There was an attempted right-wing coup in Venezuela in 2019, supported by the US and some of its allies. The coup failed, and the leader of the coup Juan Guaido, who has attempted multiple failed insurrections and has courted foreign military support to install him, has pretended to be the legitimate president up until about three hours ago. Nevertheless the US applied sanctions to Venezuela in support of Guaido in the hopes it would lead to the collapse of the VZ government, once again inflicting collective punishment on the people of a weaker nation for political and ideological reasons. Economic reality has hit the US, though, and now they need VZ oil on the global market more than they want to topple the government.