1/20 The Kidnapping of Venezuela’s President: Power Politics Behind a Global Cognitive War

By Kening Zhang | January 20, 2026

On January 3, 2026, the Trump administration launched a brazen military invasion of Venezuela, openly trampling on the country’s sovereignty. The operation resulted in the deaths of more than one hundred people, including Cuban security personnel, and culminated in the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who were forcibly taken to New York. The intention was to stage a so-called “kangaroo court” spectacle, putting them on trial under fabricated charges of “drug trafficking.” This act of violence was not an isolated incident, but rather a continuation of the Trump administration’s colonial logic—an extremely dangerous military adventure launched in the interlude between U.S.-Israeli wars that devastated Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria in the Middle East, aimed at diverting domestic contradictions and serving Trump’s personal political interests.

The strategic intent behind this move is unmistakable. Following the so-called Gaza “peace” deal engineered by the United States and Israel, Israel’s military adversaries were temporarily cleared away. Taking advantage of a brief “window period” in which the world remained silent under American coercive power, Washington accelerated coordination with the Netanyahu government to tighten control over the Middle East, with Iran as the ultimate target. At the same time, the United States restarted its colonial project in Latin America—its traditional “backyard”—seeking to expel China’s growing influence through the Belt and Road Initiative, with the ultimate goal of controlling key global resources, economic systems, and transportation arteries. This combination strategy represents a delusional ambition to dominate the world, the cost of which is invariably borne by the blood and suffering of ordinary people. It constitutes yet another grotesque reenactment of U.S. imperialist plunder, racial discrimination, and fabricated conspiracies in the post–World War II era.

Yet the dream of hegemony will inevitably come to an end. Forces that cherish peace and justice around the world will not stand idly by, and pessimistic theories of “rapid defeat” should be rejected. The imprisonment of President Maduro and his wife mirrors the fate of Nelson Mandela under South Africa’s apartheid regime. History shows that the global “Free Mandela” movement ultimately consigned apartheid to the dustbin of history. Today, as global forces for justice unite once again, it may not be Maduro who stands trial before history, but rather the United States and the CIA, whose reckless actions have crossed every boundary.

I. Historical Roots: From Resource Wealth to Economic Collapse

Venezuela was once hailed as the jewel of Latin America, possessing the world’s largest proven oil reserves—over 300 billion barrels. During the 1970s and 1980s, its per capita GDP reached as high as USD 12,000, making it one of the wealthiest countries in South America. The country’s eventual economic collapse was not accidental, but the result of long-term structural imbalance, misguided policy choices, governance failures, and compounded external intervention.

For decades, Venezuela’s economy has been overwhelmingly dependent on a single industry—oil. Oil accounts for more than 95 percent of export earnings, while nearly half of government revenue comes directly from oil. This classic manifestation of the “Dutch disease” led to persistent decline in agriculture and manufacturing, severely distorting the national economic structure. Approximately 70 percent of food consumption relies on imports. When global oil prices collapsed from over USD 100 per barrel to below USD 30 in 2014, government revenues plummeted, the economic system rapidly lost support, and social operations nearly ground to a halt.

The formation of this oil-dependent economic structure has deep historical and external roots. Before entering the oil era, Venezuela—like other Latin American countries—was long dominated by U.S. capital, functioning as a typical “banana republic” economy dependent on exports of primary agricultural commodities such as cocoa and coffee, with a highly outward-oriented and undiversified industrial structure.

After large-scale oil production began in 1914, foreign oil companies rapidly took control of Venezuela’s oil industry under the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez, through unequal concession agreements. By 1928, Venezuela had become the world’s largest oil exporter, and by 1935, oil revenues accounted for 91 percent of total exports. Studies indicate that historically, nearly half of all profits extracted by U.S. capital from Latin America came from Venezuela.

Under this foreign-capital-dominated, oil-centered economic model, national development became severely “locked in” to the path of resource exports. Domestic industries lacked space to grow, daily necessities and means of production relied heavily on imports, and the economic system lacked internal resilience. As a result, when Western sanctions and military blockades were later imposed, Venezuela’s structural vulnerabilities were rapidly magnified, ultimately triggering comprehensive economic collapse. In this sense, Venezuela’s predicament bears striking similarities to that of Palestine.

