Why Venezuela Is So Important - Carlos Santaella and Mike Levesque

Why Venezuela Is So Important - Carlos Santaella and Mike Levesque

It’s time for politicians to stop arguing about Venezuela and the recent capture of the brutal dictator, Nicolas Maduro, and start counting.

Because when you start to count and look at the map, everything makes sense.

Venezuela has about 300 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, which is the largest on earth.

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More than Saudi Arabia, more than Iran, and more than anyone else.

At 10 million barrels a day, that oil reserve would last 100 years.

The United States uses about 20 million barrels of oil a day.

That means that Venezuela could supply half of America’s daily needs, right from our own backyard.

That’s not ideology.  That’s basic arithmetic.

 

For decades, US foreign policy was largely based on the purchase of Middle Eastern oil.

Even today, when America produces more oil at home, global prices jump when there is a problem in the Middle East.

 

If the US secures reliable Venezuelan oil, the Middle East loses leverage.

Shipping costs and risks fall.

Oil from Venezuela reaches the US coast in days, whereas oil from the Middle East travels halfway around the world, through sometimes very unstable regions.

Shorter routes mean lower costs, fewer disruptions, and more control.

 

If we take a look at the map, Venezuela sits near the Panama Canal, one of the most important trade routes on earth.

Roughly 6 percent of global maritime trade flows through it.

For over a century, the US has treated the Panama Canal as a strategic artery.  A hostile Venezuela near that route is a liability.

 

Venezuela also borders Colombia, a country that has fought violent armed groups and drug cartels for centuries.

For years, Venezuela evolved into a superhighway for cocaine moving north from Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru.

That didn’t happen by accident.  It happened because the government stopped enforcing the law.    

Fix Venezuela, and those routes collapse.

 

Venezuela’s transition will not start with perfect people.  It will start with people who know where the switches are.  The insiders will not go away.  They will try to survive.

The path is simple and clear.

Lights on first.   Ports open second.   Order before justice.

That’s phase one.

 

There can be no negotiation of Venezuela’s future with a “Maduro 2.0”.

The long-term partners must be the legitimate representatives of Venezuelans, led by Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

They will align with the US willingly and long-term because stability, legitimacy, and prosperity depend on it.

 

The US must take the lead in helping the transitional government stabilize its finances.

Investors will ask three simple questions:

Will contracts be enforced?

Is security real?

Can this country fall back into hostile hands?

If the answer is “maybe”, then investors step away.

 

The time-honored solution is also simple.

Venezuela keeps its sovereignty.

The US provides security guarantees.

Capital flows into rebuild infrastructure, power, ports, and industry.

 

But keep in mind, oil is not the only prize.

Venezuela holds large reserves of rare earth materials like bauxite, iron ore, gold and strategic minerals.

These are essential for defense systems, satellites, and next-generation AI chips.

Today, China dominates this space.   That is a national security problem

 

For the stability of our hemisphere, the presence of China, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, Cuban Intelligence services and criminal networks in Venezuela must end.

They must be replaced with Western institutions, companies and security cooperation.

A rebuilt Venezuela will result in a safer US.

 

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson spent $15 million to buy land that became 15 US states.

Critics called it reckless.

History called it genius.

Securing Venezuela is that kind of moment.

Not land, but energy.

Not conquest, but alignment.

Not rhetoric, but execution.

 

This is transactional diplomacy.  Fast, real and grounded in numbers, vision and geography.

This is how Venezuela becomes whole again.

And that’s how America stays strong.

 

 

 

 

Carlos Santaella is a US-Venezuelan strategic advisor with more than three decades of experience working at the intersection of energy, security, finance, and geopolitics across the Americas.

J. Michael Levesque is a former Mayor of West Warwick and an international consultant dealing primarily in the Middle East and Latin America.