Among the many goals of last week's U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was to send China a message: stay away from the Americas.

For at least two decades, Beijing has sought to build influence in Latin America, not only to pursue economic opportunities but to gain a strategic foothold ‌on the doorstep of its top geopolitical rival.

China's progress - from satellite tracking stations in Argentina and a port in Peru to economic support for Venezuela - has been an irritant for successive U.S. administrations, including that of Donald Trump.

Several Trump administration officials told Reuters the U.S. president's move against Maduro was intended in part to counter China's ambitions, and Beijing's days of leveraging debt to get cheap oil from Venezuela were "over."

'WE DON'T WANT ⁠YOU THERE'

Trump made the message explicit on Friday, expressing discomfort with China and Russia as a "nextdoor neighbor," in a meeting with oil ‍executives.

“I told China and I told Russia, 'We get along with you very well, we like you very much, we don’t want you there, ‍you’re not gonna be there,'" Trump said. ‍Now, he said, he will tell China that “we are open for business” and that they can “buy all the oil they want from us there or in the United States.”

The success ⁠of the January 3 early morning raid, in which U.S. commandos swept into Caracas and grabbed the Venezuelan president and his wife, was a blow to China's interests and prestige.

The air defenses that U.S. forces quickly disabled had been........

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