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UNBIASED Politics
January 5, 2026: (SPECIAL REPORT) Everything You Need to Know About the Venezuelan Operation and Capture of Nicolás Maduro.
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Your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis.
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Welcome back to Unbiased Politics. Today is Monday, January 5th, and we are back for the first episode of 2026. It's only right that we start this year with a special report. I know that you guys have a ton of questions about Venezuela and, you know, the capture of Nicholas Maduro. So we're going to cover it all. Before we do, I do need to tell you that I am a little sick. You've probably heard it already. It's pretty obvious. Of course I would get sick. The day before that I the day before I officially returned to the microphone. So now you guys have to unfortunately listen to my deep, raspy voice for the next 40 to 50 minutes. So I'm very, very, very sorry about that. Unfortunately, I can't really do anything about it. I did the spoonfuls of honey. I've been drinking the tea. You know, I've been trying to do what I can, but I, I wasn't going to miss out on my first episode back. So we are going to do our best to get through this episode because there's a lot to talk about. Now, I do want to caution you that you have to be able to understand or at least be open to understanding nuance to fully listen to and digest this episode. Geopolitical matters and foreign policy are incredibly complex. It's not black and white at all. So just know that going into this episode. I'll go on a few different tangents throughout the episode, though. It all ties into the same story. And then by the end of the episode, you'll see how nuanced all of this really is. I'll start with the basics. Who is Maduro? Why was he taken? How was he taken? And then we'll get into the reactions on all sides, whether this broke international law and what that means, whether Trump needed congressional authorization to strike and much, much more. So first, who is Nicolas Maduro? Nicolas Maduro is a Venezuelan politician and former union organizer who got to where he is today by rising through the ranks of the socialist movement led by former president Hugo Chavez. Before getting into politics, Maduro was actually a bus driver. But eventually he ended up serving as foreign minister under Chavez from 2006 until early 2013. He was ultimately appointed Chavez's vice president. And then when Chavez died Shortly thereafter in 2013, Maduro assumed the office of the presidency. Now, when chavez died in 2013, Venezuela's constitution required the vice president to become interim president and a special election to take place within 30 days. So Maduro became interim president immediately upon Chavez's death and then ran in the special election. And Maduro won that special election by about 1.5 percentage points. However, the opposition at the time did immediately launch allegations of abuse of state resources, media control, and voter intimidation, and demanded a recount. The government refused a comprehensive audit, and the Supreme Court certified the result. Keep in mind, though, at this point in time, Maduro was considered to be the rightly elected president of Venezuela. It wasn't until later that that changed. Now, when Maduro assumed the presidency in 2013, Venezuela's economy was already struggling. But under Maduro, it got much, much worse. It started to just completely collapse. And when I say collapse, this is what I mean. When chavez died in 2013, Venezuela's economy was almost entirely dependent on oil. About 95% of Venezuela's export revenue came from oil. About 50 to 60% of all government revenue came from oil. So this is to say that Venezuela's oil was the financial backbone of the entire state. In fact, the state oil company PD is what funded government salaries, food subsidies, healthcare imports, social programs. So when global oil prices began to crash in 2014, Venezuela's main source of revenue essentially plummeted overnight. And this was catastrophic for a country that already had a weak economy and one whose entire economy is dependent on oil, because this meant there was no money for food, medicine, medical equipment, electricity, infrastructure, social programs, etc. When Venezuela's revenue fell, it didn't have any money to pay foreign suppliers for food, which then led to a food shortage. At the same time, price controls made it unprofitable for local producers to sell food, and smuggling and black markets took off. So the Venezuelan people experienced not just higher prices, but food scarcity, long lines, rationing, and eventually malnutrition. It wasn't just the food, though. As I said, there were medicine shortages that were even worse. The Venezuela imported most pharmaceuticals, and hospitals relied on foreign supplies. So all of a sudden, there were no more antibiotics. Cancer treatments were stopped, Insulin shortages became common. Doctors and Hospitals couldn't access basic surgical supplies. Now this is where sanctions kind of come in. And the reason they come in here is because the United States imposed the first sanctions on Venezuela in 2014 and 2015. And there's a misconception that these sanctions are what caused the economy to collapse. But these sanctions contributed to the inability for Venezuela to come back from what it was experiencing in its economy. But it did not cause the collapse. So the original 2014 and 2015 sanctions that the United States imposed on Venezuela were imposed in response to Venezuela's democratic backsliding under Maduro. Disputed elections, the sidelining of the opposition controlled national assembly, allegations of human rights abuses during protests, corruption allegations against senior officials. So basically the US imposed these initial sanctions against Venezuela to pressure the Venezuelan government to act. Right? And since then, additional sanctions