January 9, 2026
Back in the day, I lived in Miami in the Asia building on Brickell Key, the island at the mouth of the Miami River. I had a high floor condo with seemingly unlimited views of Biscayne Bay, the Atlantic, and the Miami skyline.
It was a concierge building with a staff who, as an example, would bustle out when you arrived and took your groceries up to your unit. Private elevators and all of that. I was driving a Jaguar and given all the Ferraris and Bentleys in the garage, really felt I was leading the low-end residential club in the building.
The thing was that for the concierge staff, English was a second language. Very common now in Miami. Because of the 120 or so condos in the building, I believe we had all of four Americans. Mostly everyone else was Venezuelan with Brazilians making up the balance. It was my first direct exposure to Venezuelans. Or more directly Venezuelans at the higher end of their social structure.
If there was one theme I heard more or less constantly, it was the pain they felt in what the Socialists (Chavez and eventually Maduro) had done to their country. Many fled to avoid the confiscation of their wealth. Professionals unable to practice freely because of graft and corruption (in Spanish, La Mordida…the ‘bite’). Family persecution because of their political background or affiliation.
I knew whole families who had left. But these were not isolated rich people getting out. Based on UN data, more than 7.9 million Venezuelans have emigrated since Maduro came to power. Maduro became president in 2013 following Hugo Chávez’s death.
The crisis represents the largest migration crisis in Latin American history and the second largest worldwide after Syria. This amounts to roughly 20% of Venezuela’s population leaving the country.
The majority have settled in neighboring Latin American countries, with Colombia hosting nearly 3 million Venezuelan refugees followed by Peru with approximately 1.7 million. The exodus accelerated particularly after 2014 as Venezuela’s economic crisis deepened, with an estimated 2,000 people continuing to leave daily even in recent years.
Until you understand the scale of the diaspora you can’t really understand what he and the Socialists did to that country. How they tore the heart out of Venezuela.
The government began the nationalization (a polite diplomatic word for “stole”) of the oil industry in 1976. The Socialist Chavez accelerated it, Maduro completed it. Exxon and others sued, they won in international courts, don’t know if they got paid, doesn’t matter…it was recognized as an illegal seizure.
As a result of the government sticking its dead but greedy hand into the business, oil production has collapsed from 3.5 million barrels/day when the Socialist Chavez threw out the oil companies, to less than one million today.
It takes a special talent to produce less than a million barrels when you sit on the world’s largest proven reserves. The country holds approximately 300 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, accounting for roughly 17-18% of the world’s total oil supply. This surpasses even Saudi Arabia, which holds the second-largest reserves at around 267 billion barrels.
We begin to see why it was the target. The world’s largest oil reserves in the hands of an international narco-terrorist, exporting drugs and oil to places like Cuba.
I’m betting you feel the way I do. You’re not shedding any tears for Maduro and his posse. You’re thinking life without parole is about right, a worse punishment than death, you’d probably be in the mainstream. I’m sure there are many Venezuelans who would want worse for the man.
So as a rational target, the ability to collapse the drug exportation business and begin to rehabilitate the oil business, and to extend democracy into a country that has the people to excel once again, it made sense. And then there is Cuba.
Cuba, another Socialist/Communist enterprise collapsed many years ago. I was in Cuba a few years ago, it is a travesty in what the Castros did to that country. Here is Havana, I did not cherry pick this picture:
Cuba is a Socialist/Communist state, Communists being Socialists who passed all the courses with flying colors. The country’s actual economic and political system is Socialist…the state owns most means of production, there’s centralized planning, and the government provides extensive social services. In casual usage, people often use both terms interchangeably when discussing Cuba, though technically Socialism is seen as a transitional stage toward Communism in Marxist theory.
Cuba has been held vertical, teetering as badly as it does, by cheap oil from Venezuela. That will stop, you can anticipate the final collapse of the Cuban Socialist/Communist experiment in the months ahead.
An aside…Marco Rubio is Cuban by descent. Living in Miami, I am very much aware of how they feel about the Socialists/Communists there. When I compare what the Cubans in Miami have accomplished versus what Cubans in Cuba have done, one is reminded that democracy and capitalism are wonderful things.
So, Cuba will be an extra dividend in the Venezuela strategy.
No, the problem that gnaws at me is this: Trump stated that the U.S. will temporarily “run” Venezuela and work to tap the country’s massive oil reserves, saying “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition” to new leadership.
Have we not learned the lessons of nation-building in the Middle East? Have we not learned that the whole world doesn’t share a desire for an American-style democracy? Have we not learned that we can’t fly social workers and soldiers into countries and change their basic character?
Evidently not.
Will Venezuela become another ill-fated international adventure? Why would I feel better if the President said…
”We’ve done our job, we’re leaving. They already have democratically elected leaders who can take power. They’re an industrious, highly educated people. We’ll keep the fleet offshore for a while, remind those in power we’ll act if they do the wrong thing. The oil companies will work with them, get things moving again.”
This worries me, this willingness to “run” Venezuela as though it was a small business that you can breezily take over. I think it’s the wrong place to be, I hope I’m proved wrong.
Meanwhile, I’m left with one over-arching thought: Is what we are witnessing a new strategy to deal with narco-regimes? Decapitate the leadership, invite everyone else to sit down and be reasonable, maybe get a new line of work?
I mean these places in Central America have been around for decades now, how else can you stop the rot? When criminals take over an entire country and make it the family business?
This will be a real story to follow now.
Meanwhile, the Mayor of New York called the President to object to his actions in Venezuela. Of course he did. That guy was not kidding when he ran for Mayor, although I’m sure a bunch of people thought he wasn’t serious.
Stay tuned…
Thoughts, questions, or reflections? I’d love to hear them. You can reach me anytime at anthony@workingprofit.com
