Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Venezuela en el Corazón

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Just to remind anyone who is outraged by the three-hour American intervention to remove the dictator Nicolás Maduro from his ruinous rule in Venezuela, and to bring him to New York to face trial for narco-trafficking and terrorism, more on his reign can be found here: “Venezuela’s Lost Year,” by Eric Farnsworth, Journal of Democracy, July 2025:

On 28 July 2024, Venezuelans voted overwhelmingly to elect opposition candidate Edmundo González as their next president. After years of economic failure, spiking crime, and political oppression that caused a quarter of the population to flee, exhausted voters turned out in droves to reject the brutal dictator Nicolás Maduro, despite his crude efforts to intimidate them and discredit the opposition. The result wasn’t even close: González received twice as many votes as Maduro according to more than 80 percent of the printed tally sheets — or actas — collected, posted online, and manually tabulated by the opposition. Their strategic verification efforts exposed the true magnitude of González’s win and put paid to regime claims of popular legitimacy. But Maduro’s government actively tried to suppress the results, hiding actas and releasing its own improbable totals that claimed Maduro had won with 51.2 percent of the vote. Within hours, the regime declared victory and vowed to reinaugurate Maduro for a third presidential term.

González has since fled the country, opposition leader María Corina Machado is in hiding, and numerous other opposition figures and supporters have been exiled, jailed, or killed. Maduro remains firmly entrenched, sustained by his regime’s stranglehold on state-security forces and Venezuela’s vast oil and mineral wealth, plus an illegal drug trade. The regime — still desiring a veneer of electoral legitimacy and confident in its own longevity — held state and local elections in May. The opposition boycotted these contests, rightly concerned that participating would have conferred legitimacy on a regime that rejects the results of elections it loses.

Venezuela is a true international conundrum. The country was once a stable democracy situated at the heart of the Western Hemisphere. But over the last quarter-century, its leaders — Hugo Chávez (1999–2013) followed by his successor, Nicolás Maduro — purposefully steered Venezuela toward authoritarianism. It is now a fully consolidated “electoral dictatorship.” The country, which sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves and other natural resources, was once the wealthiest in Latin America. But today, having lost more than 75 percent of its GDP, Venezuela is home to the worst man-made economic disaster in the region’s modern history. The tragedy stems from a combination of vapid Chavismo ideology, Cuban imperialism, great-power competition, and the unbridled greed and political ambition of its rulers and their cronies, who have looted the national patrimony and replaced vibrant, if imperfect, democracy with grinding dictatorship. Recovery, if it happens, could take generations and will require massive capital outlays.

Maduro will be put on trial in New York for his role as a narco-trafficker and a terrorist supporter. He has allowed the Colombian leftist rebels to ship billions of dollars worth of cocaine through Venezuela to the U.S. and Europe. In addition, he has closely collaborated with Hezbollah, which is also involved in the drug trade, and he has facilitated the shipment of weapons from the terror group Hezbollah to Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) operatives in Venezuela. This Maduro-Hezbollah connection hasn’t received the attention it deserves. Some of the billions Maduro and his cronies stole and squirreled away will be tracked down, forcibly disgorged, and returned to the public treasury in Venezuela.

Before elections can be held — it may take a few months — a suitable temporary replacement for Maduro, someone impeccably democratic, should be found to assume, briefly, the responsibilities of rule. Two possibilities come to mind: Edmundo Gonzalez, who soundly defeated in Maduro in the 2024 election, winning more than 68% of the votes, but Maduro simply ignored those results and announced that he, Nicolás Maduro, had won the election with 51% of the vote. Right now, Gonzalez appears to be favored, but a better choice, because of her international fame, would be Maduro’s longtime enemy, María Corina Machado, who, for her efforts to promote democracy in Venezuela and to oppose Maduro, won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2025.

Machado declared herself in the last few months to be in full support of Trump’s putting pressure on Maduro. Trump moved a fleet of warships just offshore, and repeatedly blew up small boats said to be smuggling drugs into the U.S.

And now, after Maduro has been deposed and taken to New York to face trial, María Corina Machado, the leader of the opposition to Maduro’s dictatorship,  has come out in complete support of the American move, declaring “America has fulfilled its promise to enforce the law,” and has said that Nicolás Maduro will now face “international justice for the heinous crimes committed against Venezuelans.”

At the U.N., how will the Trump haters deal with such a ringing endorsement from Machado, with her Nobel Peace Prize and the undeniable support of the Venezuelans, whom we can see on the evening news, uproarious with joy at the news about the dictator’s overthrow, in Miami, in Trinidad and Tobago, in Madrid, Spain, in Santiago, Chile, and around the world wherever large numbers of Venezuelans can be found? Such excitement cannot be ignored, and when Maduro’s ambassador to the UN demands the world body condemn America for taking Maduro to face justice in a New York courtroom, the American delegation must of course show those scenes of happy delirium and much mafficking to the General Assembly.

