Sixth of October City, EGYPT – United States President Donald Trump orchestrated a military attack on Venezuela on Saturday, taking President Nicolás Maduro and his wife into custody on allegations of drug trafficking.
Listen to the author read an audio recording of this article:
Maduro is now facing criminal charges in the U.S. of smuggling “thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States,” according to the grand jury indictment. He is now held in New York alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, who was also indicted on many of the same charges.
Maduro has been in power since 2013, leading a government accused of human rights violations for the past decade.
During Venezuela’s last elections in 2024, Maduro declared himself the winner before the votes were all counted. After that, political repression by his government brought about 24 deaths and the detention of 2,000 people, only 1,369 of whom were released by the end of the year, according to Amnesty International.
It is important to note that Maduro’s rule over Venezuela has been far from just, but it is not legal for the U.S. – a country ruled by a felon – to carry out this attack with no consideration for international law, and in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The United Nations was specifically founded so other countries could not simply decide what nations they should take. Factoring in nuclear weapons, it is a matter of global interest that we all care about Venezuela.
If Trump can plan an attack on Venezuela, who knows what else he can do? More importantly, can other countries attack each other the same, reckless way?
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned the attack in a video and said, “Article Two of the Charter of the United Nations clearly states that there should be no military intervention but rather a multilateral solution within the framework of the United Nations.”
It is clear that there is much interest for the U.S. to carry out this attack, with Trump’s statements that they would “run” Venezuela temporarily and “get the oil flowing,” as well as stating that the U.S. will have direct involvement in its oil by investing billions of dollars.
These statements are not sugarcoated. Obviously America would have a keen interest in a country with the largest oil reserves, especially when Trump voiced this interest so quickly after capturing Maduro. What further proves this interest was that Trump seized Venezuelan oil before the beginning of this year.
What troubles me is the language Trump uses to describe the charges accusing Maduro. The U.S. president pointed to his Venezuelan counterpart as the perpetrator of smuggling schemes that Trump claims are killing Americans. But last month, Trump pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former Honduran president, someone who has history of large-scale drug trafficking.
What we are witnessing is American imperialism before our eyes, broadcasted very openly.
The Venezuelan people should have the autonomy to democratically select non-corrupt leaders, to have a government that does not apprehend citizens for political dissent but more importantly not involve other countries in matters regarding their country’s natural resources.
An emergency meeting with the United Nations Security Council is set to take place on Monday.
Jana Salama is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International who wrote this article, made the illustration at the top and recorded the audio.
