The Evolution of the US Policy in Relation to Venezuela During the Period of the B. Obama Administration

One of the basic factors of modern development of crisis processes in Venezuela is the US policy, the culmination of which can be considered the positioning of Venezuela in 2015 as one of the main threats to US national security (’extraordinary threat’ to U.S. national security) and the subsequent adoption of sanctions. Interest in the development of US-Venezuelan relations is to answer the question about the effectiveness of sanctions pressure as a tool of US foreign policy. At the end of the 20th century Washington traditionally viewed Venezuela as a reliable partner, a major exporter of oil to the United States and an importer of American goods. The bilateral relations of the countries during B. Obama’s presidency were the result of a wide array of conflict-related factors accumulated by this time. The coming to power of the administration of Democrat B. Obama was associated with hopes of reducing the degree of tension between the countries, but led them to the end of the second term of B. Obama’s presidency to the opposite - Venezuela was declared one of the threats to US national security; a package of sanctions was introduced against the country. Thus, it was decided to consider the development of bilateral relations between countries, on the one hand, in the context of objective regional processes and economic and social prerequisites, and, on the other hand, in the context of the personal role of country leaders in the conflict escalation. Keywords: Foreign Policy, B. Obama, U. Chavez, N. Maduro, H. Guaydo, Venezuela, OAS, “left turn”, Latin America