have been imposed. But the reason we have to mention these initial sanctions is because again, these were imposed while Venez, Venezuela's economy was collapsing. So it only made things worse for the country. But, but it's important to remember that the worst of Venezuela's economic collapse began before US Sanctions were imposed. However, once those sanctions were imposed, they made the already failing system even harder to recover from because of course, sanctions restricted Venezuela's access to international financing, limited its ability to sell oil on global markets, made it harder to import goods even when money was available. So again, sanctions didn't cause the collapse, but sanctions did tighten the constraints on on a country that was already struggling. Once Venezuela could no longer rely on oil exports to bring in money, it turned to illegal activities like drug trafficking. And we'll touch more on this later in the episode because I want to get back to Maduro himself for now. I just think the history of Venezuela's economy under Maduro's regime is very important to understanding the full picture. So as I said, Maduro was officially elected in 2013. Things really start to tank in 2014 when global oil prices drop. In 2015, the opposition won control of the national assembly, which the national assembly plays a similar role in Venezuela as Congress plays here in the United States. Roughly two years later, when Maduro was continuing to fight against the opposition in the national assembly, he created this new Constituent assembly which basically just replaced the elected legislature with people that he wanted. Then in 2018, more election issues. Opposition candidates were jailed, banned, exiled. The election date was suddenly moved up and Maduro, quote, unquote, won that election. But a lot of countries like the States, Canada and the EU refuse to recognize the result. And from that point forward is when Maduro is described as illegitimate by foreign governments and the majority of the Venezuelan population. Most recently, Venezuela held an election in 2024 to elect a president for a six year term beginning January 2025. There were two main opposition candidates running against Maduro, Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Machado. Machado was ultimately disqualified from the race by the Venezuelan government, but Gonzalez was still able to run. And opposition groups and independent analysts said their own tally sheets and parallel counting showed Gonzalez had actually won that election by a very wide margin. But Venezuela's government controlled National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner with about 52% of the vote. And again, international bodies like the Organization of American States and the UN said this election did not meet international democratic standards, mainly because the results were announced with no official breakdown of vote counts from polling stations. But nonetheless, despite what these international bodies said, Maduro remained in office. And that is why most countries, world leaders and the people of Venezuela do not call him the President of Venezuela. He's instead referred to as an illegitimate leader, a dictator, de facto ruler, autocrat, or an authoritarian leader. So that's a little bit about Maduro himself. Now let's talk about how the operation unfolded. The operation is called Operation Absolute Resolve. And it actually started months ago. As early as August, there were CIA personnel on the ground in Venezuela with the goal of gathering intel on Maduro. Where he lived, where he traveled, how he traveled, what he ate, when he ate, what he wore, even the names of his pets. They were essentially just gathering any and all information that they could. Meanwhile, here in the United States, Special Forces were training for months for this operation. They built a replica of Maduro's compound and they used that as practice. Similar what the the US Troops did leading up to the killing of Osama bin Laden, which by the way, if you have not watched the newest documentary, American Manhunt, Osama bin Laden, highly, highly, highly recommend. So while CIA personnel were on the ground in Venezuela and Special Forces were training for the operation, here in the United States, an administration team worked in secret, holding regular meetings and phone calls and briefing the President. This team included, but was not limited to individuals like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. As the months went on, we know that Trump repeatedly asked Maduro to step down. And we'll talk more about the why behind all of this in a little bit. But Trump's most recent attempt took place last week. Trump said he called Maduro and told him that he had to surrender, essentially. But Maduro didn't want to do that. So the order was ultimately given to carry out absolute resolve. Now, according to people familiar with the operation, Trump had approved this operation before Christmas, but at that time it wasn't clear when exactly the operation was going to be carried out. Then about four days after Christmas, the operation was supposed to be carried out, but it was called off due to weather. And that brings us to this past Friday, late Friday night, 10:46pm Eastern Time to be exact, President Trump gave the order to the to the United States military which, which launched 150 aircraft from 20 different land and sea bases. Helicopters carrying US Special Forces and FBI agents flew just 100ft over the Caribbean while fighter jets, bombers and drones flew above. As the helicopters entered Venezuelan airspace and got closer to Maduro's compound, they took out air defense systems in their path. They cut power in certain locations to create a blackout. And the strikes that were launched were specifically targeted military bases and a shipping port, though there were nearby. You know, there was nearby damage, of course, to warehouses and cars and such. Cuban officials have said that 32 