The United States has designated Venezuela’s so-called Cartel de los Soles a “foreign terrorist organization,” marking a recent escalation in tensions between the United States and Venezuela.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro heads the organization, which the United States alleges is involved in widespread corruption and drug trafficking. President Maduro has denied the accusations and has called the cartel an “invention” amid growing concerns about possible U.S. military action in the region.
The U.S. designation comes in the wake of continued U.S. ship interception in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, and the recent arrival of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group in the Caribbean this month. The US says the military buildup targets drug trafficking, but Caracas accuses the US of using it as a pretext for an “imperialist” plan to overthrow Maduro’s regime, a view echoed by some analysts.
Venezuela has long grappled with political instability and economic decline, caused in part by its dependence on oil. This vulnerability has been exacerbated by years of sanctions, leading to one of the world’s largest exodus as Venezuelans seek stability and better opportunities abroad.
Here are 10 charts to help explain how Venezuela got to this point.
Overview of Venezuela
Venezuela is home to approximately 28.4 million people and is the 53rd most populous country in the world.
Approximately 85 percent of Venezuela’s population lives in urban areas in the north of the country, a coastal mountainous region where most of the country’s major cities are located. The most populous cities are the capital Caracas (3 million people), Maracaibo (2.4 million people), and Valencia (2 million people).
According to the latest data from the World Bank, the average life expectancy in Venezuela is around 73 years and the birth rate is two children, meaning each woman gives birth to an average of two children. This is much higher than in many Western countries, where the birth rate is well below the replacement rate of 2.1 (the number of children a woman must have to maintain the population at its current level).
Venezuela’s gross domestic product (GDP) is $108.5 billion, making it one of the smallest economies in Latin America, despite its vast natural resources.
Almost 90 percent of Venezuela’s population is Christian, primarily Catholic.
Venezuela gained independence from Spain in 1811. Spanish is Venezuela’s official language, but several indigenous languages are also spoken.
How big is Venezuela?
By area, Venezuela is the 32nd largest country in the world and the 6th largest country in South America, with an area of 916,445 square kilometers (353,841 square miles). Venezuela is about the same size as Nigeria or Pakistan, and about 1.5 times the size of the US state of Texas.
Its landscape consists of mountains: the Andes to the west and the Montanoso Coast Range to the north and east. Tropical jungles, including the Amazon rainforest. River plain. and the coastal plain.
political leadership
Venezuela’s political landscape has historically oscillated between democratic rule, populism, and hardline rule. Since the end of military rule in 1958, the country has been in power under rotating governments, mainly led by two major parties: the Social Democratic Party of Democratic Action and the Christian Democratic Party of COPEI.
By the 1980s, the oil-dependent country’s economy began to decline. A global oil glut caused a deep recession, forcing Venezuela to seek bailout from the International Monetary Fund and introduce unpopular austerity measures. The two-party system weakened throughout the 1990s due to economic decline, corruption, and growing public disillusionment with traditional political parties.
This turmoil paved the way for the rise of Hugo Chávez, a former military man who led the 1992 coup attempt. Capitalizing on public anger at what many Venezuelans saw as a corrupt political order, Chávez was elected president in 1999, promising to abolish the old political system.
Once in power, he launched what he called the Bolivarian Revolution, after the South American independence leader Simón Bolívar. Rather than handing oil revenues directly to political elites through a patronage system, Chávez channeled them into social programs that expanded access to housing, education, health care, and military spending. Chavez’s populist government initially reduced poverty and inequality, but Venezuela’s unsustainable spending and deep dependence on oil left the country vulnerable.
By the mid-2010s, the oil crisis and tightening US sanctions had triggered a massive economic crisis and triggered one of the world’s largest mass migrations.
After Chávez’s death in 2013, his handpicked successor Maduro became president, integrating Chávez’s Venezuelan United Socialist Party into the country’s dominant political force.
Venezuela’s economic and trading partners
Venezuela relies largely on oil revenues for its government budget. It is estimated that in 2024, oil export revenues and taxes paid by the state oil company PDVSA will account for approximately 58% of the state’s revenue.
The country’s economy has been in deep turmoil for more than four decades, with GDP contracting by more than 70% from 2014 to 2024. However, US President Joe Biden’s administration eased some sanctions on oil and gas in 2023, resulting in annual growth of 5% in 2023.
Government officials predict a growth rate of 8% in 2024. According to Trading Economics, the growth rate in the third quarter of this year was 8.7% compared to the same period last year, mainly due to increased oil activity.
