LOS ANGELES (OC).–President Donald Trump infuriated world leaders seizing 63-year-old Venezuelan President Niclolas Madura and his 69-year-old wife Celia Flores in an early morning raid at his fortified military compound in Caracas. CIA and FBI officials did their homework pulling off an nearly impossible feat of arresting Maduro and his wife in what Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls as police enforcement action for narco-trafficking. World leaders reject Trump’s justification for violating international law and Venezuelan sovereignty, especially Russian President Vladimir Putin, a close OPEC ally of Maduro. Chinese President Xi Jinping had harsh words for Trump calling his actions illegal, violating international law. Yet not one Latin American for foreign country came to aid of Maduro, letting the CIA and U.S. military completed it’s task of removing Maduro from power.
Trump ordered the largest build up of U.S. forces in the Caribbean since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, hinting a eventual regime change for Maduro for narco=trafficking. Trump had ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to neutralize drug trafficking boats from Venezuela since Sept. 2025, striking 35 boats and killing 100 sailors. Democrats in Congress have called Trump’s actiions extrajudicial killings, finding no legal justification for attacking Venezuelan boats accused of narco-trafficking. Trump’s Jan. 3 mission to remove Maduro and his wife from their military compound could not have happened without the full support of the Venezuelan military. Trump hopes to answer Congressional questions Tuesday, Jan. 7 at the Kennedy Center where Democrats will no doubt say Trump breached his Article 2 authority without Congressional approval.
Trump and the Pentagon have key differences with Congress over the president’s right as commander-in-chief of conduct intel and national security operation for the American public. Before the Jan. 7 meeting, Rubio said he’s been briefing senior members of Congress on the House and Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees. “In the meantime, we are remaining in constant communication with the President and his administration regarding the developments this morning in Venezuela,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). Rubio has been calling the events law enforcement actions, dispelling that ideal that the intent was regime change. Trump said that Venezuela must be turned over to a government with close ties to the United States, not the hostile regime of Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez. Chavez seized all U.S. oil assets in Venezuela in 2007.
Rubio made clear that because of the highly sensitive nature of the Venezuelan mission, members of Congress could not be informed. “This was not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on,” Rubio said, “It was a trigger-based mission in which conditions havto be met night after night. We watched and monitored that for a number of days,” Rubio said, explaining why the mission was kept Top Secret. Instead of rallying behind the flag, Democrats like Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) blasted Trump for bypassing Congress and violating international law. “The idea that Trump plans to now run Venezuela should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans,” Schumer said. “The American people have seen this before and paid the devastating price,” Schumer said, not saying what he was referring to, maybe in 1989 Panama invasion.
Schumer and other Democrats only look at Trump’s actions politically, hoping they can spin the events against Trump to win back Congress in the November Midterm elections. Schumer knows that any plan to run the Venezuelan government would be with the Venezuelan military and current pro-democracy leaders. Venezuelans, led by Nobel Laureate Maria Machado would work with the military to install an interim democrat leadership, something bound to irk Russia and China. Latin American Countries, with the exception of Argentina, condemned Trump raid on Maduro’s compound, seeing it as a violation of the U.N. Charter and international law. But Trump doesn’t buy that rogue regimes engaged in naro-trafficking have any rights to hide behind with international law. Russia and China certainly don’t like to see another communist regime bite the dust.
Worldwide condemnation from Trump’s actions in Venezuela stem from fear that the U.S. could topple any rogue regime that routinely violates human rights in any corner of the earth. It’s no accident that the governments of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea object the loudest because they know they routinely violate the rights of their citizens. Trump’s message to rogue regimes around the planet is simple, threaten U.S. national security and you’ll get the same fate as Maduro. Sending untold quantities of narcotics to the U.S. is not the way to win favors from the Trump administration. Instead of praising Trump actions in Venezueala, Democrats and the fake news have done nothing other than play politics at a time when the country needs unity on pressing issues. Maduro pushed Trump too far, refusing to stop naro-trafficking operations and paid the price.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
