President Donald Trump took decisive and justified action this morning, launching precision military strikes in Venezuela that enabled special forces to seize and detain dictator Nicolas Maduro. Maduro was an illegitimate leader, despised by his own people, who, like Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega nearly 40 years ago, was running a vast drug-trafficking operation that was doing immediate and direct harm to the United States. Like Noriega, Maduro will now be tried in a court of law for his crimes, and the entire Western Hemisphere is now safer with him in custody.
Maduro first came to power in 2013 after Hugo Chavez named him as successor on his deathbed and then narrowly won a special election compromised by widespread irregularities and refusal to allow an independent recount. Maduro then set about dismantling any remnants of democracy in Venezuela, stripping the National Assembly of all power in 2015, and packing over governmental bodies with his supporters.
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Maduro then oversaw elections in 2018 and 2024 that were internationally condemned as undemocratic due to the imprisonment and exile of opposition candidates, the use of state resources to coerce voters, the use of violence to suppress protests, and the censorship of media.
As dictator, Maduro has murdered, imprisoned, tortured, and raped his own people. Internationally, he has worked with Marxist terrorists in Colombia to turn Venezuela into a hub for narcotics trafficking, money laundering, sanctions evasion, and organized crime. In 2020, U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan indicted Maduro on charges of narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and weapons offenses. The indictment alleges he led the Cartel de los Soles in coordination with FARC, to traffic drugs into the United States, launder illicit proceeds, and corrupt government agencies. Sec. of State Marco Rubio has said Maduro will now face trial in New York, just as Noriega did in Miami decades ago.
Maduro was widely unpopular among the Venezuelan people, and reports indicate that Venezuelans are already ripping down posters and statues of him. Just this November, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, made the case for Maduro’s removal, stating that, “This is not a legitimate president. This is the head of a criminal structure that was already defeated in a presidential election by a landslide.” Finding a way to work with Machado, the opposition movement, and the remnants of the Maduro regime to organize free and fair elections will be an ongoing but manageable challenge for the Trump administration and our partners in the region.
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The decision to bring Maduro to justice is not an isolated event and should instead be processed in the larger context of the Trump administration’s recently released National Security Strategy which promised a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine that would “protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region” while denying “non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets in our Hemisphere.”
Trump has always been concerned with Venezuela’s vast oil resources and their possible exploitation by China. United States sanctions on Venezuela have not so much isolated the regime as it has ceded strategic ground to China. By pushing Venezuela out of Western energy markets, Washington created an opening for Chinese state firms to secure oil supplies at steep discounts and lock in long-term influence. Beijing has used sanctions-driven desperation to expand financial leverage, infrastructure control, and political alignment, transforming Venezuela into a Chinese client state.
AN ACTIVE, ENGAGING, AND HONEST NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY
The result has been a Chinese beachhead in Latin America, built atop Venezuela’s oil sector and America’s absence. Maduro’s removal eliminates this threat.
Trump’s decisive action reflects the clarity and confidence of his National Security Strategy. By enforcing a modern Monroe Doctrine with real consequences, Trump has shown that American leadership still matters in the Western Hemisphere. Removing Maduro dismantles a criminal regime, blocks Chinese expansion, and reasserts U.S. resolve to defend democratic sovereignty close to home. This is what strategic realism looks like: force used sparingly, objectives clearly defined, and American power aligned unapologetically with national interests and regional stability.