By Isidoros Karderinis
The unprecedented kidnapping in the world annals, in the manner in which it took place, of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro constitutes not only a military intervention in a sovereign and independent country in violation of the principles of international law, but also constitutes a clear warning to the entire planet. A warning to every insubordinate leader of any country.
Already on January 3, 2026, during a press conference he gave regarding the military operation and arrest of Maduro, US President Donald Trump issued threats against Colombian President Gustavo Petro, stating the following: “He would do well to be careful.”
At the same time, the US president hinted that Cuba could be a topic of discussion within the context of broader US policy in the region, highlighting Washington’s ability to expand its focus beyond Venezuela.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio even said that the Cuban government should be worried after Maduro’s arrest. Specifically, he said: “If I lived in Havana and was member of the government, at least I would be worried,” adding that “Cuba is a disaster” and that the country is “run by incompetent and depraved men.”
The history of the United States, moreover, is characterized by extensive imperialist interventions, both territorial and interventionist in other countries. Specifically, there have been approximately 400 interventions since 1776, when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, declaring the independence of the 13 American Colonies from the British Empire, an event that marked the official founding of the United States of America.
Who can forget that from April 15 to 19, 1961, 1,400 anti-Fidel Castro fighters, trained and financed by the CIA, attempted to land at the Bay of Pigs, 250 kilometers from Havana, but failed to overthrow the Cuban communist regime. These battles resulted in the deaths of about a hundred people on each side.
“With Salvador Allende winning the elections of September 4, 1970 in Chile and already Fidel Castro in Cuba, we will have a Red sandwich in Latin America that will inevitably become all Red,” Richard Nixon feared, and his fear was soon confirmed by the election results.
So, in the face of this unpleasant reality for the United States, a solution had to be found. And the solution was found on that morning of September 11, 1973, when a military coup took place under the head of the army, General Augusto Pinochet, with the support of the United States, but also of Brazil, whose military regime was completely friendly and cooperative with the United States. The coup plotters, after first surrounding and bombing the Presidential Palace, then stormed it. Salvador Allende and his close associates were killed, after fierce resistance.
The United States also invaded Panama in mid-December 1989 during the presidency of George W. Bush. The purpose of the military invasion was to oust Panama’s de facto leader, General Manuel Noriega, who was accused by American authorities of extortion and drug trafficking.
So, if one is looking for a historical parallel where the US arrested a de facto leader of a country and transferred him to the US for trial, the Noriega case is the most characteristic. And this happened after a regular military invasion, that is, in the context of a coordinated armed intervention, and certainly not a “normal” peace.
Noriega managed to escape and took refuge in the Vatican embassy in Panama City, the country’s capital, where he remained for 11 days. There, he was subjected to relentless psychological warfare in order to surrender. The US military set up a horrible , deafening wall of sound outside the embassy. A fleet of Humvees with loudspeakers constantly played hard rock and occasionally heavy metal music. For example, “Panama” by the heavy metal singers Van Halen was played.
The Holy See rightly complained to President Bush, and the musical war ended after three days. By January 3, 1990, the general had agreed to surrender.
But what are the deeper reasons for the US military invasion of Venezuela and the pursuit of overthrowing the insubordinate existing regime?
Venezuela, therefore, has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, amounting to approximately 303.8 billion barrels as of 2021. For comparison, leading oil producing countries have smaller reserves. Specifically, Saudi Arabia has approximately 267 billion barrels and Kuwait has 101.5 billion barrels.
At the same time, the country’s proven natural gas reserves exceeded 5.6 trillion cubic meters in 2021. It should be noted, at the same time, that in the Western Hemisphere, only the United States had more reserves.
Also, Venezuela’s total iron ore reserves are estimated at 4.5 billion tons. And here it should be emphasized regarding iron reserves that the country is second in the region after Brazil. Venezuela finally has some of the largest reserves of bauxite in the world, a mineral used to produce aluminum. The country’s total bauxite reserves amount to 950 million tons.
It is, therefore, clear to any objective observer that the US covets Venezuela’s wealth-producing resources. Resources that they cannot get their hands on with the existing regime, which is a political and military partner and ally of Moscow, Beijing and Tehran, but also the main supplier of oil to China, whose control is drying up the flow.
The solution therefore for them, for the US, in order to secure primacy in the relentless international competition is the overthrow of the existing Venezuelan regime and the emergence of a president and a government that is absolutely friendly and serviceable. The rest, that is, whether such a thing is legal and democratic, does not concern them at all.
In closing, I would like to emphasize that the leaders of any country are overthrown only by their people, that is, by popular uprisings and revolutions, as has happened in various countries in the past. They are not overthrown by the military intervention of another country, a foreign power. Therefore, the US military invasion of Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president, Nicolas Maduro, are absolutely condemnable for any democratic and free-thinking citizen of the world.
*Isidoros Karderinis, journalist, foreign press correspondent accredited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, regular member of the Greek Foreign Press Correspondents’ Association, novelist, poet and lyricist. Facebook: Karderinis Isidoros
