Trump Gives Maduro His Wish

Two weeks ago, the United States executed a military operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuela’s former president, Nicolás Maduro. Planned since late summer, the mission followed months of intelligence gathering by the CIA, which monitored Maduro’s movements and the Venezuelan security apparatus. In August, U.S. destroyers, cruisers, and aircraft were deployed to the Caribbean to surveil the region and intercept narcotics trafficking in the Gulf of America. After months of preparation, President Trump authorized the final phase of the operation, as U.S. forces first struck Venezuelan surface-based air defenses, clearing the way for a massive aerial operation involving roughly 150 aircraft providing air support and radar jamming. Under that cover, Delta Force helicopters descended on Maduro’s compound, deploying troops who successfully captured both Maduro and his wife in the middle of the night. The entire mission lasted just over two hours, leaving approximately 80 of Maduro’s guards dead, while U.S. forces suffered no casualties.

The true objectives of the operation unfold across multiple time horizons. In the shorter term, it puts a massive amount of pressure on the Canadian oil industry, which hopefully will lower the cost of gas in the next year. For context, during the 1990s, Mexico emerged as a major oil producer, drilling roughly 2.5 million barrels per day. A vast amount of said production was of heavy sour crude oil, an oil type that the United States doesn’t mass produce. Due to this fact, in the 90’s the US heavily invested in Gulf Coast refineries to process this heavy crude oil. However, since Mexican oil production ran dry in the mid 2000’s, the US now relies on Canada for about 60% of its heavy crude imports, giving Ottawa leverage over the United States. This is why Venezuelan oil is strategically important, as they hold the largest crude oil reserves in the world, an estimated 300 billion barrels, which the United States already has the refineries to process due to the investment from the 1990’s. In the next few years, as the United States weens off Canadian oil in favor of Venezuelan, the supply will increase and hopefully the price decreases.

The longer-term rationale for the operation centers on sustaining American dominance in the Western Hemisphere, as the likelihood of a future conflict with China increases. Over the past several decades, China has constructed roughly 37 ports and shipping terminals throughout the Caribbean. While often framed as commercial infrastructure, such facilities carry clear dual-use potential. Ports built for trade can also support military logistics, personnel, and equipment and China has demonstrated that they don’t mind blurring that line. In fact, intelligence has found they have containerized missile platforms disguised as standard shipping cargo. If the Chinese take Taiwan, which seems to be only a matter of time, that move would grow its global reach and control of the Pacific. The United States must ensure that our hemisphere is fully within our control before it is too late.

This operation to capture President Maduro is a modern extension of the longstanding American strategy that is rooted in the idea of Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine. In the early to mid 1800’s, when the United States was in an age of rapid expansion, Manifest Destiny was the idea that the country was entitled to as much land as it could possibly get its hands on in North America. In 1823, President James Monroe declared to European powers that the entire Western Hemisphere was off limits for their colonial desires, during his State of the Union address. While at the time the United States was in no position to actually defend the hemisphere, that quickly changed about a century later when President Theodore Roosevelt stated that the United States could intervene in the internal affairs of Western Hemisphere nations to maintain order. The Maduro capture represents Washingtons desire to protect our “backyard” to maintain hemispheric dominance.

This operation displays the Trump administration is thinking critically about the short, middle, and long-term security of the nation, and its interests. Finally, the fact of the matter is this is our hemisphere and I applaud the Trump administration for laying down the law, and not only taking what they want, but taking what is rightfully ours. As far as I am concerned, we can do what we want without asking any international body or getting any permission. This move is an America first operation that has restored some of my confidence in this administration.