The Unsettling Truth: Venezuela, Gaza, and the Collapse of Universal Law

Submitted by Sami Al-Arian on Mon, 01/05/2026 – 18:53

The events unfolding in Venezuela this past weekend aren’t just a political skirmish; they are a stark declaration. The abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife by US agents, while framed as ‘law enforcement,’ was nothing short of an aggressive military raid. This act lays bare a disturbing truth: in the Western Hemisphere, sovereignty is a mere illusion, subject to US whim, and international law is a tool for the weak, not an obligation for empires.

Trump’s Imperial Bluster: ‘We’ll Run the Country’

President Donald Trump’s own words following the operation were chillingly explicit. He lauded it as ‘extremely successful,’ declared the US would ‘run the country’ until a ‘safe, proper and judicious transition,’ and ominously warned other Venezuelan leaders: ‘what happened to Maduro can happen to them.’ He even dared to suggest ‘boots on the ground.’ This isn’t the language of diplomacy or justice; it’s the arrogant vocabulary of conquest.

Most tellingly, Trump brazenly linked the action to oil, claiming Venezuela had ‘stolen’ an industry the US had built with ‘American talent, drive and skill.’ He called it ‘one of the largest thefts of American property in the history of our country.’ This isn’t about legality; it’s about claiming dominion over resources.

A History of Hemispheric Control: The Monroe Doctrine Revisited

To truly grasp Trump’s actions, we must look to the past: the 1823 Monroe Doctrine. This doctrine established the Western Hemisphere as a US sphere of influence, evolving over time into a policy of hemispheric enforcement. The US would decide which governments were ‘legitimate,’ which were ‘dangerous,’ and which resources were ‘strategic’ – to be acquired by any means necessary. When a government dares to obstruct US hegemony, ‘democracy,’ ‘anti-communism,’ or ‘anti-narcotics’ become convenient pretexts for coercion.

What’s new in 2026 isn’t the intent, but the sheer brazenness. Gone are the days of covert ops and proxies. The US president openly embraces the logic of domination, assuming the world will simply cower before a visible display of American brute force.

Venezuela’s Riches: The True Prize

Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves – over 300 billion barrels. In an imperial system that equates energy with power, this fact is never morally neutral. The US indictment of Maduro, unsealed after the raid, isn’t evidence of wrongdoing; it’s a post-facto stamp to normalize imperial actions.

But it’s not just oil. Venezuela’s Orinoco mining belt is a treasure trove of gold (over 8,000 tonnes, one of the largest reserves globally) and other precious metals. It also holds billions of tonnes of iron ore, rare earth elements, nickel, copper, and phosphates – critical inputs for modern technology and military hardware. Interventions, often sold as ‘anti-narcotics’ or ‘anti-corruption,’ frequently carry a hidden agenda: controlling concessions, trade routes, and the monetization of what lies beneath the ground.

Sanctions as a Weapon of War

In the months leading up to the attack, the US steadily tightened its grip. A naval blockade in December disrupted tanker flows, seized cargoes, and halved oil exports. Washington wasn’t just demonstrating that sanctions inflict harm; it was showing how sanctions, blockades, and ‘law enforcement’ narratives are deployed as preparatory fire for regime change.

The Human Cost: Undoing Decades of Progress

Since Hugo Chavez’s election in 1998, Venezuela redirected oil revenues into massive social programs, drastically cutting poverty, expanding healthcare, education, housing, and food subsidies. This model was precisely what US policy sought to dismantle. Starting with financial measures in the mid-2000s, escalating into sweeping oil, banking, and trade sanctions after 2015, the US aimed to make the existing system economically unviable and force regime collapse.

The resulting humanitarian catastrophe was a direct, deliberate consequence: an externally imposed economic strangulation designed to reverse social gains, not reform governance.

The World Reacts: Not ‘Law Enforcement’

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the abduction as ‘law enforcement,’ yet it was condemned by numerous countries in the region, including Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, and across the globe. China stated it was ‘deeply shocked and strongly condemns the US for recklessly using force against a sovereign state and targeting its president.’ Washington’s insistence on the ‘law enforcement’ narrative is not only unconvincing but politically revealing: the US uses legal pretense as a stamp to normalize its empire’s actions.

The Gaza-Venezuela Connection: A Tale of Two Laws

Venezuela cannot be understood in isolation from Gaza, which has served as a global litmus test for international law. Washington has spent two years shielding Israel politically, arming it militarily, and undermining any accountability for its crimes. Despite the International Court of Justice issuing provisional measures against Israel for genocide, and the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains catastrophic, and the warrant unenforced.

The contrast is glaring: Maduro is abducted without trial, his country placed under foreign ‘transition’ management. Netanyahu is treated as a strategic partner. A system claiming universal legality is thus undermined by its own regime of exemptions. On Ukraine, the West insists borders are inviolable and aggression criminal. On Gaza and Venezuela, the opposite is justified. It is power, not principle, that determines when sovereignty matters.

The Nuclear Deterrent: Why Some Are Safe, Others Are Not

Venezuela’s grim lesson is unmistakable: the US cannot do to North Korea what it has done to Venezuela because North Korea possesses a credible nuclear deterrent. Venezuela does not. This strengthens the argument across the Global South that nuclear capabilities function as regime insurance. This isn’t a moral endorsement of proliferation, but a stark empirical reading of imperial behavior, grounded in realist geopolitical logic.

Lessons from History: The Limits of Force

The same deterrence logic applies even more strongly to Iran. A Venezuela-style operation in Tehran would almost certainly fail due to structural constraints the US cannot neutralize through force. Iran demonstrated its retaliatory capacity in the 12-day war last June, with a massive missile and drone arsenal, hardened facilities, and the ability to strike regional bases and critical infrastructure. Any escalation would not remain local, and the Strait of Hormuz is critical to the global economy.

With a population of 92 million and vast territory, Iran is neither demographically nor geographically manageable as an occupation project. The US occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan proved that overwhelming force can topple a state, but governing a society that rejects the occupier is impossible. Iran has spent two decades studying these failures and developing asymmetric counters. Removing a leader does not extinguish resistance when intervention is widely understood as foreign domination tied to the seizure of national resources.

The Unmistakable Truth

Gaza exposed the hollowness of Western universalism, liberalism, and globalization. Venezuela extends this lesson into the Western Hemisphere with undeniable clarity. When legality is enforced only against opponents, it ceases to be law and becomes an instrument of power. And when aggression is openly linked to oil, empire stops pretending to be anything else.

More than two millennia ago, Marcus Aurelius warned future rulers: ‘Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future, too.’ Trump, it seems, has never been accused of heeding wise counsel.

Source: Original Article