Cuban military and intelligence members were killed during the operation. It's unclear at this point how many Venezuelan citizens, if any, were killed. At 1:01 Eastern Time, 101:00am Eastern Time, or 2:01am local time, the Special Forces closed in on Maduro's compound. Meanwhile, back in Palm beach, the President was watching a live feed with the team of officials, that same team from the administration that we spoke about just a few minutes ago. According to Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Kane, Maduro and his wife were, quote, taken completely by surprise, end quote. Maduro, though, apparently tried to escape into his steel safe room, but he didn't make it in time and he was captured, as was his wife. As they were being taken into custody, more helicopters had arrived to help with the exfiltration and fighter jets and drones were also there to provide overhead coverage and suppressive fire. According to Kane, there were multiple quote, unquote self defense engagements as the troops were withdrawing, which led to some US Troops sustaining injuries. But no troops were killed and those who were injured are stable. At 3:29am Eastern time, the US military was back over the water. And roughly an hour later, at 4:21am that's when Trump announced the operation. On Truth Social, he wrote, quote, the United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country this operation was done in conjunction with U. S. Law enforcement. Details to follow, end quote. By 4:30am Maduro was in New York. He arrived at Stewart airport in New Windsor which is north of New York city. He and his wife were transported to a jail later that day. And this morning they made their first court appearance in New York city, which basically consisted of the judge informing them of their charges and then pleading not guilty. And I know a lot of you were curious as to why they were taken to New York City of all places. The answer is that when the charges were filed, because back in 2020, they were filed in the US District Court for the southern district of New York, which is in New York city. So once they were captured this weekend, they had to be taken to the jurisdiction where their indictments were filed. That is the only court that has jurisdiction to oversee this case. Okay, so we're going to take a quick break here to hear from the sponsors that keep the lights on. I'm going to drink some hot tea and when we come back, we will talk about why Maduro was captured.
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Welcome back. Okay, before we get back into the discussion, I just want to say if you are still here with me, thank you so much. I. I'm so sorry that my voice sounds like this. I know it. I know it's totally out of my control but I can, I can imagine for some of you it it may sound a little bit annoying. So thank you so much for sticking with me. Okay, we have covered who Maduro is, how the operation was carried out, but now I want to talk about why Maduro was captured and brought to the United States. And I need you to kind of bear with me here because there are a few reasons and theories, some require us to go a little bit deeper. So we're going to start with the surface level stuff. The basis for for Maduro's capture is his indictment. Maduro and five alleged co conspirators, including his wife, are facing various charges. But Maduro specifically is facing charges of narco terrorism, conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. Now let's pretend we're sitting in a law school classroom. Real quick and quickly talk about what conspiracy means. And I'm going to make this really simple. A conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit an illegal act or to achieve a goal through illegal means. So to engage in a conspiracy there has to be a mutual understanding between at least two people with the specific intent to agree and in intent to achieve the criminal objective. That is a conspiracy. So when we see charges like narco terrorism, conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, conspiracy to possess machine guns, it means that Maduro allegedly had an agreement with at least one other person to commit narco terrorism to import cocaine to the United States and to possess machine guns. It's not that Maduro himself imported cocaine, otherwise his charge would be cocaine importation. That's different is that he had agreements with others to import cocaine. So I just want to make sure we're, we're clear on the conspiracy part of these charges. The indictment alleges in part quote. For over 25 years, leaders of Venezuela have abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States. Nicolas Maduro is at the forefront of that corruption and has partnered with his co conspirators to use his illegally obtained authority and and the institutions he corroded to transport thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States. As Venezuela's president and now de facto ruler, Maduro allows cocaine fueled corruption to to flourish for his own benefit, for the benefit of members of his ruling regime and for the benefit of his family members. Nicolas Maduro now sits atop a corrupt illegitimate government that for decades has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking. The cycle of narcotics based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect and transport tons of cocaine to the United States. In sum, Maduro and his co conspirators have for decades partnered with some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco terrorists in the world and relied on corrupt officials throughout the region to. To distribute tons of cocaine to the United States, end quote. So the administration is basically saying that this operation was carried out because, number one, Maduro is a corrupt leader, who, number two, has played a big role in importing cocaine illegally to the United States. And that's true, by the way. That's undisputed. He is corrupt, and he does have his hand in drug