What Comes Next in Venezuela?

President Donald Trump has decapitated Venezuela’s socialist government and shaken up regional and global politics with his daring operation to capture—and effectively depose—the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, who now awaits trial in New York. Yet Mr. Trump’s apparent plan to use the carrot of U.S. investment and renewed economic growth, as well as the stick of a blockade and sanctions, to “run” Venezuela’s foreign policy and its energy and natural resources policy will require more than a few hours to succeed. And at least so far, U.S. energy executives seem somewhat less interested in Venezuela than administration officials. How Venezuela’s leaders and people will respond remains to be seen.

On January 15, 2026, the Center for the National Interest invited two impressive expert speakers to discuss these and other key issues:

—Dr. Vanessa Neumann is founder and president of the Latin American business advisory firm Asymmetrica. She was appointed Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland by the National Assembly during the leadership crisis following Venezuela’s 2019 presidential election, though Nicolás Maduro ultimately retained his hold on power. She was previously a member of the OECD’s Task Force on Charting Illicit Trafficking. She earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University and has worked both as an international journalist and in corporate planning and finance in Caracas.

—Richard Sanders, the Center for the National Interest’s senior fellow for the Western Hemisphere, is a retired U.S. diplomat and former member of the Senior Foreign Service. He has served as foreign policy advisor to the U.S. Army Chief of Staff (General Mark Milley), as chargé d’affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Canada, and as director of the State Department’s Office of Brazilian and Southern Cone Affairs, among other posts. He has served in U.S. Western Hemisphere embassies in Chile, Colombia, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Paul Saunders, the president of the Center for the National Interest, moderated the discussion.