Analysis

Time Not on US's Side in Venezuela, Former Chavez Advisor Says

18:30 GMT, 4 January 2026
© AP Photo / Julia Demaree Nikhinson
“The message” the US hoped to send to regional leaders through its brazen attack on Venezuela and its kidnapping of President Maduro is that Washington “calls the shots…and that if you do not obey, we will apply the Monroe Doctrine,” Professor Heinz Dietrich told Sputnik.
Sputnik
To China, which buys 80% of Venezuela’s oil, and whose yuan and BRICS-based oil payment systems President Maduro was seeking to join, it’s the same message, Dietrich, a former aide to the late President Chavez, who now heads a research center at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico City, says.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Heinz Dietrich at Miraflores Palace. File photo.
© Photo : H. Dietrich
But the US’s “obsolete,” imperialistic approach “will not work” this time around, the academic stressed.
Acting president Delcy Rodriguez seems intent on sticking to the Bolivarian, national sovereignty-oriented course which Maduro pursued.

“I think if we see it in a military analysis, a political analysis, it's one of these operations that is basically media-[oriented], which is a bluff. What is the strategic objective of kidnapping Maduro? There is no strategic objective because [the US] has nobody to substitute the kidnapped president. There’s a vacuum of power now for US imperialist interests in Venezuela.”

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What’s more, the Venezuelan police and armed forces are opposed to US intervention, as are a majority of Venezuela’s citizens (55-60%). Therefore, there’s no base “for a solid transition to a US-managed exploitation of the oil reserves” to stand on, Dietrich said.

“The US empire is broke. The United States needs $5T this year to finance its desolate financial situation…There is a lot of wealth, imperial wealth at stake, which the US would like to have, but I don’t think they have either the strategic thinking nor the real power, maritime or aerial power, to push this through. So I think time works against the US,” Dietrich summed up.

The US conducted a major strike on Venezuela on January 3, kidnapping President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, and whisking them out of the country to face trumped up 'narco-terrorism' charges. The attack killed at least 40 people, including military and civilians, per media reports.
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AnalysisUSNicolas MaduroHugo ChavezVenezuelaChinaBRICS
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