(Part 1)
Attack on Venezuela’s President.
Yesterday, 3rd January 2026, in wee hours of the morning USA marines committed a stealth strike on Caracas, the capital of Venezuela and captured Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela and his wife Cilia Flores and both were taken away to USA. President Maduro is confirmed to have landed in New York.
This is a terror strike under the flag of sovereignty. In a press conference held later President Trump stated the US will “run” Venezuela temporarily for a safe transition, involving American firms in its oil sector. Opposition leader María Corina Machado hailed the event as the “time for freedom,” urging restoration of 2024 election results favoring Edmundo González.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, appeared on Venezuelan television Saturday afternoon with other top officials to decry what she called a kidnapping.
“We demand the immediate release of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores,” Rodriguez said, calling Maduro “the only president of Venezuela.”
Piracy, Banditry and Terror
Piracy, is the act of taking what does not belong to you by force or by unauthorized imitation, outside any recognized legal or moral authority. It happens at sea. Classical maritime piracy was treated as a crime against all humanity because it rejected every sovereign authority at once. A pirate owed allegiance to no flag. This is why pirates could be tried by any state that caught them.
Robbery
Robbery on land is extraction without authorisation. Violence serves only as an instrument. Traditionally it was called banditry or brigandage. A bandit does on land what a pirate does at sea. The highway robber does not aim to kill. Violence is contingent. If the traveller hands over goods, the job is done. This mirrors piracy almost perfectly, except that the state is presumed present, even if weak.
State Terror
When state armed forces land covertly in another country and kidnap civilians for extraction like ransom, leverage, forced labour, or political pressure, the act is classified in international law as a use of force by a state, and more specifically as an act of aggression or an armed incursion, even if no shots are fired.
First, it is a violation of sovereignty. Second, it is state terrorism or coercive diplomacy. Third, it may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity if civilians are targeted, detained unlawfully, or harmed.
Calling such an act “banditry” would actually downgrade its seriousness. Bandits are criminals operating outside the state. Here the state itself is the actor. It is a piracy with a passport, which international law calls aggression.
United Nations Charter
Article 2(4) of the charter requires all member states to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. There are only two recognised exceptions to this rule.
First is self-defence under Article 51, which applies only if an armed attack has occurred or is imminent, and even then the response must be necessary and proportionate.
The second is authorization by the UN Security Council, which is explicit, public, and collective but not covert and deniable.
But kidnapping civilians for leverage or extraction cannot plausibly fit in any of above exceptions. Seizing such a person cannot be justified as self-defense, law enforcement, or military necessity under international humanitarian law. It is hostage taking in plain and simple words.
Aggression is not condemned because it is cruel or shocking; it is condemned because it destabilizes the entire system of sovereign equality. Once states start behaving like armed extractive gangs across borders, the legal distinction between order and anarchy collapses.
Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Russia and Iran condemned the action.
A Desperate Empire
Landing troops in a sovereign country to seize its president isn’t merely aggressive. It’s desperation. It signals that diplomatic tools, economic pressure, and coalition-building have all failed.
In my book titled Accidental Empire, this desperation was predicted in these words:
Trade relationships require mutual benefit rather than hierarchical submission. This fundamental shift changes international relations permanently. The New Cold War tactics reveal America’s inability to adapt to this new reality. Regional powers prefer genuine partnerships to imperial relationships when alternatives exist. America may chase impossible dreams of continued global control, till it fails.
An empire in decline doesn’t retreat gracefully. It escalates. When economic leverage fails and allies drift away, force becomes the reflex.
USA had maintained the posture of attack on Venezuela for months. What suddenly changed? Why now?
Timing
Whenever oil falls below $56, USA flexes its muscle. It appears that this attack is a knee-jerk reaction. It is not about democracy, human rights, or regional stability. It is about oil prices falling below the threshold where American shale becomes unprofitable.
The desperate act can be sanctions that boost prices, or apparently now, direct military seizure of oil-producing states.
Venezuela sold oil outside dollar system. As long as oil stayed above sixty-five dollars, this was tolerable. Annoying, but tolerable. Once prices fell below fifty-six dollars, Venezuela became intolerable. Not because of ideology. Because of economics. Seizing Venezuela’s oil infrastructure and installing a compliant government solves the pricing problem immediately.
Credibility of USA
If raw military force becomes the primary tool, every country reassesses its relationship with Washington. Not out of moral outrage. Out of practical calculation. Partnerships with powers that don’t invade and kidnap leaders become more attractive.
Trust, once destroyed at this scale, requires decades to rebuild. And that assumes the will to rebuild exists. Current trajectory suggests otherwise.
Global Implications
America has just destroyed the very system that maintained its global power.
If kidnapping heads of state works once without serious consequences, it becomes a tool. Any leader of an oil or resource-rich state who doesn’t align with Washington’s pricing needs becomes vulnerable.
China and Russia don’t need the anti-American propaganda anymore. Washington is demonstrating that American power operates without restraint or principle. Every regional power now has incentive to arm, to build alternative systems, to create deterrence.
Why would Russia not kidnap a Baltic president if America kidnaps Maduro? Zelensky should indeed worry. Why would China not seize a Taiwanese official’s family if America seizes Maduro’s wife? The precedent is set. The threshold is crossed.
Small states in Europe and Africa now face existential vulnerability. A European leader who angers Moscow over energy policy can be taken. An African president who sides with Washington on minerals can be seized by Beijing. The protection that sovereignty once provided is gone.
This doesn’t advantage America. It destroys the system that allowed American dominance. When only one power could act with impunity, that power controlled outcomes. When every major power can kidnap leaders, chaos results. And chaos favors regional powers with defence depth, not overstretched empires managing global commitments.
The flood gates open in all directions. America won’t be the only one kidnapping. It will be one participant in a generalized breakdown. It is the return of 1600s European reality. Before sovereignty was recognized, rulers could be seized, territories carved up, and legitimacy meant nothing beyond force projection.
Now no rules apply anymore. No diplomatic immunity. No sovereignty. No distinction between combatants and families.
Killing a head of state during military operations, while extreme, fits within recognized frameworks of warfare.
Kidnapping is categorically different. It’s not warfare. It’s hostage-taking. And hostage-taking by states has no legal defence whatsoever.
More about it in Part 2.
References:
- Maduro captured: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/newsmaker-nicolas-maduros-heavy-handed-rule-venezuela-is-finally-ended-by-trump-2026-01-03/
- Maduro and Wife captured: https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/venezuela-us-military-strikes-maduro-trump/
- World leaders denounce U.S. operation: https://www.axios.com/2026/01/03/maduro-capture-venezuela-world-leaders