A new, democratic regime that is grateful to the United States is now likely to sweep aside the criminals, the billion-dollar thieves, the stone-cold killers, the terrorism supporters, and the narco-traffickers who have been running Venezuela since 1999, when Hugo Chávez first took power. Many of the nearly eight million Venezuelans who have fled the country since 2014 will now be able to return, grateful to the American president who made their return possible. Those who choose to remain elsewhere for personal or professional reasons will still bear witness to the truth, ready to constantly remind those on the left who criticize Trump for seizing Maduro, that he did what no one else thought possible — he swiftly, almost effortlessly, without the least friction, removed a murderous dictator, one who had been offered the chance to leave peacefully, and be given amnesty, but turned it down. At his trial, the world will likely learn, in detail, of his dictatorial reign, marked by mass thefts of government funds, and the killings of tens of thousands of people who dared to oppose him.

Trump, according to the usual leftwing suspects, beginning with the unpleasant-in-all-respects Guardian, is a warmonger, a sinister fellow who “cries havoc, and lets slip the dogs of war.” Not at all. He gave the dictator Maduro every chance to leave quietly — even promised him amnesty for his crimes — hoping that that would be the end of it. Maduro refused.

Meanwhile, what do you think they are thinking in Havana? In Managua? In the Hezbollah headquarters in southern Beirut that used to receive weapons and money brought in from Venezuela? And especially, what is the Supreme Leader in Tehran now thinking? Perhaps something along the lines of “oh my god, it can’t be long now.”

Comments

  2. Venezuelans overwhelmingly approve of what Trump has done and Democrats overwhelmingly disapprove of what Trump has done. Conclude accordingly.

    • I conclude that Democrats prefer seeing people under oppression by incompetent, illegal government and the death of their own children by Venezuelan drugs.

  3. Great essay on Maduro and his ugly regime. WHat I especially like was this,

    ” This Maduro-Hezbollah connection hasn’t received the attention it deserves.”

    Hezbollah is the Iranian created and funded Lebanese terror gang that likes to call itself the “patriotic savior of Lebanon” due to its war against Israel. Since Oct. 7 massacre of Jews by Hamas which Hezbollah promptly joined by first beginning to launch a rocket attack on Israel on Oct 8th and secondly, by planning a copy cat Oct 7th style massacre of Jews in Northern Israel, Hezbollah followed Iranian orders to launch attacks on Israel. We know the outcome. Israel devastated Hezbollah and killed the majority of their leadership and on On September 27, 2024, an Israeli airstrike in Beirut killed Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime Secretary-General of Lebanese Hezbollah. Hezbollah’s rocket attacks and their plannes copy cat massacre of Israelis was removed.

    But I am sure that Maduro was involved in drug dealing and weapons procurement in that part of South America called Tri Border configuration of that part where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. Acdcording to the US Justice Dept. that area which has a large Lebanese Muslim population is a focal point for organized criminal activity. The Justice dept says:

    “The large Arab community in the TBA is conducive to the establishment of sleeper cells of Islamic terrorists; however, as many as 11,000 members of the Islamic community in the TBA may have moved since late 2001 to other less closely watched Arab population centers in South America. The TBA is also geographically, socially, economically, and politically conducive to organized crime activities, along with the corruption of public officials who accept their bribes. Organized crime in the TBA thrives on drug and arms trafficking, money laundering, and other lucrative criminal activities. Indigenous crime groups that operate in the TBA include the Argentine, Brazilian, and Paraguayan mafias.”

    It is perfect for Maduro and his Venezuelan narco enterprise to get involved. Now that the Justice Dept will be bringing Maduro to justice in New York City, I expect for this linkage to Maduro is fully exposed and deal a blow to Hezbollah as well as local South American mafias.And let’s not forget Iran which I am sure is also involved as anywhere there is Hezbollah there is Iran.

  4. “Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul issues warning to US left following Maduro arrest”

    “”For socialism to achieve its goals, ultimately and always, requires state-sponsored violence,” Paul wrote, disputing the notion held by some American democratic socialists that a “kinder, gentler” version of the ideology is possible.
    Paul pivoted from the events in South America to domestic politics, expressing concern over polling data that indicates a growing affinity for socialism among younger Americans. He specifically cited a Gallup poll showing that 51 percent of adults aged 18-29 view socialism positively.

