From jets to Florida luxury homes: U.S. seized a fortune from MaduroAll these leaders who preach against the rich and capital are all the same; what they dislike is the wealth of others. They create societies where poverty and misery are widespread among the population, who tend to flee the country in their millions, if they are allowed to and no walls are built to prevent them from escaping, while they continue to accumulate more and more wealth, at the same time as continuing with their rhetoric against the rich and capitalism.
This is nothing new. After staging a coup following their defeat in the elections just over a century ago, the first thing the Bolsheviks did was to take over the dachas for their own personal use.
It never fails: the more radical a leader's rhetoric against wealth and capital is, the richer he is himself. What he doesn't like is for others to get rich.
When discussing US-Venezuelan relations, it's most appropriate to use a geopolitical, geostrategic, and geoeconomic perspective. Venezuela possesses vast oil reserves, particularly extra-heavy oil. Anyone who influences Venezuela's oil exports automatically controls global oil supply and prices. Venezuela is America's backyard; for America, Venezuela is a testbed for the modern Monroe Doctrine and a stage for competition with Russia, China, and Iran in the Western Hemisphere.
Venezuela also provides a strategic fulcrum in the Caribbean/South America for Russia. Although there are no permanent military bases, easy access for bomber flights, military training visits, and joint exercises signals Russia's ability to penetrate a region previously under US influence. Rosneft, a Russian entity, has for years been a vital financial and commercial channel for Venezuela, including loans and oil marketing schemes designed to circumvent sanctions. Russia is also Venezuela's largest arms supplier, deepening Venezuela's military-technical dependence on Russia.
Trump wants to limit the money and weapons that support the Maduro regime, as a first step to maintain the stability of domestic oil prices and global supplies (hence the push-and-pull policy on oil sanctions), reduce regional migration flows, and contain the influence of Russia, China, and Iran in the Western Hemisphere. America knows that Russia uses Venezuela as a diversified front in global politics, Venezuela being a valuable piece on the global chessboard, despite the high costs/risks for Russia.