Quick Take: Nine Reasons Why Trump’s Venezuela Operation Is Great for America
You've heard of "win-win". That doesn't even begin to cover what the Trump Administration just pulled off. A quick list.
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NOTE: My friend J. Michael Waller serves as Director and Senior Analyst for Strategy at the Center for Security Policy. Mike’s book, Big Intel: How the CIA and FBI Went from Cold War Heroes to Deep State Villains, is required reading.
I would just add three key points to Mike’s list. First, Trump’s continuing seizure of shadow fleet tankers greatly endangers Russia’s ability to continue its war in Ukraine. Second, without its Venezuelan subsidy, the Communist Cuban regime — also a base for Chinese and Russian intelligence, closer to Florida than Taiwan is to China — faces imminent collapse. And third, seeing how easily Trump can take any member of the Venezuelan government into custody should focus those left behind on cooperation and the necessary transition, without American boots on the ground.
If only the Bush Administration could have been so creative. And that’s before we even get to Smartmatic. — RDM
by J. Michael Waller
January 5, 2025
The brilliantly executed US operation to snatch Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro benefits American citizens in many different ways.
It took out the head of a major international organized crime cartel. The cartel, which the U.S. has labeled the “Cartel de los Soles,” or Cartel of the Suns, is responsible for cocaine trafficking into the United States. Maduro had turned the upper levels of the Venezuelan government, military, and security services into a huge organized crime entity. The Department of Justice is prosecuting Maduro and others for running what a federal grand jury indictment calls “a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy.” The Treasury Department sanctioned the Cartel of the Suns last July for providing material support to the Sinaloa cartel of Mexico, which the DOJ described as “flooding the United States with fentanyl.”
It took out the leader who flooded the United States with hardened criminals, organized terrorist gangs like Tren de Aragua, and millions of refugees. Once a new leadership is established in Venezuela, the country can take back its criminals and terrorists, and its refugees can return home and rebuild.
It took out the leader of an international terrorist organization. Maduro’s Cartel of the Suns is a federally designated foreign terrorist organization, or FTO, which the State Department said is “responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere.”
It took out the sponsor of Hezbollah and other jihadists on our southern maritime border. For more than a decade, the Maduro regime has hosted, sheltered, armed, and provided training for Hezbollah terrorists and other jihadists under its protection, just a three-hour flight from Florida. Hezbollah is responsible for killing hundreds of Americans since the 1980s.
It took out the sponsor of Iranian surveillance and kamikaze drones on our southern maritime border. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), responsible for supporting Hezbollah and other terrorists, outsourced its drone production to Venezuela, where the weapons were seen stationed at a Venezuelan air base.
It took out a major supply of cash to the Iranian force responsible for killing hundreds of Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maduro ran a scheme with Iran to exchange fuel and gold to fund the IRGC and its terrorist Qods Force. The IRGC and its Qods Force designed, developed, manufactured, and deployed key improvised explosive device (IED) components, as well as training, to wound and kill hundreds of American and allied men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. These components included explosively formed penetrators (EFP), improvised rocket-assisted munitions (IRAM), and other devices. The IRGC/Qods Force, which also provided training, was responsible for 17 percent of American casualties in Iraq, according to the State Department and Pentagon.
It deprived Communist China of plans to deploy its navy around Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and the Panama Canal. China is rapidly expanding its navy to become a global force. Maduro provided China with a reliable partner in the Caribbean. Late in 2025, China conducted war games simulating a battle against the United States in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Removing Maduro has now deprived Beijing of the promise of a naval basing partner on our southern maritime border.
It restored and modernized our 200-year-old Monroe Doctrine. Since 1823, the Monroe Doctrine — implemented by our last Founding Father president, James Monroe — kept foreign empires from exerting their presence in the Americas. President Obama renounced the Monroe Doctrine, opening the door for China to build a beachhead in our hemisphere. President Trump added a Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which would push back against China’s gains, reasserting a free hemisphere through skillful statecraft and minimal use of force.
The operation was not a war. It did not attempt to destroy the Venezuelan military, its command and control, or the regime’s power structures. As Senator Mike Lee reported from his January 3 conversation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the military “was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant.” It was over in an hour.
— J. Michael Waller is Director and Senior Analyst for Strategy at the Center for Security Policy and author of Big Intel: How the CIA and FBI Went from Cold War Heroes to Deep State Villains (Regnery, 2024). This article originally appeared at American Greatness.
Great post . Thanks for the information.
A fantastic post by Dr. Martin and J. Michael Waller I learned much from! Praise be to God that Nicolas Maduro has been captured and that his reign of terror is over! Thank God for President Trump and the heroes in the U.S. Army and Navy and the elite Delta Force! This is a major feather in President Trump's cap! All these people screaming Trump doesn't have the authority to do this, this is a kidnapping or that this is just the latest chapter in the history of U.S. imperialism in Latin America are ALL dead wrong! President Trump has accomplished much good with Operation Southern Spear. First off, Maduro was the head of the Cartel of the Suns, which ran cocaine trafficking into the United States. Maduro basically converted the Venezuelan government, military and security services into one big narco-empire. They also provided material support to the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico which has flooded the U.S. with Fentanyl. Maduro flooded the U.S. with criminals during the Southern border crisis and caused millions of refugees to flee the country. The Cartel of the Suns are responsible for terrorist activity throughout the region, now they've lost the mastermind behind it all. Iran can no longer continue its drone production in the country. The cash flow to Iran's infamous IRGC unit and its Qods Force has been cut off. Maduro's fall blocks China's plan to deploy its navy around the shores of the U.S. and Panama. It restored and modernized the Monroe Doctrine. President Obama renounced it, thus allowing China to build a beachhead in Latin America. Now that's coming to an end. The Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine ensured that China's gains in Latin America would be rolled back not with forever wars or a nuclear Holocaust but with skillful statecraft and minimal use of force thus guaranteeing a free western hemisphere. Also, without any of the paternalistic racism the Monroe Doctrine entailed in the past. Lastly, this was a military operation NOT a war! Trump captured Maduro without putting U.S. boots on the ground and the tanks rolling into Caracas.