Regime change in Venezuela?
'a non-international armed conflict with designated terrorist organizations'
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed on Monday to have sent a letter to Pope Leo XIV to “help Venezuela preserve and achieve peace and stability.” Given Pope Leo XIV proved unable to sway Vice President JD Vance on Venezuelan immigrants and the “globalization of indifference,” it seems highly unlikely a letter (if indeed sent) will help Maduro stay in power.
Last week, Trump notified Congress that the United States is actively engaged in “a non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, and to date the U.S. military has attacked at least 4 suspected drug boats originating from Venezuela and killed at least 20 “unlawful combatants” on board. The document sent to Congress provided no additional reasons for the attacks beyond what has been stated publicly.
This week, the Trump administration cut off all diplomatic ties to Venezuela. And yesterday Trump said he is considering attacking drug cartels “coming by land,” which further exacerbates the legality of such attacks and killings. Beyond the obvious dearth of evidence presented publicly of what is on board these vessels and the identities of those killed, the dubious legality is under suspicion for actions occurring outside normal channels, specifically the complete lack of non-lethal halting of shipments and calling on the Coast Guard instead of the military in such cases.
Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said “Every American should be alarmed that their president has decided he can wage secret wars against anyone he calls an enemy.”
On Trump’s inaugural international trip of his second term, he spoke to an esteemed crowd in Riyadh of a great transformation in the Middle East in which “so-called nation builders, neocons or liberal nonprofits” were not involved in telling them “how to live and how to govern your own affairs.”
In Donald Trump’s new world order, humanitarianism no longer dictates American foreign policy. Maybe it never did; but why would Trump want to create a failed state in Venezuela?