II. The January 3, 2026 Military Operation: Trump’s Gamble

2.1 The Demand for a “Winning War” Under Electoral Pressure

On January 3, 2026, the Trump administration launched a military invasion of Venezuela, killing around one hundred people, including Cuban security personnel, and abducting President Maduro and his wife to New York to face trial before a “kangaroo court.” This operation was not an isolated act, but a high-stakes political gamble undertaken amid declining electoral prospects and repeated military setbacks.

Throughout 2025, Trump faced multiple crises: persistently low domestic approval ratings; setbacks in Middle East strategy; a stalemated war in Ukraine; lingering fallout from the Afghanistan withdrawal; high inflation at home; and widespread protests triggered by nationwide immigrant kidnappings. To reverse this downward spiral, Trump urgently needed a swift and decisive military victory to boost electoral momentum. Venezuela became the ideal target—a socialist government unwilling to submit to U.S. dictates, economically weakened, and perceived as an easy target. Through a lightning strike, Trump sought to manufacture the illusion of “Make America Great Again” in preparation for the 2026 election.

2.2 The Hypocrisy of Western Europe

In the face of blatant U.S. aggression, Western European countries fell collectively silent. Germany, France, and the United Kingdom—self-proclaimed guardians of human rights—chose silence or even covert cooperation. This indifference exposed their hypocrisy: when the United States violates another country’s sovereignty, international law and human rights principles are conveniently forgotten.

At a deeper level, this silence reflects transactional interests. Through political pressure and economic incentives, Washington secured tacit consent from Western Europe. Internal EU documents reveal that the United States offered concessions on energy supplies, trade agreements, and NATO burden-sharing in exchange for European neutrality on Venezuela. This betrayal of principles stripped away the last fig leaf of Western “values-based diplomacy.”

III. The Absurdity of the Charges: The CIA as the Largest “Drug Trafficker”

3.1 The Truth Behind the “Cartel of the Suns”

The U.S. Department of Justice accuses Maduro of leading the so-called “Cartel of the Suns,” yet this allegation is entirely untenable. Historical facts suggest the opposite: the CIA has been the largest drug trafficker in Latin America.

In 1990, U.S. Customs seized 1,000 pounds of pure cocaine in Miami, originating from Venezuela. Senior U.S. officials informed Customs that the shipment had been authorized by the CIA. Both The New York Times and 60 Minutes revealed that during the 1980s and 1990s, the CIA created the “Cartel of the Suns,” recruiting generals from Venezuela’s National Guard and using the sun insignia on their uniforms as identifiers to organize drug shipments into the United States. This network was dismantled after Hugo Chávez took office, yet the U.S. later reversed the narrative and placed the “drug trafficker” label on Maduro.

Phil Gunson, an analyst with the International Crisis Group in Caracas, told CNN: “The Cartel of the Suns does not really exist. It’s a journalistic label created to refer to alleged involvement of Venezuelan officials in drug trafficking.” A former senior U.S. official echoed this view, describing it as “a fabricated name used to describe an ad hoc group of Venezuelan officials involved in drug flows through Venezuela, lacking the hierarchy or command-and-control structure of a traditional cartel.”

3.2 Manipulated “Justice” and “Witnesses”

The DOJ’s case collapses both legally and factually, exposing its politicized nature. While alleging that Maduro led the “Cartel of the Suns,” multiple analyses have noted that the term merely refers to alleged involvement by certain officials, not a structured organization. The New York Times acknowledged that there is no evidence Maduro directly commanded drug trafficking. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reports also show that Venezuela is not a primary source of drugs entering the United States.

The prosecution relies heavily on coerced witnesses such as former Venezuelan general Hugo Carvajal, who entered a secret plea deal with prosecutors after his arrest in exchange for a reduced sentence, casting serious doubt on the credibility of his testimony. Maduro’s legal team has stated it will challenge both the legality of the capture and the violation of head-of-state immunity.

