Following the “Barbados Agreement” signed last October by the Venezuelan Opposition and Government representatives to facilitate “free and fair elections” and the US easing sanctions on oil, gas, and gold, I noted that “Maduro has raised the ante on their border controversy (with us) to counter the political challenge he faces next year after the economic and social implosions.” I then developed the thesis that Maduro was caught in a dilemma between trying to satisfy American pressures for elections that he knew would most likely remove him from office and the improvement in the economic sphere that their carrot of removing sanctions on oil, gas and gold could bring.