As chaos in Venezuela continues, the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on President Nicolás Maduro and is threatening an embargo on Venezuelan oil. But that could backfire: if Washington pushes hard enough, Venezuela could go belly up on its debt, and that debt is owned in large part by Russia and China. The U.S. doesn’t want to be seen as furthering Venezuela’s problems, nor to have China and Russia seen as the ones who come to the rescue.

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