Since last Saturday morning (January 3rd, 2026), news networks across the globe have been occupied in reporting on the developing story of Maduro’s “secretive” capture by America’s renowned military might, Delta Force. Though the masses may deem the surgical attack which resulted in the removal of the Venezuelan President, as a violation of international law, it is hoped that in the long run this act of willful aggression would prove to be beneficial to the Venezuelan people.
Notwithstanding, it is rather ironic to realize that even as President Donald Trump had made himself a broker of peace between Hamas and Israel, and even though he has been seeking peace between Russia and Ukraine, and though he claims to be the initiator of peace for eight wars, he, as an apparent international peace icon, has used his power as US Commander- in-Chief to launch a stealthy night-time attack in the bombing of Venezuela, capturing President Nicolas Maduro and his wife under the cover of darkness during Friday night.
“It was dark. The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to our expertise,” Trump boasted. “It was dark and deadly.”
Yes, it was indeed a dark and deadly kind of stealthy capture. Well orchestrated; well calculated. In fact, one prominent US general reported that this military operation, known as “Operation Absolute Resolve”, had been months in the planning and was well rehearsed. But there is one question that looms among news reporters and legal analysts. It is a question that baffles me, as well. And that is whether the Friday night attack and the capture of Maduro and his wife was a legal act, according to international law and standard diplomatic norms.
One begs to question: how can Trump use his military might to attack a sovereign country without the approval of Congress who is designed to authorize and regulate such military missions in foreign countries. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio is known to say that if Congress was informed beforehand, or if congressional authority was sought as pre-strike protocol, then there would have been a high probability that the carefully crafted mission would have been foiled through a potential leak.
I tend to think that whether or not Congress was apprised of the pending attack, and whether or not it had given its approval, the mission would have been carried out anyway, for the world’s largest American owned aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, along other destroyers carrying heavy military arsenal were not positioned out in Venezuelan waters for months just for nothing. Besides, several ‘barbaric’ airstrikes were made against boats heading north, suspected of transporting cocaine to the US. They were systematically, mercilessly obliterated – an indication that something of a higher magnitude was in the making.
So, most likely, congress’s disapproval would not have deterred President Trump from ordering this carefully-crafted attack. After all, it seems like this US President can do no wrong. He enjoys the privilege of presidential immunity granted him by the Supreme Court anyway, and officers of the Trump administration have expressed that there was a legitimate right for the attack that brought about the capture of Maduro in order to bring him to justice.
Now the Venezuelan President and his wife are being charged in a Manhattan court. He is indicted on charges of working with international drug-trafficking groups for the last two decades, shipping their illicit drug merchandise to the US. She is charged with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars as bribes related to this narcotics trade. The charges also include narcotics terrorism, and the possession of high powered machine guns and destructive devices poised against the US.
It is common knowledge that President Nicolas Maduro had been a ruthless, repressive dictatorial-style leader of Venezuela – a developing country which was once richened from oil reserves but which has now been reduced to a country of abject poverty where only the affluent and powerful thrive. Many Venezuelans who had opposed Maduro’s rule had been kidnapped and killed by brutish forces loyal to the dictator, and millions of refugees had to flee the economically debased country which still holds the world’s richest crude oil reserves.
And so, while President Trump issued his military orders to attack on the guise that Maduro was destroying the lives of millions of Americans through unfettered cocaine trafficking, it is evident that the President’s real goal was to take advantage of Venezuela’s massive oil reserves to further enrich American oil tycoons like Mobile, Exxon and Chevron.
“As everyone knows the oil business in Venezuela has been a total burst for a long period of time,” Trump said. “But we are going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest in the world, to go in, spend billions of dollars to fix the badly broken oil infrastructure and start making money for the country.”
He insisted that America will be running the country. But to what extent that “running” will involve America’s military might is still left to be seen. With that being said, it is hoped that in the next couple of years we will see the promise of fruits realized from this stealthy attack. And it is expected that within a couple more subsequent years, Venezuela will be prospering from the revived crude oil industry. Yes, it is hoped that the end will justify the means.
And no matter what becomes of Mr. and Mrs. Maduro, it is hoped that Venezuela will see a change of direction – a change for the economic, political and social betterment of the country. If the US really runs Venezuela, as Trump claimed, it is hoped that in the not too distant future we can see a harmonious relationship between the Venezuelan Government and the Americans, where not only the Americans pillage the country’s reserves for its rich moguls, but where Caracas and the Venezuelan people can benefit and grow from strength to strength.
