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The United States executed a bold, surgical operation in the predawn hours of January 3, 2026 to seize Nicolás Maduro from his Caracas compound — a move that stunned the world and finally brought the Venezuelan strongman to American soil. For years Washington watched Maduro preside over a collapsing country, mass migration, and a narco-state that funneled poison onto our streets; enough is enough. The audacity of the raid shows a government finally willing to act decisively against transnational crime and brutal authoritarianism.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were flown to New York and made their first court appearance on January 5, where both pleaded not guilty to serious drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges and insisted they were unlawfully kidnapped. Maduro loudly declared he was a “kidnapped president” and vowed he remains Venezuela’s leader, but the 25-page indictment alleges a regime that trafficked thousands of tons of cocaine and ordered violence against its opponents. This case will be messy and legalistic, but it is rooted in long-standing allegations that cannot be ignored.
President Trump made no secret of his intention to remove a menace and insisted the U.S. would “run” Venezuela in the short term to secure oil infrastructure and stop drug flows, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to tamp down fears about occupation and framed the mission as law enforcement against cartels. Conservatives who have watched Venezuela’s slide into ruin know there is a moral imperative to act when a regime weaponizes narcotics and regional chaos against neighbors and the United States. The administration’s readiness to use American power to protect our national interests is exactly what real leadership looks like.
Yet predictably, many Democrats reacted less like defenders of liberty and more like lawyers for a dictator, wringing their hands about congressional notification while parroting international-law alarm bells. Voices on the left ranged from cautious praise coupled with procedural complaints to outright denunciations of the operation as “illegal and unprovoked,” a posture that reads now as sympathy for autocracy over sympathy for Venezuelan victims. This is the same party that lectures Americans about moral clarity while reflexively defending anti-American regimes when it suits their political theater.
Make no mistake: the charges against Maduro are grave and supported by long-standing U.S. investigations into drug networks and corruption at the highest levels of his government. The indictment lays out a pattern of cooperation with cartels and violence that destroyed lives across the hemisphere, and our justice system must be allowed to prosecute where evidence points. If Democrats want to object, they should explain why they are more eager to protect a foreign thug than to back efforts that could stop the flood of drugs and criminality poisoning American communities.
International responses will be messy — countries like Switzerland moved quickly to freeze assets linked to Maduro, and global institutions will grumble — but action, not platitudes, is what the Venezuelan people have needed for a generation. We should welcome measures that choke off illicit networks and hold tyrants accountable, even if the diplomatic calculus is complicated; cowardice in the face of evil has consequences far worse than messy geopolitics. Patriots who value security and human dignity will stand with the brave Americans who carried out this mission and with Venezuelans who suffered under Maduro’s rule.
Now Congress and the American people must rally behind firm, sensible policies that finish the job: support our troops and law-enforcement partners, back accountability in the courts, and press for a stable, free Venezuela that stops being a launchpad for drugs and chaos. Democrats who spend their breaths defending a dictator or demanding performative outrage instead of supporting justice will own the political fallout when Americans judge them at the ballot box. This country is built on the willingness to do what is right, not what is easy — and today, patriots should be proud that American power was used to confront real evil abroad.
