The United States decided to attack Venezuela, kidnap its president (a complicated story), and then run the country. Sounds bonkers, but the news should be setting in by now. The issue is that this aggression by the Trump administration, while on the surface remedying the issue of a dictatorial regime in Nicolás Maduro’s government, is setting off a firestorm of concern across the globe and with some of Venezuela’s largest allies, including China.
The United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims that this isn’t a war on Venezuela but a war on drug traffickers, and yet Trump released Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was given a 45-year sentence for trafficking cocaine into the U.S.
In this Venezuelan venture, American forces captured the president of Venezuela, Maduro, and his wife in the process of fighting this supposed trafficking, and Trump now says it’s about oil that Venezuela apparently “owes” the United States. So, yeah, it’s a little bit all over the place.
The people of Venezuela are having mixed reactions to the news, and not all of them are rejoicing as Trump would have the American people believe. Further, considering the United States’ track record of destabilizing nations to co-opt their resources and install puppet governments, you can rest assured this mess is full of messy twists and turns.
Many Venezuelans are not at all happy about the United States’ aggression because they have seen the results around the world, ahem, Haiti, Iraq… we could continue.
This event has a long history… with the nationalization of Venezuelan oil and the ouster of U.S. companies being part of that complicated legacy.
Canadian TikTok creator and educator Joanna Johnson, who goes by Unlearn16, does a great two-part breakdown. In the second part, she corrects a bit of information she left out in her first video.
Part 1
Part 2
Trump, as usual, gave conflicting takes on the events, but has maintained his attention on Venezuelan oil reserves, which he thinks US companies will return to Venezuela and rebuild the lost critical refinery infrastructure. Furthermore, the lack of political stability that Trump has created will give many companies interested in oil some pause, especially since Guyana, a neighboring nation and political foe to Venezuela, has better-quality petroleum and greater political stability, as NPR describes in its recent story about whether this mission will meet its intended goals.
Bottom line, this situation is messy, and some are speculating that this might encourage nations like China to move forward on their reclamation of Taiwan.
Great start 2026…ugh.