trafficking. Okay. For decades, even under President Chavez, drug networks have penetrated the highest levels of the Venezuelan state to the point now where. Where the Venezuelan state is the cartel. So, as I said, the drug issue, it's undisputed. But there's this other question of is there more to this than just drugs specifically? Does this have to do with Venezuelan oil? Does this have to do with forcing a regime change? And the answer is that all these are all pieces of the puzzle. The answer is not just one thing. It's all of it. So let's talk about the oil piece. The Venezuelan government says the sole purpose of this attack was to gain control of Venezuelan oil resources. And some lawmakers and commentators here in the United States have similarly said that the administration is only trying to regain control over Venezuelan oil infrastructure and benefit American energy companies. Senator Chris Van Hollen is one of the lawmakers. He said, quote, this has never been about stopping drugs from coming to the United States. We, we all support stopping drugs. This, from the beginning, has been about getting rid of Maduro, grabbing Venezuela's oil for American oil companies and Trump's billionaire buddies. That's what this is about. That's why Donald Trump spent so much time yesterday talking about oil, end quote. And the remarks that Van Hollen is referencing, there were remarks made by Trump during his Saturday news conference after this operation. So Trump said during that news conference, quote, were going to stay in Venezuela until such time as the proper transition can take place. As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust. For a long period of time. They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could have taken place. 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, and. And start making money for the country, end quote. He later said in that same news conference, quote, we're going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars. It'll be Paid for by the oil companies directly. They'll be reimbursed for what they're doing, but that's going to be paid, and we're going to get the oil flowing the way it should be. End quote. So is oil playing a part in Maduro's capture? Perhaps. But why? To understand the why, we have to take a look not only at history, but also at the geopolitical context. So, first and foremost, Venezuela holds the world's largest crude oil reserves, estimated at more than 300 billion barrels. But it's important to note that not all oil is the same. Okay, so some oil is easier to refine. Other oil is harder to refine. Venezuela's oil is very thick and very heavy. This makes it very difficult to refine. And with oil like this, only certain refineries are capable of processing it. The United States has those refineries. So keep that in mind as we move through this. Venezuelan oil was discovered back in the 1920s, and guess who got involved right away? The United States. So much so to the point that American oil companies essentially built Venezuela's oil industry because Venezuela didn't have the infrastructure or the equipment to do so. Venezuela was a poor country at the time, but with the help of the United States, Venezuela became one of the world's top oil exporters very quickly. And because of that, Venezuela also became one of the richest countries. So Fast forward to 1976, when Venezuela nationalized its oil industry and created Pdvesa, the state owned oil company that I mentioned earlier. Venezuela did this to have more control over its oil and essentially end foreign control. But the US And Venezuela were still very much working together because the United States had the refineries that Venezuela needed to process all of its oil. And that benefited both Venezuela and American oil companies because Venezuela was able to refine more oil than than it would if it were only utilizing its own, much less capable refineries. And American oil companies were making a profit from helping Venezuela. So the partnership worked until things started to go South. In 2003, President Chavez essentially purged PSA. He fired roughly 18,000 workers, including senior engineers, geologists, refinery managers, and operations specialists. And instead of replacement replacing them with equally skilled people, he replaced them with loyalists. And what this did is fundamentally change how Pita Vesa functioned. It basically went from one of the most professionally run oil companies in the developing world to a corrupt, operationally incompetent company. Despite the purge, though, oil prices stayed very high between 2003 and 2013. So Venezuela's economy was fine. It didn't, it didn't necessarily matter that Chavez had, had, had changed the, you know, basically, like the bones of this company, the Venezuelan government was still able to fund social programs, it was still able to import food, import medicine, et cetera, because oil prices were still so high. So it didn't matter how operationally incompetent. P But when global oil prices collapsed in 2014, that is when Venezuela lost it all. And it couldn't respond to the crisis because over the last 10 years, infrastructure had broken down, funds had been spent, funds were not being saved, and PD was operationally incompetent. And that oil obviously made up all of Venezuela's economy. Essentially. By 2017, Venezuela's oil production fell to 20% of its total capacity. That is a massive drop. But even during this time, Venezuela was still selling the little oil it was producing to the United States. It wasn't until 2019, during Trump's first administration, that the United States imposed oil related sanctions on Venezuela. Trump basically imposed an embargo on PD to try to get Maduro to hold free and fair elections. And the sanctions that were, you know, previously imposed, because we talked about sanctions being imposed initially in 2014, those didn't work. So Trump moved on to oil, which still didn't result in free and fair elections. But what it