However, tensions increased after President Hugo Chávez assumed elected office in 1999 and years later declared himself socialist and "anti-imperialist", in reference to being against the government of the United States.

The anti-communist regime allowed and supported the exploitation of the country's natural resources by the American oil industry, as a portion of the profits made its way from companies like Mobil and Exxon[11] to the personal coffers of Pérez Jiménez.

[12] The Seguridad Nacional, headed by Pedro Estrada, tortured thousands of Venezuelans and disappeared several others, both in its headquarters in Caracas and in a confinement camp on Guasina Island in the jungles of the Orinoco.

After the 1958 Venezuelan coup d'état, when Pérez Jiménez abandoned the government and the country on 23 January 1958, more than 400 prisoners were found in the basement of the headquarters of the Seguridad Nacional.

[14] Relations have traditionally been characterized by an important trade and investment relationship and cooperation in combating the production and transit of illegal drugs and were strong under the Puntofijo Pact governments in Venezuela, such as those of Carlos Andrés Pérez and Rafael Caldera.

[citation needed] After Hugo Chávez was first elected President of Venezuela by a landslide in 1998, the South American country began to reassert sovereignty over its oil reserves.

The Chávez administration overturned the privatization of the state-owned oil company PDVSA, raising royalties for foreign firms and eventually doubling the country's GDP.

[15] Those oil revenues were used to fund social programs aimed at fostering human development in areas such as health, education, employment, housing, technology, culture, pensions, and access to safe drinking water.

Senator Christopher Dodd, D-CT, requested an investigation of concerns that Washington appeared to condone the removal of Chávez,[22][23] which found that "U.S. officials acted appropriately and did nothing to encourage an April coup against Venezuela's president" nor did they provide any naval logistical support.

They cite a document dated 6 April 2002, which says: "dissident military factions...are stepping up efforts to organize a coup against President Chávez, possibly as early as this month.

On 15 September 2005, President Bush designated Venezuela as a country that has "failed demonstrably during the previous 12 months to adhere to their obligations under international counternarcotics agreements."

[35] Nonetheless, since May 2006, the Department of State, pursuant to Section 40A of the Arms Export Control Act, has prohibited the sale of defense articles and services to Venezuela because of lack of cooperation on anti-terrorism efforts.

[40] Chávez dared the U.S. on 14 March 2008 to put Venezuela on a list of countries accused of supporting terrorism, calling it one more attempt by Washington, D.C. to undermine him for political reasons.

[45] During his weekly address Aló Presidente of 18 March 2006, Chávez responded to a White House report which characterized him as a "demagogue who uses Venezuela's oil wealth to destabilize democracy in the region".

[47] Chávez's warm friendship with former Cuban President Fidel Castro, in addition to Venezuela's significant and expanding economic, social, and aid relationships with Cuba, undermined the U.S. policy objective seeking to isolate the island.

He has also proposed to sell, at a significant discount, as many as 66,000 barrels (10,500 m3) of fuel oil to poor communities that were hit by the hurricane and offered mobile hospital units, medical specialists, and electrical generators.

'"[54] In November 2005, following negotiations by leading US politicians for the US' largest fuel distributors to offer discounts to the less well-off, officials in Massachusetts signed an agreement with Venezuela.

The agreement aims to provide heating oil at a 40% discount to low-income families through Citgo, a subsidiary of PDVSA and the only company to respond to the politicians' request.

[65] After Obama had won the election, Venezuela's foreign minister labeled the outcome an historic moment in international relations and added that the American people had chosen a "new brand" of diplomacy.

[79] Obama issued Executive Order 13692 in March 2015, which blocks assets or imposes travel bans on those "involved in or responsible for the erosion of human rights guarantees, persecution of political opponents, curtailment of press freedoms, use of violence and human rights violations and abuses in response to antigovernment protests, and arbitrary arrest and detention of antigovernment protestors, as well as significant public corruption by senior government officials in the country.

The Guardian newspaper's Venezuela expert, Rory Carroll, has glibly categorized serious charges that Chávez was assassinated by a United States-produced bio-weapon as being in the same league with "conspiracy theorists who wonder about aliens at Roswell and NASA faking the moon landings".

"[83] Venezuela had been accused of withholding from the Venezuelan people humanitarian aid delivered from other nations, and of manipulating its voters in exchange for food and medical care.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the projected loss of oil imports from Russia due to sanctions in response to the invasion of Ukraine would be slightly below the amount Venezuela exported to the U.S. in 2018.

The decision followed the 2023 Venezuela election agreement signed in Barbados between the Venezuelan government under Nicolás Maduro and opposition factions, though pre-existing sanctions targeting the nation's gold industry were to remain in place.

[93] The agreement aimed for equitable access to both private and public media for all political candidates in the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, as well as guarantees on freedom of movement and safety.

[95] US Secretary of State Antony Blinken further advocated for the release of wrongfully detained US and political prisoners, and in a joint statement between the US, European Union, United Kingdom and Canada welcomed the agreement, calling it a necessary step toward the "restoration of democracy in Venezuela".

[97] In November 2023, following the easing of sanctions by the Biden administration, the Venezuelan government announced the resumption of talks with six multinational corporations aimed at restoring the nation's oil production.

Maduro described the US statements that claimed to be concerned with rising tensions and protests and warned against Venezuela's possible arrest of the country's opposition leader as "unacceptable" and "insolent."

"[106] Between 2014 and 2020, United States sanctions against Venezuela are estimated to have caused the deaths of 100,000 people due to the difficulty of importing medicine and health care equipment, according to academic Helen Yaffe.

"[137] In 1960, the UNITAS naval exercises and in-port training involving several countries in North, South and Central America were conducted for the first time in Venezuelan territorial waters in support of the Cold War U.S. policy.