This is from the same playbook that destroyed Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and perpetrated coups across Asia, Africa and Latin America, write Medea Benjamin and Michelle Ellner.
President Donald Trump giving a press statement Saturday about the U.S. attack on Venezuela and seizure of President Nicolas Maduro; U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on left. (Video still/White House/X)
By Medea Benjamin and Michelle Ellner
Common Dreams
Overnight, the United States government bombed civilian and military sites across Venezuela and illegally kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. These are blatant and illegal acts of war by the Trump administration.
This act of aggression is a continuation of U.S. attempts to seize and plunder Venezuela’s natural resources and undermine Venezuela’s sovereignty as well as the sovereignty of other countries in Latin America.
This war does not reflect the will of the people. Nearly 70 percent of Americans oppose another war and reject the endless cycle of military interventions carried out in their name.
“At my direction, the U.S. Armed Forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela…This was one of the most stunning, effective, and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history.” – PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP ?? pic.twitter.com/QibvrRKsSv
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 3, 2026
The same playbook of lies that destroyed Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, as well as decades of coups across Asia, Africa, and Latin America is being used again.
In the past months, the United States has:
- bombed 36 boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific and killed more than 117 people;
- seized two tankers containing over 1.8 million barrels of Venezuelan oil;
- unilaterally imposed a “total and complete blockade” on Venezuelan oil shipments;
- designated the democratically elected government of Venezuela a “Foreign Terrorist Organization”;
- backed opposition figures to push regime change;
- and launched psychological warfare with threats against the Venezuelan people.
- This comes after decades of unilateral coercive measures, including a lethal sanctions regime that has killed over 100,000 people, theft of companies like CITGO, and seizure of billions of dollars of sovereign assets.
Jeffrey Sachs: U.S. Attacks Venezuela & Kidnaps President Madurohttps://t.co/B5KFq4jyZx pic.twitter.com/RRyouEty12
— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) January 3, 2026
The U.S. now claims Maduro will face “criminal charges” in a U.S. court. This sham proceeding will be done under the auspices of “drug trafficking” — but we know it has nothing to do with that, and everything to do with Trump’s policy of regime change.
“Drug trafficking” in Venezuela is this generation’s “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, a familiar pretext for regime change. Polls show that people in the U.S. may know better now than to sign off on a regime-change war.
In the next few days, as the death toll and destruction of the U.S. attacks is revealed and the country faces continued imperialist aggression, people of the U.S. must stand steadfast with the people of Venezuela. This aggression is being carried out in the U.S. people’s name, despite the overwhelming opposition of the U.S. public to war on Venezuela.
The same playbook of lies that destroyed Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, as well as decades of coups across Asia, Africa, and Latin America is being used again. The Trump regime thinks Latin America is their backyard to squander and dictate. The American people should rise against this Monroe Doctrine 2.0 and oppose imperialist aggression against Venezuela.
Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima. pic.twitter.com/omF2UpDJhA
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 3, 2026
History shows that wars can be stopped when people force them into the open.
The world does not need another U.S.-made catastrophe. Venezuela deserves sovereignty. Latin America deserves peace. And people in the United States deserve a future not stolen by endless war.
Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace and the author of numerous books including Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the US-Saudi Connection and Inside Iran: the Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Michelle Ellner is a Latin America campaign coordinator of CODEPINK. She was born in Venezuela and holds a bachelor’s degree in languages and international affairs from the University La Sorbonne Paris IV, in Paris.
This article is from Common Dreams.
Views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Act of War vs art of the deal context pro vs con or commonalities
We The us People protest…But no other action.
This is who We are!
Denial, Denial, Denial
If only everyone were as informed as Consortium readers. We would be so much better off.
Shocking, the acts of war this man perpetuates and with no accountability. Congress is mute and another regime change begins. Those who support this would do well to consider how we would react if this were done to us.
Thank you My letter to the President today states
Cliff Bentz,
My letter to the President concerning Venezuela’s oil industry.
Dear President Trump,
Please be cautious as your claim that Venezuela has stolen US oil is not true, it is Venezuela’s oil. Any resources within Venezuela’s sovereign territory are its own, as is true of the USA and any other nation on Earth. The United Nations Charter reinforces this. The nationalization of Venezuela’s oil industry in 1976 was a lawful exercise of sovereign power, similar to that exercised by Mexico, Norway, and Saudi Arabia. The US has no sovereign claim.
