Venezuela didn't need anyone to demonize them honestly. Every country in the region hated their guts under Chavez who went out of his way to undermine any and everything US related even at the expense of letting his own people die to deny aid attempts by the US back in 2008. He also nationalized most companies in the country which in turn stole them from United States owners, yes stole, they were offered a buyout but never received full payment. His biggest allies were countries like Russia, Cuba, year 2000 Iraq and the such. Basically the who's who of assholes in the world. Oh, and don't forget that every form of destabilization in Venezuela was blamed on US interference when even one of the coup attempts had the US embassy warn the Chavez government it was coming... Chavez also complained about Bin Laden's assassination. Back in 2000 they also were helping aid guerillas in Columbia to attempt a destabilization of their government. Once again, not making neighborhood friends.

Like every other strict hardline socialist country, it failed miserably and their only out was to side with communist countries and blame the US to stay in power. The US didn't even have to put in embargos or sanctions against them for them to still completely fail and experience hardship honestly. Hardline socialism is impossible because it never accounts for human greed which topples the system.

Oh, don't forget that the primary socialist party for the past 10 years has been constantly going after their major opposition groups with death and or imprisonment. The country hasn't even had a universally accepted president since 2019 onwards. It is funny too how in 2020 when they started easing the socialist rhetoric and policies a lot of their bigger foreign nationals started doing business with them again and the situation for the average person improved dramatically. Not to mention other countries beginning to trade and do business with them once again.

TLDR: Don't be dickwads to work with while trying to undermine any and all things not socialist/communist. A lot of countries can ignore you being an authoritarian government but they won't ignore you trying to cozy up to their biggest enemies without consequences.