Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro recently made provocative statements suggesting that if the United States continues to interfere in Venezuela, Caracas may retaliate by 'liberating' the US territory of Puerto Rico. Despite the majority of Puerto Ricans voting in favor of becoming a US state, Maduro's rhetoric seemed more like a symbolic gesture rather than a serious threat.
The relationship between the US and Venezuela is likely to revolve around key issues such as oil, migration, and ideology. Venezuela, with the largest oil reserves globally, supplies crude oil to the US and is also the origin of millions of Venezuelan migrants who have fled the country under Maduro's regime. Additionally, Maduro's authoritarian socialist state stands in stark contrast to Trump's right-wing ideology.
