Earlier last week, the Trump administration carried out a military assault on Venezuela, abducting President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and taking them to New York. There, a series of cases was filed against them, and a judicial farce is being staged in the name of justice. The spectacle of attacking the capital of a sovereign country and forcibly removing its elected president has stunned the world. It offers a chilling glimpse into the kind of global disorder we are living in. Donald Trump’s statements in this context sound less like those of a head of state and more like the threats of a neighbourhood bully. He shows no respect for independent countries or elected governments, not even for the citizens of his own country.
The citizens of the United States are grappling with deep and widening crises. Tens of millions have no health insurance, hunger is rising, and many are forced to rely on food stamps to survive. Wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the top one percent, and inequality continues to grow. This top one percent—closely tied to oil companies, banking, and the military-industrial complex—controls nearly 90 percent of the economy. The Trump administration consistently acts in its own interests, while bearing no real responsibility towards the remaining 99 percent of the population. It is precisely to protect the interests of this small but powerful oil-and-arms-linked segment that the attack on Venezuela has been launched.
The conflict between the US and Venezuela dates back to the late 1990s, beginning with the election of Hugo Chávez as president. Before that, power in Venezuela alternated between two parties, both loyal to Washington. As a result, US companies exercised near-total control over Venezuela’s oil resources. The vast revenues generated from oil helped a wealthy elite population grow wealthier. This elite group became the main pillar of US imperial influence in the country.
Both multinational oil corporations and Venezuela’s domestic elites found themselves in trouble when Hugo Chávez began taking steps to establish national control over oil resources. He started the Bolivarian Revolution. In 2002, an attempt was made to overthrow him through a military coup and install an alleged puppet government. After Chávez was detained, mass resistance erupted. This was an alleged US-backed project that collapsed, and Chávez was subsequently freed, returning to power stronger than before.
Under the leadership of Chávez, oil revenues were channelled into education, healthcare, and broader public welfare, while millions of poor Venezuelans found a path towards a more dignified life. This trajectory suffered a major setback with Chávez’s death. The Bolivarian Revolution was then carried forward by Nicolás Maduro. Time and again, attempts were made to remove him. Military threats were escalated in neighbouring countries. Having failed on other fronts, the US has now resorted to the disgraceful act of invading a sovereign nation and abducting its president and his wife.
However, the question of Nicolás Maduro being an autocrat and Venezuela being devoid of democracy cannot be ignored, especially since he is widely seen by opponents within his country as well as by foreign governments as having illegitimately won Venezuela’s 2024 election.
The US accuses Maduro of running a “narco-terrorist” regime, a claim he denies, and no credible evidence has been presented either. However, he has frequently been accused of repressing opposition groups and silencing dissent in Venezuela, at times with the use of violence. The danger of speaking out against Maduro is still very real within Venezuela, as the National Assembly—which is dominated by Maduro loyalists—passed a law a few weeks ago declaring anyone who expresses support for US naval blockades a “traitor,” reports BBC.
Nonetheless, for the US, attacking weaker states, carrying out massacres, and assassinating national leaders is nothing new. Since the end of World War II in 1945, the US has led the capitalist world, relying on aggression, mass violence, occupation, and intimidation to expand imperial dominance. Iraq was torn apart during the presidency of George H. W. Bush. Libya met a similar fate under Barack Obama. Earlier administrations carried out interventions across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. More than a million people were killed in Vietnam, and similar atrocities occurred in Indonesia. Chile offers another stark example where an elected president, Salvador Allende, was overthrown in a US-backed military coup and died fighting. What followed was a decade of brutal rule under General Augusto Pinochet, marked by killings, disappearances, and torture.
On the other hand, some of the world’s most notorious dictators have flourished under US protection, looting national wealth and unleashing brutal repression on their people. Whenever countries have attempted to chart an independent economic and political path outside the US imperial orbit, they have been attacked under one pretext or another. This pattern has persisted across successive US administrations, but under Donald Trump, it has reached an extreme.
A convicted Honduran drug lord was recently released from a US prison to counter anti-imperialist leftist forces in that country. In Ecuador, too, drug traffickers and smugglers have been granted various forms of protection and benefits. María Corina Machado, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has openly stated that US companies stand to make enormous profits from Venezuela’s resources, and that if she comes to power, all such opportunities will be handed over to them.
If global drug networks, aggression, and mass killings were to be put on trial, US leaders would be the first to face justice. Donald Trump should be prosecuted for war crimes, the escalation of violence, abductions, and sowing chaos across multiple countries. Instead, the Trump administration is putting Maduro on trial, thereby pushing the entire world towards greater disorder.
What is particularly alarming is that the United Nations has become an ineffective institution. At moments when decisive action was required, it failed. The European Union, too, appears spineless, reduced to a subordinate of the US. Yet there is a source of hope: across the world, countless people have taken to the streets in protest. This popular resistance remains our greatest hope today. It matters for Bangladesh as well, where hegemonic forces are also laying their traps. This is a global struggle, and it demands that all of us remain alert, informed, and actively engaged.
Anu Muhammad is a former professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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