Name: Myths Surrounding the Capture of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro
Uploaded: 2026-01-06T00:07:00Z
Duration: 6 min 49 s
Description: Free Expression: In reality the Maduros' removal from Venezuela was a superbly executed act of strategic opportunism that removed a vexing enemy, and it's a myth to suggest 'Operation Absolute Resolve' will set a precedent that will be exploited by Russia and China to achieve their own objectives.

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Free Expression: In reality the Maduros' removal from Venezuela was a superbly executed act of strategic opportunism that removed a vexing enemy, and it's a myth to suggest 'Operation Absolute Resolve' will set a precedent that will be exploited by Russia and China to achieve their own objectives. Photo: White House Press Office Handout/EPA/Shutterstock/Alexander Kazakov/Reuters

https://m.wsj.net/video/20260106/9c6af584-8a72-44f6-ba2c-70ca5b57ab2d/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Free Expression: In reality the Maduros' removal from Venezuela was a superbly executed act of strategic opportunism that removed a vexing enemy, and it's a myth to suggest 'Operation Absolute Resolve' will set a precedent that will be exploited by Russia and China to achieve their own objectives.

Myths Surrounding the Capture of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro

Illegitimate dictator Maduro was the kingpin of a vast criminal network responsible for trafficking colossal amounts of deadly and illicit drugs into the United States.

For someone so voluble, president Trump isn't all that effective at articulating a clear rationale for his strategic thinking. So it was following the military operation to remove Nicolás Maduro, dictator of Venezuela and bring him to the US for trial. The daring enterprise has engendered a host of grand theories about Mr. Trump's strategic decision making, the ideas behind it and its implications. For these, there are at least four myths and one important truth. Myth one, this was simply a law enforcement operation to bring to criminal justice a notorious narco trafficker.

Maduro and Flores have been indicted in the Southern district of New York. It's Jay Clayton for their campaign of deadly narco terrorism against the United States and its citizens.

The officially stated reason for Operation Absolute Resolve is also the least plausible. Now, I have great regard for US attorney Jay Clayton, and I've no doubt he will bring a watertight case against the Maduros, but no one is buying the claim that this was an initiative primarily in pursuit of criminal justice. For one thing, the last Latin American head of state convicted in a US court on drug trafficking charges was just granted a pardon by Mr. Trump.

They do pardon a lot of people.

So the administration's commitment to rooting out narco presidents seems less than solid.

The people of Honduras have highlighted to him how the former President Hernandez was set up. This was a clear Biden over prosecution.

Gerard: For another, Mr. Trump with his characteristically blunt capacity to say things that contradict his own officials, hasn't stopped talking about the operations blessings for Venezuelan freedom, democracy, oil, and the recently updated Monroe Doctrine.

They now call it the Donroe Document. I don't know. Under our new national security strategy, American dominance and the Western hemisphere will never be questioned again.

Which brings us to myth two. The removal of Mr. Maduro will result in an energy bonanza for the United States.

As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust.

Gerard: The prospect of access to oil was surely a big factor in the decision to affect a regime change. But the implausibility of this proposition lies in the unlikelihood of its being realized. There's been some excited commentary about how Venezuela sits atop 300 billion barrels of oil and how that means at current crude prices that the US just took control of an asset worth $17 trillion.

We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.

But this is flawed thinking, geologically, mathematically, and economically. The country's heavy oil isn't easily extracted, and in the unlikely event it did open up significant additional production, the addition to world supply would depress oil prices.

Massive oil infrastructure was taken like we were babies, so we didn't do anything about it. I would've done something about it.

Myth three, this latest example of US-led regime change represents the ultimate discrediting of America First MAGA foreign policy restrainers.

I'll be resigning from office with my last day being January 5th, 2026.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has been transfigured in the media from her previous role as everyone's favorite nut job to her new status as Sagacious observer of geopolitics was widely quoted making this case, "Regime change, funding foreign wars, and Americans tax dollars being consistently funneled to foreign causes," she posted on X, "Is what has most Americans enraged." But Mr. Trump's foreign policy was never as restrained as some of his supporters wanted it to be. As he showed in his first term with the successful strikes against Iran's Qassem Soleimani and Islamic states Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, he's never been shy about deploying us force. The same was true for the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities last summer. The Maduro raid is entirely consistent with this, a quick and successful strike that delivers an effective blow to America's adversaries without risking lengthy entanglements.

When the American military extracted bad guy, Venezuelan leader Maduro, they did some under the rationale that because he'd been indicted under American law, we have the right to go in and take him out. Myth four, the operation is a serious break with America's longstanding respect for international law, and it sets a precedent that will be exploited by countries like Russia and China as an excuse to pursue their own strategic objectives.

And for that reason why can't Vladimir Putin go out and take out Zelensky if he's convicted of breaking Russian law?

Give me a break. Two actually. The US has a long history of removing unfriendly leaders on questionable legal grounds that goes back at least three quarters of a century, from Iran's Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 to Chile's Salvador Allende in 1973, Panama's Manuel Noriega in 1989 and Iraq's Saddam Hussein in 2003, and many more in between.

Why can't President Xi, because Chinese law has stated for 20 years that Taiwan is a part of China take over Taiwan with legal justification.

Gerard: For Mr. Warner's benefit, Mr. Putin has not declined to capture Vladimir Zelensky because of his deep regard for the niceties of law. Xi Jinping, fresh off defying international law in the South China Sea and tearing up his country's treaty with the United Kingdom over Hong Kong isn't somehow being prevented from seizing Taiwan's leader because some lawyer in Beijing has been telling him this isn't how America operates. So much for the myths. Here's the reality. The Maduro grab was a superbly executed act of strategic opportunism that removed an adversary of the United States in a region of the world most important to our strategic interests. Ultimate judgment on it will rest on its long-term outcome. For now, it sends a message to friends and foes alike. We have the capacity and the will to ruthlessly eliminate those who would cause us harm.

WSJ Opinion: Myths Surrounding the Capture of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro

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