Mary O’Leary discusses the US capture of Venezuela President, Nicolas Maduro, and Trump’s increasing interest in Venezuela.
On 3 January, 2026, the United States launched a military strike on the country of Venezuela, capturing the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro and placing the future of the South American country in limbo. The US has faced major backlash from the international community, especially when the strikes and the capturing of the president occurred while there is a growing military threat the US might pose against countries such as Greenland.
Now in New York to be placed under trial by the American government, Maduro has been publicly accused as to have “abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States" in United States District Court Documents.
Maduro in turn has refuted these claims, stating that the reason for such charges had more to do with American investment in the Venezuelan oil industry. Directly following his arrest American president, Donald Trump, announced an oil deal with acting Venezuela president, Delcy Rodriguez, which would transfer 30 to 50 million tons of oil to the US. Oil relations between the two countries have always been a primary factor in their relationship, including in the political rise of Hugo Chávez in 1998, when he worked to take back oil control from the oil company PdVSA.
However, it is hard to distinguish this reasoning from the exponential amount of oil profit to be made from these recent acts. Trump’s new standard of political foreign policy also calls into question the sovereignty of other nations, many of which condown the kidnapping of foreign political figures and adversaries.