Let's Talk About Venezuela and How Trump Never Met a Law He Couldn't Break
Seriously, he's treating criminal behaviour like a record to be broken
So, only a few days after I published a little essay about the history and consequences of colonialism, Donald Trump decided to up the ante yet again.
This time, he went straight for the throat; not content with bombing fishing boats, murdering suspected drug smugglers in international waters — itself a highly illegal act — or even raiding Venezuelan oil tankers at sea, he sent a military strike directly to the capital city.
The President Maduro and his wife were forcibly extracted and essentially kidnapped from their home country and taken to the United States to stand trial. This was done without congressional approval, which is incredibly problematic as it included a full on-the-ground offensive as well as bombing strikes from the air.
Whatever you think of Maduro and his authoritarian regime, which is at best illegitimate via stolen election and at worst outright dictatorial, human rights abuses and all, you can’t simply shrug this action off.
The leader of one country sending its military forces in to a foreign country to kidnap their leader and remove them by force should be alarming as fuck to everyone on the planet. Without a formal declaration of war, it’s just straight-up illegal raid and naked power-grab.
When it’s done under the orders of a colonial, racist, narcisisstic wanna-be dictator like Trump, it’s even scarier.
For a Canadian like myself, it’s especially scary. For the past couple of years we’ve been listening to this man rant about how our country shouldn’t exist, how we’re not a ‘real’ country, how the border between our nations is just an ‘artificial line’ he would like to erase.
We’ve been listening to him talk about destroying our economy so he could annex us more easily, ranting about making us the ‘51st State’ even to our Prime Minister’s face. Two Prime Ministers, in fact, as he’s kept it up past our own election cycle.
That makes it clear he really is targeting Canada, not just spitting shade at a leader he doesn’t like.
We’ve also seen him send special envoys to Greenland, spying on them, threatening to capture the country because it’s ‘needed for America’s national security.’ He’s threatened to ‘take back’ Panama to seize economic control over the canal.
He’s been making threats against our countries consistently, and we’ve been told to shrug it off as a joke and not take it seriously.
But then we look at Venezuela. And our hackles can only raise so much.
Now, the situation with Venezuela is not what we’re worried about — not directly against us, at least.
Venezuela is a relatively small country with few allies willing to come to their direct aid in the face of U.S. aggression, though it’s worth noting that Chinese diplomats had met with Maduro hours before he was taken at gunpoint by the U.S. military.
China is therefore pretty pissed right now, as you might imagine. Having the U.S. assault Caracas right after their envoys arrived in the city probably ruffled a few feathers.
Venezuelan oil is in high demand, and as I pointed out earlier, other countries tend to get super jumpy when a powerful country like America pulls a stunt like this.
In contrast, countries like Canada who are major powers in and of themselves with very strong alliances are considerably less vulnerable. Our partnership with the European Union in trade and defense makes us stronger, and much harder to threaten directly.
It’s unlikely that Trump would try a similarly hostile move against us. But then, that’s assuming he’s thinking logically.
Further, the fact that the leader and representative of the United States has broken international law in a direct intervention for regime change sets a dangerous precedent.
Previously, it was easy to condemn Putin for his territorial land-grab war in Ukraine, and very easy to slam China for its aggression towards Taiwan. It was easy to criticise both countries for illegal actions and suggest that they seek diplomatic routes to settle their differences.
Granted, the U.S. didn’t have much of a leg to stand on with its own history of aggression and resource-wars, but at least the current administration could pantomime being on the high ground.
If you’re willing to eat the bullshit, anyway.
But now? Well, if the United States can do it so boldly and openly, everyone can. Contrary to what Trump may think, being the President of the United States doesn’t make him a god. He can’t do things like this and expect nothing to come of it.
Foreign affairs are delicately balanced, and you can’t take a wrecking ball to such a fragile tower and expect no retaliation. The world was already re-aligning itself to brace against the United States rather than relying on it as we’ve always done before.
Now?
That lack of trust just turned into an air-raid siren.
To say that Trump doesn’t care about the law is a gross understatement.
He’s a 34-count convicted felon who has been held liable for rape, fraud, and interfering in lawful elections for his own gain. That’s not even counting the time he got hauled up in court alongside his father for refusing to rent apartments to Black tenants in New York.
And we know damn well he doesn’t give a fuck about human life; gutting USAID, cutting medicare and programs like Meals on Wheels tells you all you need to know about how much empathy this man is capable of.
If it doesn’t impact him personally, he couldn’t give less of a damn about it.
That said, I’m a little shocked at the lack of empathy others are showing about this, too. The number of times I’ve seen people call this action a ‘distraction’ from the Epstein files is astonishing.
As stated by another brilliant author on Medium — all credit to Elizabeth Silleck La Rue, Esq. over there, click that link and read it — it’s disgusting to try and claim that this assault is no big deal, and should be swept aside in favour of focusing on one issue.
People fucking died in this assault, guys. It’s not a distraction to them. To their families. To the people of Venezuela who don’t know what their tomorrow is going to look like.
Have a little compassion, won’t you? It’s possible to care about both things at once.
Especially since the Trump administration then went on to threaten both Cuba and Mexico with similar assaults.
Please, for the love of all the gods, recognize this for what it is and take it seriously.
This is the colonialism I warned you about in my last article. This is an escalation, and a loaded gun pointed at the rest of Latin America.
This is a sign of things to come.
Anyone who supports this illegal act is either an asshole, or doesn’t see the bigger picture.
A powerful country bullying smaller countries into submission with targeted, illegal strikes into their territory and outright kidnapping their leader — that’s fucking terrifying.
Especially when the guy giving these orders has spent the last year targeting, detaining, demonizing and trafficking the people of that country to a concentration camp and torture center like CECOT.
Trump’s hatred for the Venezuelan people is palpable. This act just demonstrates his lack of compassion, his lack of respect for the law, and the fact that he is not worthy nor stable enough for the office he holds.
This is a threat that the entire world now must pay heed to.
Every time he threatens another nation or their leader, we must take it seriously. He’s just shown how seriously he means what he says.
We’re past the point of laughing at him like he’s a joke. We’re past the point of waiting for him to leave office.
We’re past the point of patience with this raging egomaniacal maniac.
I hope the Venezuelan people come out of this in good shape, and my heart goes out to the families of the people killed in this assault — and to those who are currently living in terror.
I’m sorry to those American citizens who are horrified and outraged, wishing their country wasn’t being dragged down this dark path by the lunatic in the Oval Office.
I wish things were different. But this is how things are now.
And I sincerely hope the leaders of my country, and other countries under threat, are paying attention.
Solidarity wins.
All of this has now been overshadowed by the ICE agent who murdered a young woman in Minneapolis this morning. I watched a couple of news segments from the mayor and governor and it's going to get ugly. That agent is long gone by tonight, and will be sent across the country to avoid prosecution. I could be wrong but that's what they did to that agent in Chicago. They sent him to Maine.
This could be the Kent State moment we've been waiting for.
I am beyond shocked.