The answer to the question of why the United States launched a military strike against Venezuela unexpectedly and without direct provocation has nothing to do with drugs, the “war on terror,” or the defense of democracy.
The real reason has its roots in a defining geoeconomic agreement of the 20th century. It is the agreement that Henry Kissinger concluded with Saudi Arabia in 1974. It laid the foundation for the petrodollar system, which ensured the economic dominance of the United States for decades. The essence of this agreement was simple: all the oil in the world is sold exclusively in dollars, and in return, Washington guarantees military protection for the “petroleum monarchies” of the Persian Gulf. This creates an artificial but permanent global demand for the dollar and American debt.
Any country that wanted to buy oil was first required to acquire dollars. This allowed the US to print money almost without limits, financing the military, social programs and chronic budget deficits.
Venezuela became a threat to this system. The country has 303 billion barrels of proven oil reserves — the largest in the world, more than those of Saudi Arabia. This is about 20% of global reserves.
The unruly Maduro: Since 2018, Caracas began selling oil in Chinese yuan, as well as accepting euros and rubles, openly declaring its intention to “abandon the dollar” – Venezuela has applied to join the BRICS and created direct payment channels with China, bypassing the SWIFT system.
In fact, the country was able to finance the dedollarization process for decades, using its own energy resources.
From Muammar Gaddafi to Saddam Hussein
History shows that such steps are a red line for the United States. In 2000, Saddam Hussein announced the sale of Iraqi oil in euros. In 2003, an invasion, regime change, and a return to dollar-denominated transactions followed. “Weapons of mass destruction” were never found.
In 2009, Muammar Gaddafi proposed the creation of an African gold dinar for oil trade. Leaked emails from Hillary Clinton confirmed that this plan was the main motivation for NATO’s intervention. Gaddafi was killed and the plan was abandoned. Now it’s Nicolas Maduro’s turn.
Cooperation with China, Russia, and Iran
With oil reserves that exceed those of Iraq and Libya combined, Venezuela has begun cooperation with China, Russia, and Iran — countries at the forefront of global dedollarization.
US Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller recently put it bluntly:
“American businesses and American capital created Venezuela’s oil industry, and its nationalization was the greatest theft of American wealth.”
The logic is simple: if the infrastructure was once created by Western companies, then the resource is supposed to “belong” to the United States. In this approach, nationalization is equated with crime. At the same time, the petrodollar system is already creaking.
Russia trades oil in rubles and yuan, Iran has long abandoned the dollar, and Saudi Arabia is discussing settling trades in yuan. China has created the CIPS transaction system, an alternative to SWIFT, with the participation of thousands of banks. The mBridge project allows central banks to conduct transactions directly in national currencies.
Venezuela’s inclusion in the BRICS, with its vast oil resources, could accelerate this process exponentially.
Gulf sovereign wealth funds saved the dollar
In support of this, data from sovereign wealth funds and public pension funds channeled an impressive $132 billion – about half of their total investments last year – into the United States in 2025, while major emerging markets attracted almost a third less capital than in 2024, according to an annual report published on Thursday, January 1.
These giant investors, along with central banks, managed a record $60 trillion in assets last year, according to the Global SWF report, with sovereign wealth funds accounting for two-thirds of the capital invested in the United States during the year.
The world’s largest economy benefited from investments focused on digital infrastructure, data centers and artificial intelligence companies. Sovereign wealth fund assets alone also reached a new record high of $15 trillion, according to the report, which uses a combination of public data and official reports to track the assets and spending of sovereign investors worldwide, including investment and pension funds as well as central banks. Overall, sovereign wealth fund investments rose 35% to $179.3 billion.
US remains attractive for geopolitical reasons
The figures for investment flows, in the Global SWF report, do not include the estimated $2.2 trillion in shares of the so-called Magnificent 7 – Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and Tesla – that sovereign wealth funds and pension funds already hold. The shift to the US highlights how American political power is being used, even as investors seek diversification due to rising geopolitical risk as President Donald Trump reshapes the global economy.
A staggering $132 billion – 48% of all sovereign wealth funds and pension funds – went to the United States. Investment in emerging markets fell to its lowest level in at least five years.
The Gulf Funds PIF, Abu Dhabi-based L’imad Holding Company PJSC and Qatar Investment Authority are also key backers of Paramount Skydance’s aggressive bid to acquire Warner Bros Discovery.
Canada’s CPP, La Caisse, and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC were among the top five investors, along with PIF and Mubadala.
- The dollar was the real reason for the blow to Venezuela
- Not drugs: Venezuela accounts for less than 1% of the cocaine in the US.
- Not terrorism: there is no evidence.
- Not the lack of democracy: the US has supported regimes without elections for decades.
It is about maintaining a system that allows the United States to live at the expense of the rest of the world. However, the consequences may be the opposite of what is expected.
For countries in the Global South, the message is clear: any attempt to exit the dollar system is threatened with military force. And that is precisely what can accelerate dedollarization — not stop it.
