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Americans watched history unfold when elite U.S. forces seized Nicolás Maduro and flew him to American custody, a stunning end to years of impunity for a regime that trafficked misery across our hemisphere. The image of Maduro being processed in New York crystallizes what too many in Washington refused to admit: weak posturing only empowers tyrants and criminal syndicates.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz was right to stand firm on the moral and legal ground for the operation, invoking Article 51 and reminding the world that self-defense is not a hollow phrase. Waltz warned that Maduro’s Venezuela was no isolated kleptocracy but a dangerous node with ties to China, Russia, Iran and terrorist proxies like Hezbollah — a cocktail of malign influence that threatened American security.
This was not a stunt; Maduro faces serious narco-terrorism charges that have haunted his tenure for years, and bringing him to American soil to answer those charges is exactly what the rule of law demands. The Department of Justice’s long-running case and the recent superseding actions made a mockery of the old diplomatic shrug and demanded a decisive answer from a government that actually means to defend its people.
Predictably, the global chorus of hand-wringers rushed to lecture America about sovereignty, yet the Security Council debate ignores a simple fact: sovereignty does not give a dictator license to export drugs, guns, and terror. The U.N. can hold its meetings and posture for headlines, but Waltz rightly told viewers that protecting Americans and our neighbors is the first obligation of any serious administration.
Make no mistake — the strategic competition in Latin America has been real and growing, with China snapping up ports and energy access while Russia and Iran tried to muscle in on our hemisphere. Waltz’s warning about those relationships is not fearmongering but a sober assessment of the threat, and leaders like Marco Rubio have rightly vowed to purge terrorist footholds like Hezbollah from Venezuelan soil.
This operation, reportedly executed under the rubric of Operation Absolute Resolve, was the kind of bold, surgical action Americans hoped our leaders could take when diplomacy and sanctions proved toothless. If Washington had continued to tinker while narco-terrorism metastasized, we would have watched our southern flank become a permanent staging ground for anti-American forces; instead, action was taken and accountability followed.
Patriots should applaud measured strength and demand clarity from our leaders about the next steps — stabilizing Venezuela, securing oil infrastructure, and ensuring that justice is swiftly and fairly administered. The left’s predictable outrage and the U.N.’s sanctimonious lectures won’t protect American streets or stop cartel flights into our communities; only a government that defends its people will do that, and today’s move was a brutal but necessary reminder of that truth.