did do is it deepened the tension between the United States and Venezuela. Now, because Venezuela's economy was collapsing and they couldn't sell their oil to the United States anymore, a few things happened. Number one, Venezuela started to rely on revenue from drug trafficking. And number two, China became the largest buyer of Venezuelan oil. And this is where geopolitical context comes in. Not only has China become the largest buyer of Venezuelan oil, But as of 2020, Iran started sending tanker shipments of fuel and refined products to Venezuela to ease their shortages and started helping in repairing Venezuela's oil infrastructure. Now, naturally, this is only deepening Venezuela's economic ties with the United States or deepening Venezuela's ties with the United States's geopolitical rivals. So given the role oil is playing in bringing Venezuela closer to our adversaries, given Venezuela's location in the Western Hemisphere, and given Trump's remarks about US Oil companies investing in Venezuela's oil now that Maduro has been captured, some are arguing that oil was the primary motive for capturing Maduro and that this isn't about drugs. Others, though, say that's not the case. They cite the fact that just last month or two, two months ago now, Maduro offered Trump all of Venezuela's Resources, including Venezuela's oil. If Trump would just leave him alone. Because keep in mind, he. Trump has been trying to get Maduro to step down for months and months. So those people argue that if this was really just about oil, Trump could have just accepted Maduro's offer. But he didn't. Now, the third piece of this puzzle is regime change. Could this operation have been carried out to force a regime change in Venezuela? Possibly. And again, this theory goes back to a point that we've touched on multiple times throughout this episode. We which is that the Venezuelan government is corrupt. Maduro is corrupt. He doesn't hold fair and free elections despite the United States multiple attempts to get him to cooperate. And the United States wants an ally in Venezuela. The United States doesn't want Venezuela to be an adversary that is helping China, Russia and Iran. And one way for the United States to fix that is by forcing a regime change and getting Maduro out. But also keep in mind, the regime is still very much in place despite this operation. Maduro's vice president, Delsey Rodriguez, is now the interim president in Venezuela. The interior minister, who currently has a $25 million price on his head and has been indicted by the United States is still in place. The defense minister, who has deep ties to Russia and a $15 million price on his head is still in place. So, yes, Maduro is gone and that's potentially the start of a regime change. But the regime, for the most part, is still there. So as I've said, this is a puzzle that has multiple pieces. And the answer to the question, why was this operation carried out? Is complex. It's nuanced, as are most things. What we don't know is how big or small each piece of the puzzle is. How much of a role is oil playing all of this? How much of a role is a regime change playing? How much of a role is drug trafficking playing? That's what we don't know. And unfortunately, neither you nor I are, you know, in the briefing rooms and, and we just, we just don't know the answers to those things. But it's all of those pieces. Speaking of complexities, the next question is what are the reactions on all sides? We'll start with Venezuela. In Venezuela, most people are expressing a mix of joy and uncertainty. So the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans are celebrating Maduro's capture. At the same time, though, they're hesitant, right? They don't, they don't know what to expect from here. So they see Maduro's capture as long awaited justice and a Great thing, but they're not sure what comes next, not only politically, but also in terms of stability. What will the interim government look like? Will true democracy be restored? How will Venezuelan sovereignty be handled under temporary US Influence? Will there be violence? All of these are questions that Venezuelans have at the moment, especially those within Venezuela. Now, there are also some Venezuelans who support Maduro and are not happy about this operation. They see this as an illegal capture, unnecessary foreign intervention. They see this as a kidnapping rather than a lawful arrest. But I do want to point out that most Venezuelans do not support Maduro. As of July 2024, Maduro had the lowest approval rating of 16 different presidents in Latin America and the Caribbean, with just 21%. The only Latin American president behind him is the president of Cuba, who had a 14% approval rating as of 2022. Here in the United States, the difference in opinion is very much along party lines. Those who don't like Trump generally oppose the action. Those who support Trump generally support the action. Republican leaders and many of Trump's allies are, you know, praising the operation as a, as a decisive enforcement and praising Trump's ability to take action given the long standing indictments against Maduro. While Democratic leaders and critics have condemned the operation, and they argue that this was carried out without congressional approval and in violation of international law and could be illegal or destabilizing. So critics are arguing that this intervention oversteps constitutional war powers. It was done for selfish reasons, AKA oil interests, and could jeopardize US Security should adversaries take retaliatory action against the United States. Generally, people on both sides of the aisle agree that Maduro is a terrible leader and should be replaced. But the disagreement is over how the United States got involved and how this operation was, was carried out. Let's take our second and final break here. When we come back, we'll talk about whether this operation broke international law and whether Trump needed congressional authorization to do it.
