The United States bombed Caracas (and the provinces of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira) and kidnapped President Maduro on Saturday, whisking him away to the U.S. where he faces literally Trumped-up drug and gun charges in the Southern District Court of New York. The resort to charging him with violating a 1934 U.S. gun law highlights the ludicrous nature of the entire fiasco: Why would a Venezuelan living in Caracas be accountable for obeying U.S. gun laws?
The drug trafficking charges are scarcely more plausible, which would be easily demonstrated if Maduro were to receive anything like a fair trial (inconceivable in a U.S. court). In any event, it's painfully obvious that the U.S. doesn't really care about drug trafficking, having recently released from prison Juan Orlando Hernandez, who ran a large scale drug operation as President of Honduras from 2014 to 2022.
In fact, the United States lacks all legal basis for its Venezuelan attack, having acted without a United Nations resolution, without Congressional authorization, and without the slightest military threat emanating from Caracas. The political shortcomings of a government, whether real or imaginary, do not constitute any kind of legal justification for foreign attack; if they did, a long list of countries would be more than entitled to bomb Washington and Tel Aviv, while kidnapping President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu.
President Trump immediately promised to "run" Venezuela. When asked who exactly would be in charge he indicated it would be Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and the U.S. military. Though he suggested implausibly that Venezuelan Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez was being "cooperative" with the regime change operation, "defiant" is the more realistic characterization of her reaction. Already sworn in as Venezuela's interim president, she loudly declared that Maduro remains the country's only real president.*
Without even a hint of a popular uprising in favor of the invasion, and with only a handful of ground troops available as potential occupation forces, the U.S. president's unhinged declaration appears to be just the latest example of Trumpian fantasy masquerading as political reality.
Nevertheless, delusions acted upon have real consequences, none of which are likely to be pretty with Trump ranting about carrying out further operations in Venezuela and perhaps similar actions against Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua, and Greenland.
Both the Washington Post and the New York Times had advance notice of the U.S, attack, which fact they kept secret, guaranteeing the deaths of dozens of Venezuelans when the invasion occurred.
*Rodriguez subsequently issued a "cooperation" statement, obviously under duress, but which does not concede that the U.S. intervention is at all legitimate: "We invite the U.S. government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence." See interview with attorney Eva Golinger, Internal Coup? Was Maduro BETRAYED By His VP?, Breaking Points, January 5, 2026
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