Last week, we highlighted the political cynicism and incoherence expressed by many Democrats after President Donald Trump ordered a daring and successful raid by U.S. special forces to capture and exfiltrate erstwhile Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. The socialist strongman and his wife now sit in American jail cells as they await trial on a host of criminal charges.
In executing this mission, the Trump administration brought to justice a man so corrupt, destructive, and harmful to U.S. interests that the Biden administration offered a $25 million reward for information that would lead to his arrest. Biden’s successor cut out the middleman and directly facilitated the arrest, yet many members of Biden’s political party, including some who’d been harshly critical of Maduro and had previously demanded that Trump be tougher on Maduro, decided that they were upset about this development anyway. Tribal politics and partisanship, as they say, are a hell of a drug.
One of the arguments deployed by the reflexive hand-wringers — I’ll note that while I supported the launch of this operation, I have far less of a problem with people who’ve transparently and consistently disagreed with such intervention — is that Trump was fomenting “chaos” by “destabilizing” the region, while making America less respected around the globe, which is a common refrain.
Is that true?
I’d submit that our enemies are likely revisiting previous calculations about what they might be able to get away with on the world stage. Fear can be a healthy, if coercive, form of respect when instilled for the right reasons. Other allies, both nominal and real, may bleat about “unilateralism” and Venezuela’s sovereignty, which has been profoundly violated by the illegitimate regime, mind you, but manifestations of American power inevitably draw hackles from certain quarters. Hard leftists shrieked about “imperialism,” of course.
One of the most interesting dynamics about global public opinion over the act of plucking Maduro out of his bed is how people in the neighborhood feel about it, especially Venezuelans. It seems the region Trump has allegedly “destabilized” is … quite comfortable with his decision. Fresh AtlasIntel polling reveals support significantly outweighing opposition across Latin America, including among Venezuelans and American Latinos, by 22 and 18 percentage points, respectively.
A separate survey conducted by the Economist found even more lopsided support within Venezuela itself for Maduro’s forcible ouster, with almost 80% of respondents saying the political situation there will be either “much” or “a little” better in the next 12 months.
That same poll measured President Donald Trump’s favorability among Venezuelans at over 50%, just ahead of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and even the country’s popular opposition leader, Maria Machado. Less than 20% of Venezuelan respondents said they oppose American governance of their country for the time being. Keep in mind that these are the responses people were willing to give even with remnants of the regime still in power, meaning that expressions of dissent remain highly risky. These outcomes don’t quite match loud charges of “imperialism” and “destabilization,” do they? Even if the polling numbers cited above were less positive, or even upside down, the core question for America is whether Trump’s decisions serve our national interest. I believe they do, especially considering the serious blow Maduro’s detainment delivers to America’s enemies who were colluding with his regime — from China, to Russia, to Iran.
We should aggressively pursue our interests in Venezuela as a first priority, but it’s also crucial to restore self-determination to the people of that country as soon as possible. Many Venezuelans have a living memory of a nation with free elections and thriving prosperity before both of those conditions were robbed by left-wing wreckers over the last quarter-century. Restoring those norms is a worthy short- to medium-term goal, which also reflects the powerful desire of the people, as reflected in the same survey. An overwhelming majority supports new presidential elections within the next six months to a year. They appear prepared to very decisively elect new anti-regime, pro-West, pro-America leadership, which would be excellent news. The Trump administration should ruthlessly protect American interests, of course, but capitalizing on the existing goodwill will require the release of political prisoners, a transition away from Maduro henchmen, and a move back to democracy.