The looming risks of a US-Venezuela war

The Caribbean country’s role in the global oil market is significantly diminished, but disruptions caused by outright conflict would still have implications for US Gulf Coast refineries

Recent months have seen a dramatic escalation in tensions between the US and Venezuela, raising the prospect that Washington could mount a war against the resource-rich nation. US President Donald Trump has accused his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro of fuelling drug trafficking and mass immigration from the Caribbean nation to the US. Yet given Trump’s foreign policy priorities elsewhere in the world, some observers believe his administration’s real goal may be securing access to Venezuela’s extraordinary resource wealth, which includes not only the world’s biggest oil reserves but also substantial deposits of gold, iron ore, bauxite, coltan, diamonds, nickel, phosphates and rare indu