Recent reports that Chevron and other U.S. energy companies are preparing major new investments in Venezuela should be viewed as more than an oil story. They are a reminder that one of America’s most consequential geopolitical competitions is unfolding much closer to home.
For years, China and Russia have understood the strategic value of Latin America. They have used energy, infrastructure, financing, and trade to deepen relationships across the region and expand their influence. The United States cannot afford to treat these developments as someone else’s problem.
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America needs a strategy that recognizes Western Hemisphere energy security as a national security priority.
That starts with continuing to unleash American energy production. But it should not end at our borders.
The Western Hemisphere is home to an extraordinary concentration of energy resources. Canada and the U.S. are major producers. Brazil has become an increasingly important player. Guyana has emerged as one of the world’s fastest-growing oil producers. Mexico remains an important energy partner. And Venezuela possesses the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
The question is whether those resources will strengthen relationships within our hemisphere or provide greater leverage to governments in Beijing and Moscow.
China has spent decades building its position in Latin America. Through loans, infrastructure projects, trade, and investments in strategic sectors, Beijing has established economic relationships that can translate into political influence.
Venezuela demonstrates the stakes particularly well.
In the past, where relations between Washington and Caracas had deteriorated, China became an important financier and purchaser of Venezuelan oil, while Russia developed its own political, military, and energy ties with the country. America’s competitors recognized an opportunity in our neighborhood and took advantage of it.
Now, growing commercial engagement between the U.S. and Venezuela presents an opportunity to begin changing that equation.
This does not mean America should trade dependence on unstable regions elsewhere in the world for dependence on Venezuela. Nor should Washington abandon the goal of maximizing our own abundant energy resources.
It means recognizing that energy independence and hemispheric cooperation are not competing ideas.
A U.S. that produces aggressively at home while building stronger energy relationships with countries throughout the Americas will be more secure, not less. Supply chains become closer. American companies gain opportunities. Our neighbors gain access to U.S. capital and expertise. And the economic influence of China and Russia becomes harder to expand.
But stronger relationships must also be built on stronger principles.
As an attorney, I know investment depends on more than opportunity. It depends on the rule of law.
Venezuela’s history of nationalization and expropriation cannot simply be forgotten. If Caracas wants sustained American investment, companies must have confidence that contracts will be honored, private property will be protected, and disputes will be resolved through credible legal institutions.
That should be part of America’s broader approach throughout the hemisphere: investment paired with transparency, market principles, and respect for the rule of law. This is where the U.S. has an advantage that China and Russia cannot easily replicate.
America can offer our neighbors more than financing or access to a market. We can offer partnerships capable of producing investment, innovation, jobs, and long-term prosperity without asking nations to tie their economic futures to authoritarian powers.
Washington should treat the emerging opportunity in Venezuela as the beginning of a larger conversation.
We need a Western Hemisphere energy strategy that strengthens production at home, expands energy and trade relationships with our neighbors, encourages American private investment, and recognizes economic engagement as an essential component of geopolitical competition.
For too long, Washington has focused on countering China thousands of miles away while Beijing has steadily expanded its presence much closer to us.
The U.S. cannot dictate whom Latin American nations choose as partners. But we can make partnership with America the more attractive choice. Energy is one of our strongest tools for doing that.
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The competition with China and Russia will shape the coming decades. America should compete everywhere necessary, but we should begin by ensuring that the nations and strategic resources in our own hemisphere remain closely connected to us.
Our energy security, economic security, and national security increasingly depend on it.
Oscar De La Rosa is a Miami-based attorney, founder of De La Rosa Law, and former vice president of the Hialeah City Council.
