The image of Venezuelan elected President Nicolás Maduro, blindfolded and handcuffed, being taken into a prison in New York, presents the ugly face of Trumpian imperialism. In fact, it is not the first time that the US has invaded a sovereign country in pursuit of regime change. However, the abduction and humiliation of the Venezuelan elected president and his wife will be considered as the most brazen example of imperialistic aggression in the recent history of international politics.
The military action against the Venezuelan elected president has exposed US President Trump, who has, ironically, presented himself as a “man of peace” in his quest for the Nobel Peace Prize for diffusing the tensions between India and Pakistan and proposing the Gaza peace plan, officially the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict. Nonetheless, the abduction of Nicolás Maduro is a clear violation of international law and demonstrates the unraveling of an already collapsing global order, or whatever is left of it.
Moving ahead, President Trump also claimed to control the oil-rich Venezuela and its resources. “We are going to have a presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil,” Trump said, asserting America’s ‘right’ to the country’s oil. After President Nicolás Maduro’s removal from force, Donald Trump called a meeting of top American companies to discuss the takeover of Venezuela’s oil fields. President Trump’s meeting with the top American companies reveals that America’s blatant action in Venezuela had nothing to do with sending drugs and criminals to America but rather with capturing the oil of Venezuela.
The US military attack on Venezuela directed by President Trump was hardly a surprise, as America continued to increase the pressure on Caracas for the past several months. American Air Force jets had been bombing alleged drug boats and killed over 100 people without providing much evidence to substantiate their claims, in a blatant violation of international law. American forces also intercepted tankers carrying oil from Venezuela. The Trump administration has declared that Maduro was overseeing a “narco-terrorist” organization. The January invasion was very well planned.
Repeating the history and claims of the US intervention in Iraq, President Trump accused President Nicolás Maduro of “conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.” However, such charges still do not justify the invasion and abduction of the elected president of any country. They are just a cover-up for America’s unlawful military action. Moreover, many analysts believe that even Trump is not serious about the drug charge. For instance, media reports have pointed out that other individuals similarly charged with drug trafficking have received a pardon—among them a Honduran former president extradited to the US.
The doctrine of regime change is not new in American history. The US has frequently attempted regime change in South American countries to protect its oil and other companies and prevent the governments of these states from adopting an independent foreign policy trajectory. In fact, American administrations had tried to remove the left-leaning nationalist administrations of Hugo Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro for years, but they failed. In the past, the US first imposed sanctions against Venezuela during the era of Hugo Chávez. Following the Venezuelan president’s death in 2013, the administration of Barack Obama declared Venezuela a “national security threat” and imposed sanctions on certain Venezuelan officials for corruption and rights violations. President Trump’s first administration also imposed sanctions, blocking Venezuela’s oil exports. Sanctions and other factors have crippled the country’s economy, and the growing unrest there has seen America capitalizing on the situation to attempt regime change. President Joe Biden, for instance, had earlier called an opposition leader the “true winner” of a disputed presidential poll.
However, the latest development in the Venezuela-US timeline is the use of brute force against Venezuelan citizens and their elected president by the Trump administration, which clearly believes that the US is not subject to any international law and has extraordinary powers to raid a country in the dead of night and kidnap its leader without facing any censure, let alone consequences. Shortly after the operation, Trump stated at a press conference, “We are reasserting American power.” What is truly disgusting is the criminal silence and, in some cases, the tacit support by some countries for America’s military intervention in Venezuela. The European countries, while calling for international law and the UN Charter to be upheld, have also said that Maduro lacked “the legitimacy of a democratically elected president.”
To continue the kinetic approach, US President Donald Trump has also started to threaten other countries, such as Colombia and Cuba, with similar action. “America can project our will anywhere, any time,” declared Defense Chief Pete Hegseth with the imperialistic arrogance that has become the hallmark of the Trump administration. The maverick American president appears emboldened by his military success. Soon after raiding Venezuela, Trump, when asked whether the US would conduct an operation against Colombia, said that it “sounds good to me.” He also declared that Cuba was not worth invading because “it’s ready to fall.”
Trump’s imperialistic ambitions go even further. He has once again claimed that Greenland needed to be under American control. He has appointed a special US envoy for Greenland, ignoring the Danish government’s protest. In the past, he has threatened to annex Canada as the 51st state of America. Besides, he has once again threatened to militarily intervene in Iran to ‘protect’ anti-government protesters. Last year, the US joined Israel in bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities. To conclude, President Trump has pushed the world into extremely dangerous territory. He appears to have forgotten the lessons of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