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Okay, listen, I know, even though sometimes it feels like I'm the only one, I know I'm not the only one that has a full plate. Between working full time, running a business, managing my house, being a good wife, sister, daughter, friend, I feel maxed out. And the ironic thing is that while I feel like I have a full plate, the only thing that's not full is my actual plate, my breakfast plate, my lunch plate, my dinner plate. I'm always prioritizing eating last, which is crazy because I genuinely love food. I am such a foodie. So I decided to start using Hungryroot to solve this problem. I absolutely love what Hungryroot is doing. It's basically a personal nutrition coach and food shopper all in one. And the thing that I love most is that they really take the time to understand your goals. So when you first sign up, you do this whole questionnaire. They ask you what your priorities are, what flavors you like and don't like, allergies, restrictions, all of this stuff. You can really tell they're trying to get to know exactly what your preferences are. Then from there Hungry Root will automatically fill your cart with personalized meal recommendations. And they do a really good job at finding things that you'll like. But even if you don't like everything they chose, you can always edit your cart and fill it with things like meals and snacks that you think you would like more. I also love that they only source high quality meat and seafood food with.
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No hormones or antibiotics.
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The next question that we have to answer in this discussion is did this operation break international law? And the answer is not clear. Are you surprised? The reason the answer isn't clear is because as we've talked about in many, many episodes in the past, an argument can almost always be made one way or the other. So under international law, states are typically prohibited from using force against another sovereign state unless they have UN Security Council authorization or they the force is in self defense after either an armed attack or an imminent armed attack. Now we know the United States did not get UN authorization prior to the operation, so that doesn't apply here. But that leaves the self defense exception. And that's where most of the debate is happening. Most legal experts agree that drug trafficking allegations alone don't meet the legal standard for imminent threat that would justify military force under mainstream international law. It's typically not enough that there are criminal indictments against someone, or drug trafficking allegations, human rights abuses, disputed elections, or claims that a leader is illegitimate. So those that say that this was a violation of international law argue that one, the United States didn't have UN authorization and two, this was not done in self defense after an armed attack or imminent armed attack, and therefore the operation was a blatant violation of international law. However, on the other side of the debate, some say there are legal arguments to support the legality of the operation and their argument ties back to that imminent threat language. So they argue that large scale drug trafficking tied to state actors like that which Maduro was involved in is an ongoing armed threat and that the harm is ongoing rather than just a single pass act. Therefore, imminence is interpreted more broadly under this argument and armed is interpreted more broadly as well. We're not talking about weapons, we're talking about potentially lethal drugs. This argument is sometimes referred to as expanded self defense. Then outside of the UN Charter, those that support the legality of the operation argue that the operation shouldn't be considered force, it shouldn't be considered a war. Instead it should be considered law enforcement. So that argument relies on the idea that this wasn't force against a sovereign state, but rather the apprehension of an indicted individual and therefore the UN's prohibition on force doesn't apply at all. Now here's the other thing. International law is only as real as it is enforceable, right? And some of you might hear that and say, no, no, no, international law is very real regardless of whether it's enforced. And yes, that is true, but what I mean is that international law has no effect if it doesn't get enforced. In order to be enforceable, a country has to hand over its own leaders to international court. And that just doesn't happen. And that's also why we've seen various violations of international law across the globe that spanning many years, various past US Presidents have broken international law. President Putin, Pres. Prime Minister Netanyahu, all of these people have violated international law, but there are no real consequences. So this is to say that even if Trump did break international law and carrying out this operation, nothing, nothing will change. Maduro will stay in the United States so long as the United States wants him to. He'll still face trial, he'll still sit in the United States jail if he's eventually found guilty. So, so that's the international law component. But that takes us to the next question. Which is, did President Trump have or did he need congressional authorization to strike? He did not have congressional authorization to strike, but did he need it? That's the real question. And again, the answer is not totally clear. Under US Law, only Congress has the authority to declare war, Right? Right. But the President has something called Article 2 powers. Per Article 2 of the Constitution, the President is the commander in chief of the military. So there is an argument to be made that the President has the authority to direct the military and take military action on his own without approval from Congress. And this is an argument that's been used by every US President in recent history specifically to justify temporary and specific military strikes. President Clinton in Kosovo, President W. Bush in Yemen, President Obama in