Why Fears Persist Over US Aims on Venezuela’s Oil: QuickTake

On Nov. 11, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, arrived in the Caribbean Sea as part of a military deployment the US says is intended to counter Latin American narco-traffickers. The operation, the biggest US military mobilization in Latin America since 1989, follows a series of US strikes that have killed dozens of people on small boats that officials alleged were carrying narcotics.

The operation has raised the specter of a potential attack on Venezuela and the ouster of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, possibilities President Donald Trump denies. Maduro, along with other regional leaders, ...