly see the damage, especially around coastal areas, Rubio said. The U.S. will know more about the type of assistance Venezuela needs in the next 48 hours, he told reporters in Bahrain on Thursday.

But the Trump administration officially closed the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) nearly a year ago, which had been the biggest funding agency for humanitarian and development assistance across the world.

U.S. officials opposing funding foreign projects claimed the agency was inefficient. Critics said the closure could result in millions of preventable deaths in the coming years, a loss of U.S. influence abroad and a slower response to natural disasters.

While USAID workers would have arrived in Venezuela within hours of the earthquakes, there's no longer any coordinated way for the U.S. to respond quickly, said Christopher Sabatini, the director of the Latin America program at the influential Chatham House think tank who formerly worked at USAID.

The relief effort "now has to be cobbled together from different agencies," he told Newsweek.

The U.S. military's Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which covers more than 30 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, will likely be heavily involved in the disaster relief efforts, including with a hospital ship, Sabatini said.

The USNS Comfort, a hospital ship previously deployed close to Venezuela last year, is currently docked in Alabama, according to maritime tracking data. The U.S. military uses hospital ships for urgent surgeries and in disaster relief.

The Bigger Picture

But USAID would also have been involved in setting the stage for eventual reconstruction, once the dust settled. It's not clear who will be responsible for this type of planning in Venezuela in the coming months.

Trump has indicated private investment will foot the bill for rebuilding in the South American country, pushing oil executives to commit $100 billion into piecing Venezuela's infrastructure back together while insisting the U.S. government would protect their money.

Venezuela sits on huge energy reserves, but its refineries and pipelines would need overhauling to work properly. Until energy companies are more confident that Venezuela's government, courts and state bodies are working as they should, they will be reluctant to invest, analysts say.

Uneasy oil chiefs hit back at the White House pressure to pour money into Venezuela in January, with oil and gas giant ExxonMobil's chairman, Darren Woods, calling the country "uninvestable."

However, Venezuela's parliament then approved a change to a law put in place by former leader Hugo Chávez in 2001, which opened the door to private oil and gas investment. Spanish energy company Repsol, which has for decades operated in Venezuela, said last week it was expanding its projects in the country after inking new deals with Caracas.

Still looming large over Venezuela, though, is the country's enormous pile of sovereign debt, which is holding up Venezuela's return to capital markets across the world, and delaying Caracas being fully embraced by other financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Venezuela will reveal a total debt of $240 billion in the coming weeks, a figure much higher than the roughly $170 billion previously estimated for the country, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
What Has The US Been Doing?

Observers say the U.S. has been encouraging investors and executives to travel to Venezuela since January, helped along by commercial flights between the U.S. and Venezuela starting up again. U.S. airlines had been banned from flying to Venezuela since 2019.

The U.S. has also reopened its embassy in Caracas and formally re-established diplomatic relations.

Bonds have been forged in the national security sphere, too. CIA Director John Ratcliffe met Rodríguez for a two-hour meeting in the days after Maduro's removal, followed a few weeks later by a visit from the SOUTHCOM chief, U.S. Marine General Francis Donovan.

Earlier this month, the U.S. said its military had killed the head of the notorious Tren de Aragua prison gang based in Venezuela, with cooperation from Venezuelan authorities.

Venezuela's government said Niño Guerrero, whose full name was Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, was killed in joint U.S.-Venezuelan operations in the southeast of the country. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Guerrero died in a U.S. strike on a compound inside Venezuela "in full collaboration with Venezuelan security forces."

Despite closer diplomatic and military ties, there is still confusion over how the U.S. will help Venezuela tackle illegal activity and corruption, Sabatini said.

Many in Venezuela, initially hopeful and jubilant at the prospect of a complete overhaul of Maduro's regime, have grown frustrated, even protesting outside the newly reopened U.S. embassy.

The relatives and friends of political prisoners detained by Venezuelan authorities camped out near the embassy in Caracas for several days earlier this month, demanding the release of their loved ones and for U.S. representatives to intervene.

For now, though, Venezuela is dealing with a "natural disaster on top of a manmade disaster," Sabatini said.

And with rescue teams still searching for survivors in the rubble from the quakes, day-to-day life for ordinary Venezuelans is "going to get much worse," he added.