Was Maduro's Capture About Oil?

Early Saturday morning, US Special Forces captured Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, along with his wife, in a surprise military operation. After months of buildup at 02:01AM local time today in Caracas, Venezuela, US Delta forces slipped into the home of dictator Nicolas Maduro. US president Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that Maduro had been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country. This comes after weeks of The US ramping up pressure on the government of president Nicholas Maduro, including seizing two oil tankers and conducting deadly military strikes on alleged drug boat smugglers. The Trump administration has given several justifications for its actions against Maduro. Now, Maduro is facing charges for drug and gun offenses. For many years after his term as president of Venezuela expired, Maduro remained in power and waged a ceaseless campaign of violence, terror, and subversion against The United States Of America. Through a translator in a New York court today, Maduro declared his innocence and said he is still the president of Venezuela. His wife also pleaded not guilty. But Trump said there was also another motivation for all this, oil. Here he is yesterday on Air Force One. Total access. We need total access. We need access access to the oil and to other things. Ultimately, he said something that wasn't done. Any of the oil companies' bingo card, which was that The US oil and gas companies were going to start plowing billions of dollars, in investments in Venezuela. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knudson. It's Monday, January 5. Coming up on the show, what is going on with Venezuela's oil? This episode is brought to you by HBO Max. Industry is back when a splashy fintech startup bursts onto the London scene. Harper and Yasmin drawn into opposing sides of a high stake financial deal that could bring them both down. Keenan Shipka, Max Minghella, and Charlie Heaton join Kit Harington in the cast for the wildest season yet. Season four of HBO's Industry premieres January 11 on HBO Max. This episode is brought to you by Zoom. The way we work is changing, and Zoom is leading the way with meetings, chat, docs, AI companion, and more together on one powerful platform. With everything connected, teams can stay focused, share ideas faster, and actually enjoy getting things done. From smart AI features to tools built for real collaboration, Zoom helps make your workday work for you. Ready to join? Visit zoom.com/podcast to learn more and zoom ahead. Venezuela has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. Here's our colleague Colin Eaton, who covers the oil industry. The government of Venezuela has estimated that reserves of oil in Venezuela are around 300,000,000,000 barrels. There have been other estimates that peg that number lower, but they seem to all agree that it's quite massive. Venezuela is actually estimated by some to have more oil than Saudi Arabia. But …