US President Donald Trump has always claimed that he is opposed to wars and that he has stopped seven wars around the world to establish global peace-claims on the basis of which he says he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. However, the recent US attack on the oil-rich country of Venezuela, and the incident in which President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were taken from their bedroom and brought to the United States, have exposed the reality behind Donald Trump’s claims of global peace and shocked the world.
On Trump’s orders, US forces carried out the attack under the cover of night on Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. As a result, the entire city echoed with explosions, fighter jets were seen flying overhead, and the capital plunged into darkness due to power outages. Dozens of people were killed in the attacks, including President Nicolás Maduro’s 32 Colombian security personnel stationed at the presidential palace. In this way, the United States ended the 12-year rule of President Nicolás Maduro within just three hours. Later, US President Donald Trump confirmed the attack on Venezuela, posting a handcuffed image of President Nicolás Maduro on social media and stating: “I watched the astonishing scenes of capturing Nicolás’s arrest live, like a TV show. He further state that now the administration of Venezuela and its oil reserves will be handled by the United States.
It is worth recalling that President Trump had consistently accused Nicolás Maduro of sponsoring drug trafficking from Venezuela to the United States. Maduro, however, rejected these allegations and accused Trump of seeking to seize Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. After coming to power, Trump repeatedly threatened military action against Venezuela and increased pressure on Maduro to step down. The US also boosted its military presence in the region, dispatching aircraft carriers around Venezuela. American forces blockaded all ships entering Venezuelan waters and carried out attacks on dozens of maritime targets under the pretext of drug smuggling. Hence it was expected that the US could launch military action against Venezuela at any time, however nobody imagined that country’s elected president and his wife would be abducted. This is not the first time the United States has abducted a foreign leader under cover of darkness and taken him to the US. In 1989, US forces invaded Panama and arrested military ruler Manuel Noriega on drug trafficking charges. Noriega spent many years in a Miami prison and died there in 2017.
The US attack on Venezuela has been strongly condemned by Russia, China, Brazil, Colombia, and other countries. The UN Secretary-General warned that the US assault constitutes a serious violation of international law and the UN Charter, sets a dangerous precedent. The harshest statement came from China, which said:
“No country can act as the world’s policeman or be a world’s judge.” Meanwhile, following the US attack and the abduction of Venezuela’s president, Latin American countries such as Brazil, Colombia, and Cuba now feel insecure. Trump’s recent threat to the Colombian president-saying that “the Colombian president could meet the same fate as the Venezuelan president”-has triggered a wave of concern across Latin America. The most alarming aspect of the US attack on Venezuela is that a powerful country forcibly abducted the elected president and his wife of a weaker nation, while the rest of the world remained limited to issuing condemnatory statements. After the attack, global attention has now shifted toward Iran, amid fears that the US’s next target will be Iran-the world’s third-largest oil-producing country-in order to install a government of its choice under the banner of regime change and expand its influence in the region.
Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves and is a key member of OPEC. Its reserves are estimated at over 303 billion barrels, valued at more than $22 trillion-greater than the combined oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and the United States. In this context, US intervention in Venezuela is not merely political; it is, in reality, an attempt to gain indirect control over the world’s largest oil reserves. If American oil companies gain access to Venezuela’s oil and valuable minerals, the direct beneficiary will be the US, and American influence over global oil prices will increase. This scenario could place severe economic pressure on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. The current conflict is not limited to Venezuela alone; it is part of a broader strategy to strengthen US dominance over Latin America and cut off China from oil supplies, as China is the largest buyer of Venezuelan oil. This situation sends a clear message to those who consider armed forces unnecessary: countries rich in natural resources but weak in defense become easy targets for global powers, where external forces install governments of their choice and national security and sovereignty are reduced to mere slogans.