Sincerely hopeful this claim will not come back to haunt you.
Denise Tschann
This is how dictators ‘dictate’. They suppress opposition, and avoid all accountability, and use force at every turn.
The US is without doubt, a rogue state with a president turned dictator – making a mockery of the US Constitution, US and international law, and blatantly threatening any who dare oppose him.
Nobody should remain under the illusion that the US is a democratic country. Elections don’t make a country democratic unless there is transparency and accountability. The US has neither, and arguably has been hijacked by the Israeli/Zionist lobby.
Don’t forget Syria in your list of countries trashed by the US and Middle East allies relying on their murderous jihadist proxies.
Memo to Trump/GOP: “Regime change begins at home.”
Thank you….and ASAP
For anyone in the USA who is concerned about this just remember, Hollywood will make it right just a few years from now.
The attack on Venezuela is a Zionist operation. It’s an imperial operation, and the US is a vassal state in the Zionist empire. Along with Britain, France, Germany, and the rest of the Collective West.
Imperial policies are driven by the topmost financiers, not the voting public. See Imperialism: A Study by John Hobson. From the early 1800’s these topmost financiers, headquartered in the City of London (the “square mile”) ran the so-called “British” empire, using the British military to topple foreign governments and loot their resources. In the 1900’s they spread their tentacles to America and began using the US military as their global thugs.
Jeffry Sachs says Iran, Ukraine, and Venezuela are all “projects” of the so-called “American” empire. In reality they are all projects of the Zionist empire. The evidence is overwhelming that the US and Europe are ruled by Zionists. That’s why Trump stands beside Netanyahu and brazenly lies to Americans. It’s why the Zionist government in Britain is jailing elderly ladies for speaking out against Israel’s glaring crimes.
The world has known several mafias. For instance, the Italian mafia, the Japanese mafia, the Chinese mafia, and the Jewish mafia. It’s time to stop pretending we are not ruled by a mafia. And it’s time to stop pretending it’s not a Jewish mafia. This criminal gang must be cleaned out and brought to justice.
Attention is to be payed to the fact, that many zionists just pretend to be jewish/ religious.
They are hiding their evil deeds and intentions behind a holy curtain like this.
And the jewish are blamed for the crimes, the mass murdering zionists (of course not hesitating to kill jews as well) actually commit, using the people attached to the jewish religion as scapegoats.
A very dangerous situation for the jewish community worldwide, and perhaps soon other bothering minorities as well.
So please, kindly differentiate between individuals truly belonging to the jewish religion, and those severely criminal zionists just pretending to be religious.
Let’s not forget the south American mafia that inhabits Florida. These mafiosa have been active with the CIA and mossad for decades and were heavily involved in drug running, the bay of pigs fiasco and the JFK assassination. Rubio’s family are heavily implicated and have more connections with illicit drugs than Maduro ever has.
Chavez’s speech at the United Nations
20 September 2006
Hands Off Venezuela
chavez_unFull transcript of the speech by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to the United Nations Assembly, on September 20, 2006. ” [Bush ] you are going to live the rest of your days as a nightmare because the rest of us are standing up, all those who are rising up against American imperialism,[…] Yes, you can call us extremists, but we are rising up against the empire, against the model of domination.” (Video in Spanish and English in three parts: 1, 2, 3) (Texto en español) (Audio en español – mp3 25min 3.45Mb)
Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, Delivers Remarks to U.N. General Assembly, New York,
September 20th, 2006
HUGO CHAVEZ, PRESIDENT OF THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA
Madam President, Excellencies, Heads of State, Heads of government and other government’s representatives, good morning.
The book is in English, in Russian, in Arabic, in German.
I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is in their own house. The devil is right at home. The devil — the devil, himself, is right in the house.
