Pressure on the governments in Caracas and Havana is justified

The position holds that the governments in Caracas and Havana jail their critics and have wrecked their economies, that American pressure on them is justified, and that removing Maduro and restoring Venezuela's oil sector is a legitimate and beneficial result. Its advocates speak of stabilisation, reform, recovery, restart and investment.

The position is voiced by outlets from Western and allied countries: 49 on Venezuela after the US intervention, 42 on the oil restart and economic opening, 42 on Cuba under maximum pressure, 39 on repression and control inside Venezuela, and 20 on US coercion and military action, which it calls justified. In recent events, US officials defended the oil agreement with Venezuela as part of a path toward democracy, and Chevron, Eni, Exxon and Continental signed or neared deals with the state oil company PDVSA.

One competing position says the United States bends smaller sovereign states to its will, and that its blockades of Cuba and Venezuela punish whole populations. Another says Western and US coercive interventions deserve legal and humanitarian scrutiny. Experts and lawyers called for contract transparency in the oil deal, opposition leader María Corina Machado criticised its terms, and China demanded that its rights and interests in Venezuela be safeguarded.