the blame will fall entirely on shithole and the GQP. The economy failing, that's on them too. Attacking American cities will be on them too, as well as deportations and concentration camps, et al.

Blame, blame, blame. I truly hate these people.

Esequibo was supposed to go back to Venezuela, but hasn't

To their West is Colombia which if it gets its act together with Venezuela will allow China to construct an oil pipeline from Eastern Venezuela to the Pacific Coast rendering the Panama Canal somewhat obsolete.for this function, among other things.

They don't like the treaty that was signed and claim that since Spain was the imperial power, they inherited Spain's imperial territories.

Maduro's response to dissent at home: make a common enemy that's oppressed you and victimized you, then claim that a patriotic "true" Venezolano must support the patria or fatherland since it's under threat.

Very Putin- and Xi-like, that.

Had to be oil and greed in the mix, beyond the drug claims. gop cares more about the $$$

Of course Trump wants it. He sure as hell doesn't care about fentanyl addicts. The drug charges are trumped-up anyway. While there is some corruption in the army echelons with enabling drug routes from Columbia, Venezuela is not involved in drug production and has no cartels identified by the State Department. It's all about the oil, Maduro's politics and refusal to become another US client state.

They nationalized and stole assets from international firms. Maduro took apart their national oil company and removed managers and executives only to replace them with political appointees. Their production dropped by close to 90% from peaks. It is very risky for foreign oil to invest there so they don’t. Huge reserves, nice people, but the government has ruined access to their largest resource.

I wouldn’t say it’s about becoming a client. You would need production and foreign investment for that to happen. Trump likely wants regime change to open oil.