And the devil came here yesterday. hxxps://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/chavez-speech-united-nations21.htm
Meanwhile still no justice for the victims of Epstein
“… US military might and competence”?
unfathomable arrogance, greed, endless lies,
lawlessness, brute force: b.US.ine$$ as US.ual.
hoping that president maduro and his wife will
get a fair trial sounds awkward, given that they
shouldn’t be taken to a US court in the first place.
i wish them well!
who will hold #47 and all the hawks and
hypocrites behind him to account now?
i wonder whether the leaders of my EU country,
who accepted nuclear-capable US medium-range missiles
being deployed on our territory as of this year, will begin
to change their minds abt. considering the US “our friends”!
now, about a day after i expressed hope that my country’s leaders
would at least distance themselves from recent rogue US “foreign”
policy, i must acknowledge: they lacked courage – or foresight? –
to condemn the US military operation instantly, claiming that its
“legal assessment is complex and takes time” and that “maduro led
venezuela to ruin”.
french philosopher and politician joseph de maistre [1753-1821]
stated that “every people has the government it deserves”, i.e.
governments of, by, and for the people must be fought for …
plenty of uphill battles ahead.
Trump says Venezuelan VP is on board; She says otherwise
hxxps://www.newsmax.com/us/donald-trump-nicolas-maduro-delcy-rodriguez/2026/01/03/id/1240682/
And the creative use of drug lords as freedom fighters in Afghanistan and Central American for getting around Congress eventually leading to sales in the US and then taking down Noriega and the other cartels by Bush, Bush and beyond.
I’m waiting for the response of the Dem party elite. Dem party faithful don’t want to hear it, but Biden’s Dept. of State was run by neocons trained by Dick Cheney. Besides, the party elite openly conspired with the Rs in NYC, even getting an endorsement from Trump for Cuomo. Anything to prevent the election of Mamdani.
Given their strong defense of democracy at home (protecting us from Bernie,) their stalwart efforts to promote an economics that helps the majority working class (just ask the Rust Belt,) and their brave refusal to engage in wars of empire (see the list in the CN post above,) of course we can count on them to do the right thing now. Perhaps somewhere in the non-Anglophoney world there’s a political Shangri-La with a non-war party government dedicated to the well-being of its own citizens…
We have been on a rampage ever since the OPEC oil embargoes threatened the B-52 fueled Vietnam War. That eventually led to the end of the Shah and assassination of a Saudi King by lone assassin.
It also led to the Carter demand of access to strategic resources doctrine that has morphed into attempts to control everyone else in the world access to oil even their own.
We were so enamored with our Afghanistan project of mercenaries for Islamic states that we were stung by Iran and then they stung us by inflicting us with a Reagan agenda still running wild by holding our Embassy staff hostage until after the Bill Casey staged Reagan election for a religious CIA.
Any talkinghead propagandist or state official is now fair game to be detained and arrested for narco trafficking and crimes against humanity; it’s now the law of the jungle out there.
Apparently anything goes, though I’m not holding my breath waiting for Netanyahu to be carted off blindfolded in the dead of night.
Anyone who supports this deplorable attack on Venezuela in any way shape or form is absolute first class trash. Never forget who they are! They are filthy scum.
Anyone who seemed somewhat isolationist but essentially gave a green light to this disgusting campaign is a sickening fraud of a human being.
The lines are drawn.
Any NPR, PBS, NY Times “educated” liberals who throw out the nauseating caveat, “yeah, Maduro was a dictator, but I’m against this” isn’t to be trusted and should be shunned.
Long live the Bolivarian Revolution!
Remember, never forget who lent support to this grotesque act against a sovereign people!
So Trump&Co are going to put Maduro on trial for drug trafficking?
But unless the U.S. has some real evidence to back such allegations,
that could be the farce of the century. So to avoid such embarrassment
will they have to find some way to “accidentally” murder Maduro?
Instead of a declaration of war, Congress should pass a declaration of peace on Venezuela.
He says we will occupy Venezuela until it’s “stabilized”, and “take back” what we say is “our” oil. As those oil reserves are the world’s largest, I’m sure the 30 million people there will disagree, and attack our troops guarding the oil wells & pipelines, etc, retreating to the safe havens of the neighboring countries that have condemned our assault. “We broke it (again) & bought it (again),” exactly like our stunning successes in Afghanistan & Iraq.
“History shows that wars can be stopped when people force them into the open.”
Didn’t stop Vietnam, didn’t stop Iraq.
There is no-one to stop the evil hegemon. Eventually, someone will nuke this abomination, then we’re all finished.