Libya, President Biden in Syria, and President Trump in Iran. Most. Most. Well, Venezuela most recently, but Iran before that. Not to mention, there's something called the 1973 War Powers Resolution. The War Powers Resolution allows the President to take military action without congressional approval, but it does require the President to submit a report to Congress which within 48 hours of that action. And the report has to include things like the legal basis for the action, the circumstances requiring the use of force, the scope and expected duration of deployment. But this is just a notification to Congress. It's not a request for approval. Under the War Powers Resolution, military action by the President is limited to up to 90 days without congressional approval. This is yet another basis for a President to authorize military action without Congress's approval. So did Trump need congressional authorization to strike? There's an argument to be had on both sides of that. That's a question that's imposed at various times throughout the last at least six administrations, and we have yet to get a clear cut answer. Now, we have one more legal question to answer. Is it legal for the United States to capture and prosecute a foreign leader? So the Supreme Court of the United States has held that a defendant can generally still stand trial in the United States for regardless of how they are brought into the United States, even if they were brought in illegally. This is called the Ker Frisbee Doctrine, and it says that an illegal or forcible capture does not by itself invalidate a criminal prosecution. But things obviously get a little more complicated when the defendant is a foreign leader and then even more complicated when the United States government doesn't recognize that person as a legitimate leader. So sitting heads of state are typically entitled to immunity under US Law, which is shields them from prosecution while they are recognized as legitimate leaders. But US Courts do not decide who is legitimate on their own. The courts actually rely on the executive branch to make that determination. And in Maduro's case, the United States had already withdrawn recognition of him as Venezuela's legitimate president even before the capture. Because of that, the administration can argue that Maduro was not entitled to to this head of state immunity at the time of his capture. And once that immunity is removed, the ker Frisbee doctrine means the case can go forward regardless of how he was captured, even if that capture was illegal. Next question. Why are people so worried that the United States is going to ruin Venezuela? This concern stems from past United States interventions that resulted in instability. So the most cited example is is the Iraq war. When Saddam Hussein was captured and removed as Iraq's leader in 2003, the Iraqi state was not necessarily prepared for what came next. And that dismantling resulted in sectarian violence, insurgency, long term instability and, and it yeah, just kind of like toppled the the country. Another similar example is Libya. Following a US backed intervention in 2011, Libya never fully stabilized. It fragmented into rival governments and it remains unstable to this day. So for critics, these examples suggest that while outside intervention or intervention by the United States specifically can easily remove a regime, the United States doesn't do a great job when it comes to building or helping to establish a new reliable system of governance for the country's people. And without a new stable system of governance, the ordinary citizens of a country are the ones that are the most negatively impacted. But then there's another layer of concern related to Venezuela's oil. Some critics are worried that the United States will now prioritize oil production over political stability and that economic decisions for Venezuela will now be driven by foreign interests, AKA U. S interests, rather than the best interests of the Venezuelan people. At the same time, supporters of this operation argue that Venezuela's economy has already been shaped for for years by corruption and mismanagement and that many economic decisions have not reflected the will or needs of the Venezuelan people. So there's really limited downside to U. S. Intervention. Now before we jump off to the next question, I do want to quickly touch on the situations in the Middle east because there have been some administration officials that have come out and, and, and touched on this concern where, you know, Venezuela is going to be the next Iraq or it's going to be the next Libya or it's going to be the next Afghanistan. And officials have drawn a distinction between Venezuela and the Middle East. So basically they say, you know, Venezuela has this big opportunity to be our ally and we have we have a ton of interest in helping them and making the country rich again because they're in the Western Hemisphere. And, you know, we. We could work together in. In great ways, whereas in the Middle east, the situation's different. It's just not that. So that's just to. To give you a little bit of a counter. Now, the second to last question. What does Trump mean when he says the United States will run Venezuela? We are not entirely sure, but this is what we know as of today. At the Saturday news conference, Trump said, quote, we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition, end quote. The following day, Secretary of State Rubio was asked about the United States plan to run Venezuela. And his response was essentially that the United States doesn't plan to directly govern Venezuela with boots on the ground, but would be influencing Venezuela's policy through oil sanctions, which the US Is already doing. Rubio also said, though, that the president does, quote, retain optionality on anything and on all of these matters, end quote. So perhaps, you know, more happens in the future, but as of right now, according to Rubio, it's just a matter of shaping policy. As of today, Maduro's vice president, Delsey Rodriguez, is the acting president of Venezuela. President Trump has acknowledged