The US plan of mice and men of toppling Maduro in the past didn't quite work. Thereafter US tried to get Venezuela interested without giving them their gold back (from UK) or rescinding their position ref Guaido. Quelle surprise - that plan didn't work.

Secondly, Venezuelan crude is very heavy and only a small number of refineries in the US can handle it - they were specifically designed for Venezuelan oil. Obviously, the neocons don't want to spend the money by paying upfront - cheap skates.

Thirdly, Iran seems to be out of the picture since there is no deal on JCPOA. In addition, Saudis are not playing with Uncle Sam and will not increase their production. Hence Ruski crude is vital.

Casting aspersion on your imaginary left will get you absolutely nowhere:

Bolivia's lithium (outrage from the Left was and remains bizarrely, disappointingly muted).

You either haven't read or have forgotten many TLN threads regarding Morales and lithium. It won't save the world since it is a rare and dwindling resource, but it *is* a very valuable resource now, until it dwindles to nothing in the next couple of decades i.e. it has peaked, similar to Peak Oil.

If you wish to get genned up on the complex issues of oil and its meaning in geopolitics, especially with Russian crude oil vis-a-vis EU threatened embargo of Russian oil, you need to read this (the complexity of refining oil is mind-boggling):

Dear Ursula, you are dead wrong
https://thesaker.is/dear-ursula-you-are-dead-wrong/