It’s not every day that the United States overthrows the government of a 3rd world country. On the 3rd of January, 2026, President Donald Trump announced that a covert CIA operation successfully captured and imprisoned Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, revealing that he had been flown to New York to face several charges of narcoterrorism. Further statements revealed that the US will “run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.”
Maduro was an authoritarian leader who seized power in 2018. In the 2024 Venezuelan election, Maduro lost to diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez by 67%, according to the Carter Center. Despite this loss, Maduro pressured the Venezuelan courts, appointed with his loyalists, to certify results that he had won the election. Many countries, including Argentina, Peru, many European nations, and the United States declared Gonzalez the winner. Countries such as Russia, China, North Korea, and Bolivia declared Maduro as the President of Venezuela. Under his presidency, Maduro mobilized the military to maintain his authority. His leadership perpetuated issues with the economy, crime, starvation, and inflation.
President Trump’ s motivations weren’t entirely due to the human rights, economic, and authoritarian violations faced by the country. Venezuela, now under American control, has the largest proven oil reserves on the planet, with 303 billion proven barrels compared to 81 billion held by the US. While the action of the US has the opportunity to be beneficial for Venezuela, skewed motivations may lead to its citizens seeing little change once leadership transitions back.
Despite these facts, this situation continues to develop. Waves of people, many citizens of Venezuela, have expressed support for the operation to remove the President and his militant force. Others have voiced concerns for the stretch of Trump’s presidential power, as he orchestrated these attacks without alerting Congress beforehand. Although this force has the potential to greatly benefit the citizens of Venezuela, its begs the question of if such force used by the US will outstretch to other countries as well and if that force will echo similar unprofessional actions.
President Donald Trump, 2024: “I’m not gonna start a war, I’ll stop wars.”
