The United States Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2019.

President Trump and members of his cabinet at a meeting with oil executives at the White House on Friday.

Family members awaiting the release of prisoners outside El Helicoide, a notorious prison in the center of Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, on Thursday.

President Trump and members of his cabinet at the meeting with oil executives at the White House on Friday.

“We do not have U.S. armed forces in Venezuela, and we are not occupying that country,” Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday.

In Caracas, Venezuela, on Monday.

A U.S. military helicopter flying over the Panama-flagged Centuries, which was intercepted in the Caribbean Sea. American officials have suggested that they intend to seize another ship, Bella 1, which they are currently tracking.

President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela at a rally in Caracas, the capital, earlier this month.

The strike, conducted at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, had targeted a boat sailing along a “known narco-trafficking route” in the eastern Pacific.

An oil tanker anchored near the Cardón Refinery in Punto Fijo, Venezuela, in 2021.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth briefed senators on Tuesday.

Derricks in the Maracaibo oil fields of Venezuela in the early 20th century. American oil companies invested millions of dollars in the region, generating profits that flowed to the United States, rather than Venezuela.

Nicolás Maduro carries the flag of Chavismo, the brand of socialism promulgated by his predecessor, Hugo Chávez.

The Supreme Court ruling ended temporary protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants