> Perhaps Venezuela is just a reaction to the action that is already happening, namely a world-wide concerted effort to abandon the petrodollar…

The petrodollar hypothesis is obsolete. It has been since America became an oil exporter.

The way you're presenting it, it's never been the case. Petrodollars let America finance a massive military. The military gives it power. We aren't sanctioning Venezuela into submission. We're bombing it.

Also, oil has been traded in non-dollars for ages. I've personaly done it at a bank trading desk in Connecticut.