In 2023, crude oil accounted for half of Venezuela’s exports. The United States was Venezuela’s largest trading partner, buying half of Venezuela’s exports, mainly crude oil.
Petrocoke is Venezuela’s second largest export, accounting for more than 7% of total exports.
In 2023, China became Venezuela’s second largest trading partner, accounting for almost 10% of total exports, half of which was petroleum coke.
Spain will become Venezuela’s third largest trading partner in 2023, accounting for about 9% of exports, mostly crude oil.
World’s largest proven oil reserves
Venezuela has the largest known oil reserves, estimated at 303 billion barrels (Bbbl) in 2023.
But Venezuela exported only $4.05 billion worth of oil in 2023, according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity. This is far lower than other major exporters such as Saudi Arabia ($181 billion), the United States ($125 billion) and Russia ($122 billion).
Venezuela’s oil reserves are mainly concentrated in the Orinoco belt. This belt is located in the eastern part of the country and is a vast area spanning approximately 55,000 square kilometers (21,235 square miles).
The Orinoco Belt stores super-heavy crude oil with high viscosity and density, making it much more difficult and expensive to extract than conventional crude oil. Producing oil from this region requires advanced technologies such as steam injection and blending with light crude oil to increase marketability.
Due to its density and sulfur content, extra-heavy crude oil is typically sold at a discount compared to light crude oil.
In addition to crude oil, Venezuela also exports small amounts of refined petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel, but aging refinery infrastructure, technical challenges and sanctions limit the potential to increase export volumes.
immigration crisis
Around 2015, Venezuela’s net migration declined sharply, with a record 1.4 million people emigrating in 2018.
Over the past decade, President Maduro has tightened his grip on power and eroded democratic institutions through censorship, restrictions on internet access and persecution of political opponents.
The combination of sanctions and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis, leading to severe shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine. Although the rate has improved slightly since 2021, half of the population still lives in poverty. Meanwhile, according to Statista statistics, the inflation rate in 2025 is estimated at 180 percent, which means that people are facing a serious cost of living crisis.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the majority of people leaving Venezuela are fleeing to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Center for Strategic and International Studies said the economic crisis was “caused by the destructive policies and kleptocracy that have characterized the political landscape of the past two decades.”
What is the unemployment rate?
Venezuela’s unemployment rate was 5.5 percent in 2024. The unemployment rate averaged 10 percent from 1999 to 2024, reaching an all-time high of 21 percent in 2003.
How well equipped is the Venezuelan military?
The Venezuelan military is primarily responsible for protecting the country, its borders, internal security, and counter-narcotics operations. But Venezuela’s economic decline has weakened its military’s modernization efforts, according to Military Balance, an open-source document on militaries and spending around the world.
As of 2018, the Armed Forces had 123,000 active duty soldiers and 8,000 reservists.
Venezuela maintains close military ties with China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba, and relies on them for weapons and training. Joint military exercises with these countries have been held in China and Russia in recent years, most recently during the 2022 International Army Games, which Russia is hosting.
US attack in the Caribbean
Since September 2, the U.S. military has carried out at least 21 deadly attacks on ships off the coast of Venezuela, in the Caribbean Sea, and in the eastern Pacific Ocean, marking the heaviest U.S. military activity in Latin America since the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama.
The strikes, carried out under the authority of U.S. Southern Command, killed at least 83 people, according to a statement from President Donald Trump and senior defense officials.
The map below shows the approximate location of these attacks, according to data compiled by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data. Most of the attacks occurred near the Venezuelan coast or in international waters, raising questions about the legality of the United States’ use of force, especially in the absence of an immediate threat.
Drug route to Venezuela
President Trump defended the U.S. attack, saying the U.S. was dismantling drug trafficking routes from Venezuela, including an influx of cocaine and fentanyl.
However, data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows that most cocaine is not produced in Venezuela, and Venezuela plays a small role in the drug trade, primarily as a transit route. Some cargo and air shipments originate from or transit through Venezuela due to the country’s border with Colombia. Venezuela shares borders with three countries: Brazil to the south, Colombia to the west, and Guyana to the east.
According to UNODC, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia produce the majority of the world’s cocaine, accounting for an estimated 99% of global production.
Additionally, most of the cocaine destined for the United States is smuggled through the Pacific Ocean, often through Central America and Mexico.
