Nicolas Maduro in a tracksuit, blindfolded, escorted by US soldiers. It is not merely the image of a fallen leader, but of a state losing sovereignty in real time.
Then comes the line that matters more. US President Donald Trump, unfiltered, says America will take over Venezuela, run it for now, and bring in American oil companies to manage its most valuable industry.
No moral framing. No diplomatic cushioning. Just power, stated plainly.
This is not how the US usually talks, even when it does something very similar. And that change in language is not cosmetic. It signals a shift with serious consequences for Venezuela, for US allies and for the international order.
For decades, American interventions followed a familiar pattern. The motives were always framed in acceptable terms: weapons of mass destruction, civilian protection, anti-communism. The results often included regime change, foreign oversight and the reopening of oil sectors to Western companies. But those outcomes were described as secondary effects, not objectives.
Moment Nicolas Maduro arrives in US after capture by military 00:43
That distinction mattered. It allowed allies to support US action without publicly endorsing resource control. It preserved a thin but important line between intervention and occupation. It gave international institutions, such as the UN, language to work with. Now that line is being erased.
When the US president says openly that America will “run” another country and place its oil industry under American corporate management, it is not simply blunt talk. It is a rejection of the old American playbook.
In Iraq after 2003, the US governed the country di
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