US-Venezuela Relations at the Present Stage: the Geopolitical Aspect

Abstract

Relations with Venezuela play a significant role in the US policy towards Latin America. Venezuela is an important resource state and a promising sales market, therefore it attracts the attention not only of the United States, but also of other important geopolitical players such as the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China, which view the situation in Venezuela as an opportunity to challenge the United States and to advance their regional interests in Central and Eastern Europe and the South China Sea and Taiwan, respectively. Therefore, the crisis that has developed in Venezuela is acquiring geopolitical significance, because the state is becoming an area of confrontation between the leading powers.
The objective of the article is to study and analyze the geopolitical dimension of bilateral relations between the United States and Venezuela at the current phase and find out how these relations affect the geopolitical situation on the regional and global scale, as well as predict possible scenarios for their further development.
The article provides an analysis of the American-Venezuelan political and economic relations at the point and concludes that the United States have imposed a number of sanctions and restrictions that put significant pressure on the Venezuelan economy. Having studied the role and position of the United States in resolving the Venezuelan crisis, the authors have indicated that the US support J. Guaido and are working on a plan to resolve the political crisis. The study also identifies the role of third parties in relations between states, in particular the strategy of the Russian Federation regarding the Venezuelan crisis. Attention is also focused on the fact that the events in Venezuela caused the migration crisis – a significant geopolitical problem and requires the attention of not only the United States, but also the world community. Taking into account the geopolitical interests of the United States in Venezuela and concerns about the emergence of global geopolitical players in the state, the most favorable way for the United States would be to strengthen its role in the negotiation process to resolve the Venezuelan crisis, as well as join coordinated actions with the Lima Group.