Sunday, January 4th 2026
Some of my friends asked me last night how I see the event in Venezuela, especially from where I am in America. Not that my opinion has any weight or importance to the event, but since I was asked to write something, I am fulfilling their desire with a description of my perception.
There is no doubt that Maduro’s long regime has created major social problems in his country. Venezuela has poverty, unemployment and many inherited problems, which, when confronted with the luxurious life of the elite next to Maduro, create a strong social contrast.
Maduro could not have either the rhetoric or the charisma of Chavez, who was able to electrify the masses and create great support among the people. The oil industry is completely outdated and the impossibility of using it has brought unemployment and economic slowdown. Although a country that claims to be a social model, basic services are severely lacking, causing insecurity to bring about an increase in immigration.
In summary, all this shows that Maduro had no real support from those he claimed to represent. The fact that he was arrested in his bedroom clearly shows that the people around him betrayed him and that the army was no longer on his side.
However, to refer to the facts published in serious American media, Maduro’s Venezuela was a conservative country from a social point of view. It did not recognize abortion, gay marriage, transgender rights or other laws that are highly debatable even by Republican conservatives in America. Venezuela is an authoritarian country, where the state controls most of the economy, as well as the social aspect. It is the country with the largest oil reserves in the world and the country with the smallest percentage of illegal drug trafficking in America. The TV shows about the shooting of boats bringing drugs to American shores were a lemonade that no one swallowed.
So, to summarize, Venezuela is a country with an authoritarian regime, poor, which could not threaten America, but owns the largest oil resources in the world, resources that were not controlled by the Americans.
Meanwhile, everyone who had the time and desire to attend the press conference of President Trump after the arrest of Maduro could clearly see one of the most interesting performances of global politics, if we were to compare it with the historical period of the fall of the Republic in Rome and the establishment of the Imperium, or the authority of the Caesars.
Gore Vidal, one of the sharpest American minds of the last century, in his book on the fall of the Republic, has clearly warned the fall of American republicanism and the establishment of imperial dominance. But never, in my opinion, even in his book, was this more evident and more articulate than in Trump’s January 3 conference.
In a way, for those who know history well, this speech was a moment that divides like a knife the transition from the Republic to the Imperium of the Caesars (the President). In his appearance in front of reporters, Trump clearly showed that the American Congress is no longer a useful or decision-making body in state politics; on the contrary, he humiliated them by calling them “people who leak information”, a phrase he repeated several times to show that he had no reason to disregard the congressmen.
President Trump, quite proudly, repeated that “Venezuela would be administered by the Americans themselves”, i.e. as a province caught in a war, where the right of occupation legitimizes every action. The Secretary of State, Rubio, “will be responsible for this administration”, said Trump, giving him the title of an “Augustus Legate”, similar to an administrator under the orders of the Emperor and not of the Senate.
Secretary Rubio, in his interventions, emphasized several times that in such actions there was no reason to take the opinion of Congress and repeated the phrase that Trump was a “President who should be taken seriously”, even though he once argued that on the contrary.
In the press conference, phrases like democracy, the right of peoples to self-determination, free elections and other slogans were completely ignored and, in a way, Trump was very honest in treating these as phrases without any real meaning in the context of Venezuela.
“The administration of Venezuela will not cost the American taxpayers anything,” Trump promised, adding that Venezuela’s oil, starting today, will to be administered by the Trump administration. “Not only will we manage the oil, but we will also pay those who have been harmed in the past”, declared Trump again, implying that the project of intervention in Venezuela also includes the big oil companies, which left the country after Hugo Chavez led a revolution 25 years ago, ousting the corrupt Venezuelan elite from power and nationalizing the oil resources.
One of Trump’s most brilliant moments. with reporters was the answer to the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, a lady to whom the Scandinavian countries gave the Nobel Peace Prize just a month ago, a clearly political decision.
“The lady,” said Trump, “is a good woman, but without any support and reputation in the country. I have no reason to talk to her, as she is not part of our plans.” That was enough to show the impotence of the Nobel institutions, as well as the failure of the “support” of the spineless policy of the European leadership towards the Venezuelan opposition.
And, in fact, before Trump’s press conference was over, the servile messages of the prime ministers, who had the plight of the Venezuelan people and not the issues of international law, began to appear on the X accounts of the European leadership. European servility towards America on matters of fundamental importance to international law will soon face the moment when President Trump will take Greenland as a legitimate right to American security against possible threats.
Meanwhile, unlike the Europeans, important voices in America of international law firmly opposed President Trump. They argue that the American intervention in Venezuela was not only a violation of international law that guarantees the sovereignty of states, but also a serious blow to the legal institutions created after the Second World War to maintain and guarantee world order.
This absurd theater that took place in the morning was followed by the evening appearance of the arrival of many helicopters that transferred Maduro to the high security prison in New York. The perfect direction, which only a master of television like Trump could organize, had helicopters and the Statue of Liberty in the background. The idea that Venezuela’s past rested on the Torch Holding Statue and not on the oil wells was quite significant. While part of the screens broadcast images of Maduro, the other showed American football games.
Source: prizrenpost
