The U.S. military operation to capture Maduro was the right thing to do

Nicolás Maduro wasn’t going to resign, face voters or respect the law. Force was the only option left to remove him from power

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There have been many opinions about the U.S. military operation that successfully captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro this past weekend. While few people have shed any tears about the brutal dictator’s removal from power, some are worried that it will set a bad precedent when it comes to respect and regard for international law.

I, like others, would have preferred that Maduro had either resigned on his own or been defeated in an election. Alas, neither scenario was ever going to materialize. Maduro, much like his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, didn’t have an ounce of respect for the rule of law. He paid no attention to the will of the people. He would have stopped any attempt to overthrow him with violence and bloodshed.

Hence, the only way to remove this dictator was with force and precision. That’s exactly what U.S. President Donald Trump and the military needed to do, and it was the right decision to make.

Maduro, a former bus driver and trade union leader, is a far-left socialist political revolutionary. He served in several cabinet positions from 2000–12, including the vice-presidency, until he assumed power upon Chávez’s death in 2013. He was an authoritarian ruler from his first day on the job. He opposed freedom, liberty and democracy in Venezuela. He rejected capitalism, trade liberalization and the free-market economy. He supported economic redistribution and nationalized various industries with the reckless abandon one expects from his political ilk.

He was also repeatedly accused of cheating and election fraud. Opponents like Juan Guaidó, who swore himself into office as acting president from 2019–23 during the Venezuelan presidential crisis, and Edmundo González, who was (and still is) recognized as president-elect by several countries after the disputed 2024 election, still have legitimate claims to power. It’s difficult to say if they will ever be realized.

The Chávez-Maduro dictatorship destroyed nearly every fibre of Venezuela. The embattled country “suffered the kind of catastrophic economic collapse that usually only happens to countries in the grips of war,” economic blogger Noah Smith wrote on Aug. 1, 2024. “The Venezuelan economy is so bad (and the government so secretive) that the World Bank doesn’t even have estimates for the country’s GDP numbers.” Smith also pointed to a series of Bloomberg articles related to Venezuela’s collapse from 2016–21. I’ve read some of them over the years related to crime, bribery, poverty, starvation, hyperinflation, and more. There’s virtually nothing positive to report in any of them.

The U.S. government under Trump and former president Joe Biden both declared that Maduro was an illegitimate political leader and didn’t recognize him as a head of state. There’s been a warrant for his arrest for several years, too. “In March 2020, Maduro was charged in the Southern District of New York for narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices,” according to the U.S. State Department. A reward of up to US$15 million was being offered for information that could lead to his arrest, which gradually increased to US$50 million.

With the successful military operation that captured Maduro and his wife, that reward has been rescinded. They’re currently being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, and were arraigned on Monday. (Both pleaded not guilty.)

Very few people, other than a small handful of far-left radicals and activists, have been displeased with Maduro’s arrest and political removal. He was a dictator and drug cartel leader. He usurped power, destroyed his country’s economy and ruined lives. Maduro deserves to spend the rest of his life in a cold, dark jail cell.

What some people are opposed to is the fact that Trump approved this military operation in the first place. They’ve argued that it sets a terrible precedent for international law because large countries like the U.S. could easily remove another leader from power that they don’t like.

The BBC recently suggested that Cuba, Iran, Colombia, Mexico and even Greenland “could be in Trump’s sights.” CTV News political analyst Eric Ham went as far as to write this on Jan. 5, “Canada, like Greenland, is just too attractive in the eyes of an aging, imbecilic ruler ignorant to reality and even less moored by norms and standards. The world is on notice and those in America’s own backyard, especially those sharing a land border, should not only be wary, but beware.”

Calm down, everyone. International law hasn’t been tossed aside because of Maduro’s capture. While it would be nice to see regime changes in totalitarian nations like Cuba and Iran, we’re not at that point. Democratic countries aren’t going to be invaded, in spite of what Trump’s critics often believe. The insinuation about Canada being potentially in the line of fire is completely off the wall and not worthy of comment, either.

One thing is for certain. Trump isn’t going to play around with tyrannical leaders like Maduro. He wants America and the world to be safe and secure. It may lead to the U.S. president setting up other military operations to capture a few more dictators who have no respect for law and order in their own countries.

It may never come to this point, of course. Let’s hope it doesn’t. If it does, I can’t say that I’m opposed to it.

Michael Taube is a political commentator, Troy Media syndicated columnist and former speechwriter for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He holds a master’s degree in comparative politics from the London School of Economics, lending academic rigour to his political insights.