Not only because of Venezuela. As usual the simple yet effective "Qui bono" ("Who benefits") question can clear things up: The US and allies: - US and the EU

Not only because of Venezuela. As usual the simple yet effective "Qui bono" ("Who benefits") question can clear things up: The US and allies: - US and the EU are really not affected by low oil prices, you can even argue it is good for them since they're net importers. Also they have strong industrialized diversified economies, so they're hardly vulnerable on one single spot. - Saudi Arabia: can stand short-to-medium term low oil prices as already shown on the 70s crisis. About US "enemies": - Russia: badly hit, a big oil exporter, but unlikely to be weakened much since it can rely on other exports. - Venezuela: the most badly hit since more than 80% of its income is from oil, and having lost a charismatic leader replaced by a relatively unknown one, it's the right time to tighten the rope. - Iran: you don't want to give them a huge influx of petro-dollars just after lifting the sanctions. - China: since the beginning of the oil price plunging, it has shown difficulties to keep up and lately its stocks are free-falling. So clearly a net geopolitical gain for US and its allies. Also the political instability of Middle East and Libya chaotic situation brings more cheaper oil, so all this looks like was part of this same plan: get rid of annoying governments (Chavez/Maduro, Gaddafi and Al-Assad) and weaken others (Iran and its allies: Yemen, shiite Irak government) while getting cheaper oil which in turn weakens other enemies like Venezuela and China and helps ailing allies like the EU. Not a bad plan at all I think. And people that think politics and economics are not related are either naive or didn't read much History. It's called "economic policy" for a reason.