…Among the major integrated oil companies, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil could stand to benefit greatly from regime change in Venezuela, if the new leadership allows overseas oil companies to return, analysts said…”

The nationalization of Venezuela’s oil industry in 2007 resulted in the exit of those two companies who were unable to reach a new agreement with the state-owned oil company PDVSA….”

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/05/venezuelan-president-hugo-chavez-dead-vp-says/#ixzz2Ml46ryvE

“The historically friendly diplomatic relationship between the Venezuela and the United States drastically deteriorated in the 21st century. While in office, President Chávez was highly critical of US economic and foreign policy and often refers to the United States derogatorily as “The Empire”-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_policy_of_the_Hugo_Chávez_government

Chavez’s inner circle has long claimed the United States was behind a failed 2002 attempt to overthrow him,
(http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/05/venezuelan-president-hugo-chavez-dead-vp-says/#ixzz2Ml46ryvE)

In reference to the 2002 coup, Chávez has asserted numerous times that U.S. government officials knew about plans for a coup, approved of them and assumed they would be successful. Chávez also further alleged that “two military officers from the United States” were present in the headquarters of coup plotters.Rear Admiral Carlos Molina, a central leader of the coup, later said that “We felt we were acting with US support … we agree that we can’t permit a communist government here. The US has not let us down yet.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Venezuelan_coup_d’état_attempt#U.S._involvement)

A United States IG report stated “…”It is clear that NED [the National Endowment for Democracy], Department of Defense (DOD), and other U.S. assistance programs provided training, institution building, and other support to individuals and organizations understood to be actively involved in the brief ouster of the Chávez government….”

The Guardian newspaper reported extensively on the U.S. involvement in the Coup in 2002:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/apr/21/usa.venezuela

Two major oil corporations kicked out of Venezuela in 2007…(probably the last straw for Chavez)

Chavez was first diagnosed with cancer in June 2011

Venezuela’s defense minister announced the government had expelled two U.S. diplomats from the country and said “we have no doubt” that Chavez’s cancer, which was first diagnosed in June 2011, was induced by “the historical enemies of our homeland.”
He compared the situation to the death of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, claiming Arafat was “inoculated with an illness. He accused U.S. Embassy’s Air Force attache Col. David Delmonaco of spying on Venezuela’s military and seeking to involve officers in “destabilizing projects.” Maduro gave Delmonaco 24 hours to leave, and U.S. officials said he had already departed the country.
Maduro said Tuesday that the government was “on the trail of other elements that figure in this entire venomous scenario and are seeking to stir up trouble.”
(http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/05/venezuelan-president-hugo-chavez-dead-vp-says/#ixzz2Ml4op5Jf)

The Defense Minister also Tuesday repeated government claims that Capriles (opposition leader to Chavez) met in the United States over the weekend with right-wing U.S. conspirators and was planning to meet over the weekend with Roberta Jacobsen, assistant U.S. secretary of state for the hemisphere.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/05/venezuelan-president-hugo-chavez-dead-vp-says/#ixzz2Ml5FhvEI