🌊 The Real Reason the US Captured Maduro
How the concept of “hemispheric control” explains Saturday’s military operation
By Max Frost
If one thing was clear following Saturday’s Venezuela strike, it’s that the operation wasn’t just about Venezuela.
Hours before American special forces whisked Maduro out of Venezuela to face charges in the US, Maduro had met a delegation of Chinese officials. A day before, President Trump warned Iran’s government that the US would intervene if Iranian authorities killed anti-government protesters. And in the post-capture press conference, Trump and his officials spoke not just of Venezuela, but of Cuba, Colombia, and the entire Western Hemisphere.
Consider this exchange:
Reporter: Mr. President, so Colombian President Gustavo Petro, you know, a couple weeks ago you said, ‘He’s got to watch his ass.’ Today, he said he’s not concerned about anything happening to him in the aftermath of this operation. So just what your message is about that?
Trump: Well, he has cocaine mills. He has factories where he makes cocaine. And, yeah, I think I stick by my first statement. He’s making cocaine and they’re sending it into the United States, so he does have to watch his ass.
Or this one:
Reporter: Is there a message here for Cuba?
Trump: Well, Cuba is an interesting case. Cuba is, you know, not doing very well right now. That system has not been a very good one for Cuba. The people there have suffered for many, many years. And I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about because Cuba is a failing nation right now, a very badly failing nation. And we want to help the people. It’s very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people that were forced out of Cuba.
These are both decades-old issues: Colombia has long been the world’s leading cocaine producer; Cuba has been communist since the 1950s.
Venezuela’s government, similarly, has been hostile to America for 27 years. While it does have a major role in the cocaine trade, fentanyl – the drug powering America’s overdose crisis – is made and shipped from Mexico, not Venezuela.
So what changed? Why is the US now going after these countries? The strategy behind that is the topic of today’s deep-dive.