    He laid blame on the U.S. public school system, which he claims has allowed young people to absorb a “paradise version” of the ideology while ignoring historical examples of famine and carnage. Paul also critiqued voters in New York City and those he described as being “enchanted” by collectivist promises, arguing that the allure of “something for nothing”—whether free food, cars, or medicine—threatens to erode liberty
    .It is, and always will be, more difficult to sell an abstraction such as freedom,” Paul noted.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/kentucky-sen-rand-paul-issues-warning-to-us-left-following-maduro-arrest/ar-AA1TwbfC?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=fd62360a99c74ff487699334b9a79e97&ei=5

  5. Maduro seems in an awfully good mood he’s wishing everyone a happy new year. Happy new year to you too Mr Maduro.

    • Maduro will walk. When the Biden admin filed narco-terrorism charges against him, it was pure political theater and symbolic action without any intention of enforcement. Further, the Southern District of New York hates Trump to the point that it will do anything to spite him.

  6. Celebrate the kidnapping and violation of our Constitution by POTUS while you can. I was taught two wrongs don’t make anything right. Actions that disregard sovereignty regardless of ethics will come back to bite us all. And you who celebrate the lawlessness of POTUS will be the first to object to such evil, not realizing you spawned it.

    • Well, Panama post-Noriega has had a civilian representative democracy for the past 35 years. Oh, the humanity! sarc/off

  7. Well, it’s Delcy Rodriguez that the US seems to be temporarily recognizing as that country’s president. Not Edmundo González, nor María Corina Machado. It’s perhaps just as well, since installing them w/o an election won’t make US look too good. Although by saying that we are now running things in Venezuela, I’m not sure it makes such a difference

    That said, by saying that Rodriguez will do whatever we want her to do, Trump seems to have shown a Machiavellian move. Within Venezuela, Rodriguez has to deny such assertions, since she’s not gonna be the favorite of Gonzalez or Machado supporters, and if she endorses her former boss’s incarceration, there will be a revolt on the Left against her, probably by the Defense minister. So she now has to play a balancing act – on one hand, prove her credibility to her country’s Left, while not pissing US off to the point that we do to her what we did to her boss

    I think that 2 countries that have got to be quaking in fear are Colombia and Mexico. Already, Trump has made noises about Gustavo Petro, but now, Claudia Scheinbaum must be panicking over what just happened in Venezuela. After all, the US did that in Venezuela, but far more fentanyl and other drugs have been coming to US from not Venezuela or Colombia, but Mexico. The US has for several years (aside from the Biden ones) tried to prevail on Mexico to crack down on their narcotics fiefdoms, but to no avail. Now, w/ this new policy, Mexico won’t be able to scream “sovereignty” if they don’t completely crack down on drug operations in their country

  8. “El Salvador President Nayib Bukele offered a blunt rejoinder Saturday to a U.S. Senator’s condemnation of the military operation that removed Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela.

    While Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen described the Trump administration’s move as an unauthorized “act of war,” Bukele dismissed the criticism with a direct accusation regarding the Senator’s priorities.
    “So you just want to defend thugs,” Bukele wrote on X.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/el-salvador-president-torches-maryland-senator-over-venezuela-condemnation-defend-thugs/ar-AA1TyaxY?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=695b054652874745bfb8b6cd85aafd39&ei=11

    • That’s well known from the Kilmar Abrego Garcia saga. Incidentally, did they finally determine which country in Africa to send him?

      • The last I read a couple of days ago, “judges” are still trying to keep him here, and the DOJDHS is still trying to send him someplace. One country he has not stated he is afraid to go…can’t recall which one….I want to say Liberia…is still a possibility.

  9. Dear Mr. Spencer, I wish you a speedy recovery and will also take this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of my heart for publishing some of my more inflammatory posts. I’m very passionate about the very matters that seem to be most important to you, so I will also add a thanks for keeping this forum alive.

  10. Almost every time I read a Hugh Fitzgerald post I have to look something up.

    That’s a good thing.

    …put paid to

    • That’s a common phrase. These, days, he doesn’t bomb us w/ words like “degringolade”, “quondam” and “magari”, or bestow us w/ 100 word sentences or 1000 word paragraphs. Although, to be honest, I miss that Hugh 😈

  12. There’s a fella in No.10 Downing street if Don and Delta Force are interested.

    • That “fella” handlers are the ones that need to be exposed and on trial .Maybe the un elected EU or the Soros crime family(Alex and his new bride ex-top aid to Hillary Clinton ex-wife to Anthony Weiner ) that spider nest is living now in Westchester NY an expensive suburb of NYC?

  13. I for one support the arrest and trial of criminal leaders that are killing our people with drugs and weapons no matter where the live. Don’t send w
    him ro another country send him to prison right here in America and find and use his own money to pay for it.

  14. Maduro should have just started up the planned demic like the left did in 2020. They could do it again today and everyone wd fall for it all over. Surprise they havent

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