Man we were getting looted all these years, how else do you think we are now 240 billion in the hole and with 9 million Venezuelans spread all around the world?

Well what would you do if someone owed you 240b? Debt collectors don't exist where you come from?

Listen Citizen, how else do you expect to soften Cuba up for democratic liberation?

An ICE officer has been dispatched to your location

The entire situation in Venezuela was only sustainable because of their relation to the US. It's the same for Cuba, by the way.

If the US normalize their relation¹, a totalitarian government will have a much harder time there.

1 - As in "relates to it like a normal country". Treating it like an extractivist colony won't do.

you can talk about "opposition still remains" as much as you want, but it's the right wing leaders who are winning elections

Kinda, if you're the oil industry you are allowed to invest in Venezuela. But in a deep irony it seems like the oil industry is mostly uninterested.

I kinda wonder if the White House has just forgotten about Venezuela - there's not any clear reason they are still under general sanctions.

The same people attacked Iran without a plan for what to do if they closed the Strait of Hormuz

They were able to bribe those around Maduro and they gave him up. Thats why it went well. Anytime we can bribe our way to victory, it usually works.

When we can't (Iran), well, it starts looking like they have zero clue what they are doing.

The current admin has been embarrassingly bad at wielding the awesome powers of the US in a meaningful way.

Of course the US are the all-powerful juggernaut with many levers to pull to use their power. Winning battles is easy. Winning the metaphorical war is harder.

They know what they are doing in the sense that it is all about the looting

I'm happy to give charity as a general principle, but here, we're a bit off (the comment is pointing out ~nothing changed, which is accurate)

They know what they're doing, it just looks like they don't because they're not doing the thing people think they're doing.

This includes the war with Iran. Double dipping by fueling the military industrial complex blowing it up, then they'll be influencing who gets the contracts for the $300B secured. It makes no sense from a geopolitical standpoint. It makes perfect sense from the perspective of enriching influential persons.

The pro argument I find most convincing is that the US's interest is mostly in restricting oil going from Venezuela to China, which previously was the majority destination of of Venezuela's imports. A similar case can be made for Iran.

China possibly expecting something to this effect has recently built up both it's coal and renewables capacity, as well as an extremely large SPR.

Yeah, but did you considered that democracy was never a goal? Republican party is in full swing to destroy American democracy, why would they seek to create one in Venezuela?

Bribes and oil were the goal. Consolidation of allied dictator was goal. That worked.