For years, Venezuela was held hostage by an illegitimate regime that weaponized hunger, corruption, and narcotrafficking to maintain power. Nicolás Maduro was not the duly elected president of Venezuela. He ruled through repression, criminal enterprise, and foreign patronage, collapsing one of the hemisphere’s richest nations into poverty while exporting instability across the region.
For the United States, the stakes were not abstract:
- Venezuela became a narco-state, serving as a transit hub for drug flows that fuel cartel violence, addiction, and organized crime inside the U.S.
- Maduro’s regime distorted global energy markets, weaponized oil revenues, and ceded influence to U.S. adversaries—including China, Russia, and Iran.
- Regional instability drove mass migration, human trafficking, and insecurity throughout the Western Hemisphere.
The operation to remove Maduro from power was a matter of national security, regional stability, and moral clarity.
Here’s the issue of Venezuela in 60 seconds: