TRUMP’S VENEZUELA DRAMA CATCHES MADURO - AND THE WORLD - OFFGUARD

By Staff Writer

Labelled ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’, it started with a daring pre-dawn attack and ended - for the time being at least - with the Venezuelan president being ‘captured’ and taken to the United States to appear in a New York Court on charges related to drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.

In what could be a script for a Hollywood blockbuster and at the same time a new chapter in world history and the study of international relations, the American president, Donald Trump, on Saturday confirmed the bombing of the Venezuelan capital Caracas, and the ‘capture’ of the - now ousted - president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR VENEZUELA

During a press conference a few hours later, the US president further stated that the United States will take control of Venezuela and run the affairs of the country until what he describes as ‘a proper transition’ takes place.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years.”

He also stated that it was unlikely that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado would be installed as leader, as “she is not respected” and “doesn’t have the support” needed to run the country following the capture and ouster of President Maduro.

The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who had dedicated her award to President Trump, has been at the forefront of challenges to the authoritarian Maduro regime, accusing it of rigging elections and stifling the country’s opposition. She was banned from contesting the elections, went into hiding and had to be smuggled out of the country to receive her Nobel prize.

What was initially interpreted from remarks by the US president that the Venezuelan Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, was “willing  to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again” was quickly disputed by her in remarks made shortly after.

In a televised address from Venezuela, which contradicted reports that she had left the country, Vice President Rodríguez condemned the U.S. attack and seizure of President Nicolás Maduro. She also stated that  her country “will never return to being the colony of another empire.”

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan military issued its own statement on Sunday condemning the attack on the country and the abduction of its leader demanding the release of their president Nicolas Maduro. They’ve called it an imperialist attack on Venezuela’s sovereignty. The military, the third level of Venezuela’s chain of command after the president and vice-president, has also said it has given its backing to interim President Delcy Rodriguez.

Also speaking on Sunday, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his country was not at war with Venezuela.

However, on Saturday President Trump said a second wave of strikes on Venezuela was possible.

While no American casualties were reported in Saturday’s raid, the Venezuelan military said several of its soldiers and civilians were killed.

THE OIL FACTOR

According to Mr Trump, American oil companies will play a major role in fixing what he described as Venezuela’s broken infrastructure and start making money for the country, for themselves, and for the United States. He also claimed that Venezuela’s oil industry was mainly built by US interests, which had been deprived of their investments by successive Venezuelan governments.

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure,” he declared.

Venezuela holds the world’s largest reserve of crude oil totalling about 20 per cent of the global stock.

THE PRECURSOR

Saturday’s US attack on Caracas followed months of a large US naval buildup in the southern Caribbean. The Trump administration said the purpose was to deter drug trafficking from Venezuela to the US and accused the Venezuelan leader of aiding it. US forces shot several suspected Venezuelan drug boats and killed those aboard during operations around Venezuela’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts.

Speaking on Saturday and praising the operation in Caracas, Mr Trump described his Venezuelan counterpart as an “illegitimate dictator” who he claimed was deeply involved in trafficking drugs into the United States. Mr Maduro, who has always denied the allegations, was due to be formally charged in a New York court this week for drug trafficking and weapons offences.

THE GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS

The Trump-led dramatic developments in Venezuela over the weekend and for the coming period, have triggered a tsunami of official government responses around the world and an equal tidal wave of analyses.

Among these are: what this means for the rules-based international order, the implications for the global oil industry - particularly the payments system, and what this could mean for the future of Venezuela itself. The latter concern revolves around the risk of the country descending into chaos, causing a further refugee crisis in addition to the exodus under the Maduro rule. Also factored in are how this could impact neighbouring countries, which have already had to cope with a huge influx of Venezuelan migrants, many of whom also went to the US. 

THE CUBA QUESTION

There’s also a particular focus on Cuba with which Venezuela has had longstanding relations and which remains under crippling US sanctions.

Cuba’s communist government has strongly condemned the US attack on their ally Venezuela, calling it an act of State terrorism.

Addressing whether Cuba might next be in the US crosshairs, Mr Rubio said: “In some cases, one of the biggest problems Venezuelans have is they have to declare independence from Cuba. They tried to basically colonise it from a security standpoint. So, if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least a little bit.”

Comparing the Venezuela situation to Cuba, President Trump remarked:  “It’s very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people who are forced out of Cuba and living in this country.” “If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned at least,” Rubio added.