Feliz Año Nuevo! Maduro

Feliz Año Nuevo!

The new Trump Doctrine was in full display as American forces attacked Venezuela and sacked Nicolas Maduro. Speaking of sacks, it was a sad day as both my Ohio State Buckeyes and Georgia Bulldogs were cursed with a first round bye in the college football playoffs and lost. But the capture of Maduro and his wife was even more astounding than the losses by the Buckeyes and Bulldogs. There no loss of life or loss of equipment in the raid. The Venezuelan armed forces must have been taking a siesta and Maduro’s personal (Cuban) bodyguards must have been bought off. How else could this have happened? Trump has asserted American supremacy in this hemisphere and has flexed American might through its superior armed forces. I don’t recall if diplomacy was tried by this administration with regards to Maduro. All I remember are threats, a build up of military forces, the bombing of drug runners, the naval blockade and the shutting down of Venezuelan airspace. That, my friends, is a different type of “negotiations.” 

This operation was in direct contrast to George H.W. Bush’s seizure of Manuel Noreiga. Bush ordered the U.S. military to invade Panama in late 1989, sending 20,000 troops to topple Noriega. The operation left 23 American soldiers dead and hundreds more injured. Noreiga was convicted on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering and was imprisoned for 17 years. Does the same fate face Maduro and his wife?

Trump told Maduro to leave. Instead Maduro put on his best “don’t worry, be happy” face. He was shown dancing at a rally in Caracas. There he vowed to stand (or dance) against American aggression. Maduro told the cheering crowd “Be certain that I will never fail you — never, ever, never.” Oops. Now he and his wife face indictments brought by Trump’s attorney general Pam Bondi. “Nicholas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Nicolas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States.” “They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”

Here is what Secretary of State Rubio tweeted “The 47th President of the United States is not a game player. When he tells you that he’s going to do something, when he tells you he’s going to address a problem, he means it… This is something that was a direct threat to the national interest.” Now I am not entirely certain how Venezuela threatened our national security but as  Rubio said “This is a president of action.” Do tell.

While at first some observers said that a transition government would be put in place headed by Nobel laureate Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the president had other ideas. Corina Machado is the opposition leader who was banned by a Maduro-run court from running for president. Gonzalez ran in her place and by some counts beat Maduro 2-1 in the 2024 election. Maduro refused to concede and with the backing of the military stayed in power. Since polls indicate that Machado and Gonzalez have an approval rating of around 70 percent, some had suggested that a transition government headed by then makes sense.

Not so fast said Trump who said that the United States would “run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.” So is now Venezuela an unincorporated US territory much like American Samoa? The president also said that Venezuela’s oil is now ours which may have been the motivation all along. US oil companies will join Chevron in the country and drill, baby, drill. The country used to pump 3 million barrels a day but now only pumps 900,000. That will change. Oh and by the way, the president said that we will share some of the oil revenue with the Venezuelans being the magnanimous person that he is.

TRUMP: US Oil Companies Will Fix Venezuelan Infrastructure To ‘Start Making Money for the Country’ “As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust, for a long period of time. They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could have taken place. 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, and start making money for the country.”

Congressional republicans praised the president while the usual suspects are whining and condemning the snatching and take over of the country. Here is what Connecticut’s Chris Murphy said “President Trump thinks he is above the law. He steals from taxpayers. He thumbs his nose at the law. And now, he is starting an illegal war with Venezuela that Americans didn’t ask for and has nothing to do with our security.” Both House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said that Maduro was “an illegitimate dictator” but that “launching military action without congressional authorization and without a credible plan for what comes next is reckless.” “The idea that Trump plans to now run Venezuela should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans.” Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said that “there’s no evidence whatsoever this makes America safer. This doesn’t seem to have much to do with drugs. It seems what this is about is Trump wants Venezuela’s oil.”

Of course, Trump could not have gone to congress first. Doing so would have alerted Maduro before the congressional briefing was over. And although some democrats are comparing this to the military incursions in Iraq and Afghanistan, that appears to be just a wee bit over wrought in that there is no on-going armed conflict in Venezuela to counter the American presence there. No will the cartels try to organize guerrilla forces to resist the American takeover. Only time will tell but in the meanwhile

Watch out Diaz-Canel!