extrajudicial

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

Not the post I expected to write this morning.

The Trump administration continued its assault on the Constitution and the rule of law yesterday by using our elite military forces to kidnap Venezulan leader Maduro and his spouse and bring them to the United States, ostensibly to be tried for drug trafficking charges. This follows months of bombing boats and killing crew members coming from Venezula and other Central/South American countries, also ostensibly tied to drug trafficking.

These actions appear to break both United States and international law.

What should happen is that warrants or charges should be issued and arrests made, not bringing in the military or killing people without trial.

In the case of Maduro and his family, charges should have been brought with an arrest taking place if he left his country. This is the usual protocol followed with national leaders, as we see with cases of war crimes. (One of the terrible things about Trump inviting Putin to Alaska last year is that Putin is under indictment for war crimes and should have been arrested upon entering the United States, but was not.)

I don’t know what the evidence is against Maduro and whether he will be convicted at trial. In the past, the United States Department of Justice did not indict on serious charges unless they felt sure they had enough evidence to convict but the Trump Department of Justice has hollowed out many of the veteran prosecutors and has had a number of high profile cases fall apart because they have not had proper evidence before filing charges.

It’s obvious, though, that Trump’s aggressive behavior against Venezula is not about drugs. If Trump was serious about jailing drug traffickers, he would not have pardoned former Honduran president Hernández, who was convicted on drug charges and serving a 45-year prison sentence in the US.

Instead, this seems to be about power and money. Trump plans to “run” Venezula for the immediate future and bring in his fossil fuel patrons to take Venezulan oil. You may recall that Trump asked for millions of dollars in campaign funding from the fossil fuel industry for his 2024 campaign and this move in Venezula would be the latest handout to benefit them.

The Trump administration is claiming this was a law enforcement action rather than a military incursion, trying to skirt the Constitution which states that only Congress can declare war. I don’t know what will happen with this because the Republican majority has been reluctant to insist on exercising their Constitutional duties.

I am worried that Trump has started a war with Venezuela that will further destabilize the country. Maduro was acting as president despite having lost the last election. The apparent winner, Edmundo González, was forced into exile because the military still backed Maduro. Maduro’s vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, should assume the presidency but will probably be considered illegitimate because she was elected along with Maduro. Most countries were already sanctioning Venezuela because Maduro was still acting as president despite having lost the election. I’m not sure how they will react to Trump saying he is going to “run” Venezuela. There may be action in the United Nations.

What I can say is that I think Trump’s action was unconstitutional, illegal, and unwise. I hope that he will be held to account, along with the Cabinet members and other people involved, but Congress does not inspire confidence in this regard.

It’s hard to predict what will happen, so I won’t try, but I wanted to be clear that I think this action against Venezuela was wrong.

This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. To join in, please visit here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/01/04/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-4th-2026/ for more information.