that, you know, she. She is the acting president, and she herself went on TV to tell the Venezuelan people that she is now running the country. So to answer the question, the United States is not running Venezuela in the sense that we've taken over governance, at least not yet. What the United States is doing is shaping Venezuelan policy by keeping in place this oil quarantine. And just to be clear there, in Venezuela's case, an oil quarantine refers not only to US Sanctions on Venezuelan oil, but also naval interdictions. And the goal is essentially to maintain the halt on Venezuela's economy until certain conditions are met that serve the best interests of the United States as well as the Venezuelan people. Whether the plan works remains to be seen. Whether the president decides to take more military action in Venezuela remains to be seen. But as of today, again, according to Rubio, when the president says running the country, he means shaping policy. And the final question, what can we expect from here? There are a few things. So, number one, Maduro and his wife will remain in the United States while they await trial, which could happen later this year. It could also take longer. You never really know. In the meantime, Del Rodriguez will serve as the acting president of Venezuela. As of now, there will not be a special election to elect a new president. Because while Venezuela's constitution requires a special election if a president becomes permanently unable to serve, and that provision does not currently apply to Maduro's situation. And here's why. Because of the nature of Maduro's removal and because it remains to be seen whether he'll eventually return to Venezuela. The Venezuelan supreme court has so far described Maduro's absence as temporary rather than permanent. And a special election is only required when there's a permanent absence. So Rodriguez will continue to serve as acting president for now, and the Venezuelan supreme court will be responsible for determining whether Maduro's absence remains temporary or will ultimately be declared permanent and therefore trigger a special election. As for the future of US Venezuelan relations, that remains to be seen as well. We. We could eventually see more military action if Venezuela does not do as the United States says. Or in the best case scenario, Venezuela starts turning its economy around, helping its own people, reducing its drug trafficking, potentially becomes more of an ally for the United States. And in that case, no additional military action is taken. But again, only time will tell. As for U. S. Relations with countries like Russia, China and Iran, you know, all three of these countries have built pretty close ties with Venezuela over the last several years, especially as the United States sanctions pushed the Venezuelan government to look elsewhere for support. So either the removal of Maduro simply weakens, you know, our adversaries in the sense that it limits their influence in the western hemisphere, or it could provoke retaliation or raise tensions even more, especially if Russia, China or Iran see this as a precedent for US Intervention in areas that they consider to be strategically important. In the short term, though, we'll most likely just see these countries publicly condemn what the United States did. In fact, Russia just did that today. They called the attack a fresh momentum for neocolonialism and for imperialism and called for Maduro's release. Longer term, though, it really depends on what kind of government emerges in Venezuela. It depends on how much influence the United States ends up having there. It depends on whether Venezuela moves away from those partnerships with our adversaries or continues to engage with them in some way. So, again, a lot remains to be seen. All right, let's finish this episode with some critical thinking. If you're tuning into the show for the first time, this critical thinking segment is something I include at the end of almost every episode. And it's just a little exercise to get our brains going to remind ourselves that we are fully capable of thinking for ourselves in a world where we are constantly told how and what to think. It's not meant to be too complex. It's not meant to stump you. It's just to challenge you a little bit. So my first question is for those of you who support the operation, one of the ways that the administration justifies the legality of this operation is by classifying it as law enforcement rather than force against a sovereign state. If you were responsible for drawing the legal distinction between the two, how would you do that? In other words, how would you define law enforcement and how would you define force against a sovereign state? What are their differences? Maybe there are similarities. What? What are they? Just kind of like analyze both of those definitions that you might come up with. This next question is for those of you who oppose the operation. When people talk about the risks of intervention, how do you balance that against the suffering that is already happening? Hunger, repression, disease, mass migration, people being forced to leave. Which feels more dangerous to you and why? And here's a challenge for everyone, regardless of where you stand. There's obviously been a lot of debate over whether the President needed congressional approval to carry out this operation. But what I want you to do is I want you to come up with two pros of not requiring the President to seek congressional approval and two PROs for requiring the President to seek congressional approval. That's what I have for you today. It is so nice to be back with you. I'm so sorry about my voice. If you made it all the way to the end. Thank you so much for bearing with me. I understand that this is not ideal and it probably does sound a little bit annoying. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And I will talk to you again on Thursday for just a regular news episode. It won't be a special report. We'll just kind of get caught up on everything else that is going on.
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