ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews that there has been both continuity and change in US-Venezuelan relations since the March 2013 death of President Hugo Chávez and the April 2013 election of his successor, Nicolás Maduro. The key trait in US-Venezuelan relations that has carried through to the Maduro administration is the disparity between economic and political relations. The network of diplomatic alliances that Chávez cultivated in the region has been hard to sustain, which has hampered its ability to dispense economic favors abroad, and in part because of the decline of chavismo's 'soft power' in the region since the mid-2000s. The chapter explains Maduro's inconsistent foreign policy toward the United States by examining the changing international and domestic context inherited by the Venezuelan president. The most significant difference in US-Venezuela relations, again from the point of view of Venezuela, is the country's spectacular governance crisis: economic collapse, crime epidemic, public sector dysfunction, depressed oil production, insatiable demand for dollars, capital flight, etc.
