Trump has reasserted militarist neo-colonialism Regime Change Politics

The attack by the United States on Venezuela and capture of its president, Nicolas Maduro, will go down in history as another instance of naked aggression by a superpower with a long history of dislodging regimes. By abducting the Venezuelan leader and his wife from Caracas, using the American armed forces, and detaining them in New York on charges of being narco-terrorists involved in a drug smuggling conspiracy,

US President Donald Trump has reasserted militarist neo-colonialism. If anyone looked for a deeper explanation for Maduro’s violent capture, Trump himself provided that. He declared that his regime would run Venezuela until a transition could be effected. More importantly, he would help extract from that country unspecified losses and costs that America claims by appropriating its massive oil reserves. Whatever the US president’s motives, there is little doubt that he authorised an attack on a sovereign country to bring about a regime change in violation of the UN Charter, even taking into account the fact that Washington and Europe did not recognise Maduro as head of state after 2019.

The military adventurism led to some civilian casualties too. It is also brazen, considering that in negotiations last year, the Venezuelan leader offered to the Trump administration a deal that would open up Venezuela's oil, gold, and businesses to US investment, reverse oil exports to China, and slash energy deals with Iran, Russia, and China. That this was rebuffed and military action imposed, on the charge of drug running against the Venezuelan leader, his wife, son, and associates, shows a clear preference for imperialist dominance, made with the confidence that it would entail no serious consequences.

The US support for coups and regime change, whether covert or overt, has destabilised Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Guatemala, Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, among others, starting in the mid-19th century. Campaigns in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam ended in obvious loss of face. Invariably, prolonged internal strife has been the lasting outcome, not the ushering in of prosperity, which Trump now dangles before the Venezuelan people. Neither can Trump claim to despise Maduro as a dictator, since he himself expressed a desire to be one, at least for a day, ahead of the 2024 US presidential election; he has mocked courts and abandoned due process in targeting people for deportation in US cities, using masked agents.

After Venezuela, it must become clear to countries such as Cuba, Mexico, Greenland, and even Canada, all marked as strategic targets by the “America First” president, that coercive action is a real possibility. Countries not buying oil using petrodollars—choosing the Chinese Yuan instead, for instance—could find themselves under escalating pressure. The US under Trump has displayed both entitlement and grievance against other countries, articulating a neo-Monroe doctrine of dominance. For America to sober up, the world needs to return to strong multilateralism