HIBAPRESS
During a swift military operation, American President Donald Trump applied his vision in his own way and overthrew Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, after months of a supposed blockade of his country, with accusations of involvement in drug smuggling to the United States, and effectively through an air and sea blockade.
This operation, which the Venezuelan government described as the largest in its history, came to close the curtain on an intensive pressure campaign aimed at removing Maduro from office, which began with a $50 million reward on his head last August.
The Trump administration portrayed the arrest of Maduro from the heart of his country, or his "kidnapping" as some call it, as a law enforcement operation based on American indictments, while promoting the narrative of his lack of legitimacy as president of Venezuela as a result of elections "whose outcome was manipulated" in 2018, according to the news website Axios.
In an article published by the American website, it listed 6 main reasons that prompted the United States to seek the overthrow of the Venezuelan president.
1- Enemy Number 1 in the Americas:
For the White House, Maduro was a source of problems that extended beyond Venezuela. Officials considered him a bad person who helped support other bad people in the Western Hemisphere.
The Trump administration views Venezuela, as well as Cuba and Nicaragua, as key players in the "Socialist Axis," with Colombia also under the microscope, as Trump warned last month that Colombian President Gustavo Petro needs to be "careful" about the flow of cocaine to the United States.
The American administration did not hide that its disagreement with the socialist Maduro regime was related to ideology as much as it was related to drugs.
2- Cocaine Smuggling:
The United States alleges that Venezuela is involved in drug smuggling through state support for notorious gangs. Trump also accused Maduro of intentionally sending members of these groups to the United States.
American intelligence saw in a secret memo last year, according to Axios, that Maduro did not actually control some of these groups, which angered some officials in the Trump administration, but that did not prevent an indictment against Maduro detailing his alleged links to drug smuggling.
Washington used the fight against "drug smuggling" as a pretext to launch a series of strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, claiming they were transporting drugs during the past few months.
3- Oil:
Trump claimed that Venezuela, which has the largest known oil reserves in the world, "stole" US oil, citing the seizure of equipment following the nationalization of Venezuelan oil.
Trump said on Saturday after Maduro's arrest that the United States would restore Venezuelan oil infrastructure and compensate American companies that lost in the expropriations.
4- Immigration:
The economic collapse and repression under the Maduro regime led to a mass exodus, with 8 million Venezuelans fleeing over a decade, which is "the largest mass migration wave in the modern history of this half of the globe," according to the Atlantic Council, which created a problem for the United States, especially when President Trump returned to office in 2025, and limiting the flow of immigrants to the United States was one of the main pillars of his election program.
5- Gold:
The United States believes that Venezuela's enormous gold reserves have helped the country withstand American pressure for many years, through their use to buy weapons or fuel or provide cash.
6- Maduro's Foreign Friends:
Venezuela is allied with many enemies of the United States. Some Trump supporters described Maduro's arrest as a warning to "distant powers" to stay away from the Western Hemisphere.
China is the largest buyer of Venezuelan oil and has condemned American interventions in Venezuela.
Iran and its arm, the Lebanese Hezbollah, are also allied with Venezuela under the slogan of the "Axis of Unity" based on opposing American foreign policy.
Russia and Venezuela also have a long-term partnership.
While Trump announced that the United States would "manage" Venezuela until "a proper transition is made," he and his team issued a stern warning to other leaders, whom he did not name, in the Western Hemisphere, that what happened in Venezuela "is just the beginning."
The most prominent in this regard is the threat that Trump made to Colombian President Gustavo Petro, and the warning issued by Marco Rubio to Cuba, that it may be next after Venezuela.
Between Venezuelan accusations that the American administration is targeting, through its "aggression," the seizure of oil and the wealth of the country, and some reactions that ranged between expressing concerns about the repercussions of what the Trump administration has done and criticizing it, many look with concern at these developments, which they see as driving a new nail in the coffin of international laws and norms, and proving beyond any doubt that international organizations and bodies that are supposed to be concerned with resolving disputes and conflicts between the countries of the world, have become out of service in light of the disregard of the largest powers in the world, which did not provide any tangible evidence of its accusations against the Venezuelan regime and moved against it militarily without any legal cover or international umbrella.
(Sky News)
