This was originally submitted 4 January 2026 to the Waco "Tribune-Herald" as a column on the op-ed page. I am on their board of contributors. They ran it Thursday 8 January 29026, with very few edits. The original as-submitted version is posted here:
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About Venezuela 1-4-2026
The surprise raid into Venezuela that captured Maduro has
certainly created an uproar! This was
the final event of a pressure campaign to oust him. It started with economic sanctions, and recently escalated into drug-running boat
strikes. Then it escalated into
sanctioned tanker seizures. When those
did not work, a military raid ousted
him.
Why oust him?
Optimists would point to (1) the end of a vicious dictatorship that ran
a lot of drug smuggling to support itself,
or (2) enabling denial of Venezuelan oil to enemies like China, Russia,
and Iran. Or both. Pessimists would say it’s simply about
gaining control of Venezuelan crude oil.
Both are probably right, to one
extent or another.
Were these things the right things to do? Now that’s the real question, and it is very complex, as are the answers.
Economic sanctions are quite legal under both US and
international law, and a lot of
countries do this, with varying
success. US sanctions against Venezuela
were part of what drove Maduro to run drugs.
US sanctions against Russia over Ukraine were actually working fairly
well, until Trump abruptly removed them
upon starting his second term (which is another topic for a whole different
article).
Stopping drug smuggling boats at sea is quite legal under US
and international law, including the
centuries-old so-called “law of the sea” regarding unflagged or false-flagged
vessels. It is legal only when done the
way the US Coast Guard has done it for decades:
stop the boat, board it, and see who and what are in fact on board, and then deal with that.
The boats in question here may or may not be drug-runners (which
if they are, are criminal scum, to be sure).
Most often, they prove to
be. But not always! And even if they are criminals, they are civilians, just like the Mafia and any other criminal
organizations. So, destroying those boats on sight is a violation
of US law, international law (including
the “law of the sea”), and the US Code
of Military Justice. Killing survivors
in the water ranks right up there with war crimes. And that is exactly what happened on that
first boat strike!
Some of those boats can now out-run the Coast Guard cutters! The right way to counter that, would be to pair the Coast Guard cutter on
such duty, with a Navy frigate carrying
an armed helicopter. The helicopter can
easily catch the boat, and can target
its motors with machine gun fire to stop it.
Those motors are a legitimate target that is not civilians!
But that’s not the way it was done! Killing people on sight with missile strikes
is a whole lot more dramatic chaos to put on the evening news, and a chance to get political faces before
the cameras. Killing people for
political publicity! How heinous is that
crime?
Now, the tankers were
boarded from helicopters and stopped.
That was doing it “right”! I
suspect this was driven more by the size of those ships, than by any desire to do this legally, but that is just my opinion.
Now we come to the raid that captured Maduro. This was executed very adeptly and quickly by the US military forces, with few injured and no dead on our side. It was “in and out”. That’s a very well-executed mission, and perfectly legal under US law and the US Code of Military Justice. It is illegal under international law, but we have done it many times, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean. We are not alone in doing this.
This raid captured Maduro and his wife, and has brought them back to the US for drug
charges and trials. It did not topple
any of the rest of Maduro’s government in Venezuela! They are still in place, and his vice president has been sworn in as
their president, in an administration that is still a dictatorship. We will see if that dictatorship is ever
changed.
Meanwhile, according
to Trump’s press interview, we are “sending
in the oil companies” to run the Venezuelan oil industry. That being the one big chunk of their
economy, you will effectively have
corporations running the country. Giant
corporations tend to value money above all,
and by far, as we all already
know. It is my opinion that this will
not turn out well for the Venezuelan people.
And all of that is why my opinion is that this raid (and the
entire pressure campaign) was more about the oil, than anything to do with either freeing the
Venezuelans from their oppressive dictatorship,
or with actually trying to stop the drug trade.
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