3.3 Double Standards in Supporting Military Dictators

Ironically, the United States has long supported military dictators. In Mexico, former federal intelligence chief Genaro García Luna was convicted in U.S. court of collaborating with the Sinaloa cartel, yet Washington worked closely with him for years. In Brazil, the U.S. backed right-wing coups. In Honduras, Trump pardoned former president Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted for trafficking 400 tons of cocaine. Such double standards fully expose the hypocrisy of America’s so-called “war on drugs.”

IV. Geostrategic Ambitions: Undermining the Belt and Road and Controlling Key Corridors

4.1 Controlling Global Strategic Resources

Trump’s military adventurism is part of a broader global hegemony strategy. In the Middle East, the U.S., together with Israel, launched large-scale military operations against Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria to reshape regional order and secure control over Middle Eastern oil. In Latin America, Washington’s focus is to marginalize China’s influence and reimpose colonial dominance.

Venezuela thus became a prime target. As a key partner in China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Latin America, Venezuela has maintained close cooperation with China in energy, infrastructure, and finance. The U.S. assault on the Maduro government aims to sever China’s strategic foothold in the region and disrupt the Belt and Road’s expansion in the Western Hemisphere. Cuba is likely to be the next target—a socialist country with close ties to China and long regarded as a thorn in Washington’s side.

At a broader level, the United States seeks control over key global resources and strategic corridors: Middle Eastern oil, Latin American minerals and energy, and major shipping lanes such as the South China Sea. This process also creates vast opportunities for rent-seeking by political families and interest groups, amounting to systemic, state-level corruption disguised as national security.

Following the abduction of President Maduro and his wife on January 3, Trump announced that the United States would “take over” all Venezuelan oil resources and that future sales would be controlled exclusively by Washington. The first oil transaction, valued at approximately USD 500 million, was not deposited into the U.S. Treasury but into a U.S.-controlled account in Qatar. Notably, the Qatari royal family had gifted Trump a private jet worth around USD 400 million in 2025, raising widespread concerns about personal profiteering through state action.

Meanwhile, Wall Street financial capital emerged as a direct beneficiary. Reports indicate that Venezuelan bondholders earned approximately USD 4 billion in a single day following the invasion. War, sanctions, and financial speculation once again exposed the capital logic behind U.S. military interventions.

4.2 America’s Classic Hegemonic Roadmap

Stabilizing the “backyard,” neutralizing Iran, dismantling Russia, and ultimately concentrating forces against China has long been the roadmap for U.S. geopolitical strategists seeking global dominance. Figures such as Zbigniew Brzezinski openly articulated this vision. Far from a conspiracy theory, this roadmap has been repeatedly written into U.S. strategic documents and implemented in practice.

This strategy reflects the hegemonic logic of “those who submit prosper, those who resist perish.” Any country that insists on independence and rejects external interference—especially those with strategic locations or abundant resources—may become a target. Venezuela, Iran, Syria, and Cuba are targeted precisely because they refuse to submit to U.S. dominance.

4.3 Overthrowing Iran: Trump’s Short-Term Gains and Global Long-Term Disaster

Venezuela is not an isolated target. In U.S. geopolitical strategy, Iran and Venezuela form parallel “anti-hegemony cases.” Both control critical energy resources, uphold national sovereignty, maintain deep cooperation with China, and therefore face sustained U.S. sanctions, containment, and military threats.

For Trump, overthrowing Iran offers multiple immediate benefits. It diverts domestic political crises, satisfies the military-industrial complex, energy capital, and pro-Israel lobbies, and allows manipulation of oil prices and capital markets for enormous speculative profits.

However, these short-term gains come at the cost of systemic destruction of global order. Iran is a cornerstone of Middle Eastern geopolitics. Its destabilization would plunge the region into prolonged chaos, politicize global energy prices, devastate developing economies, and further erode international law and sovereignty norms.

For China, the stakes are even higher. Iran is a critical energy partner and a central Belt and Road node. Its collapse would severely undermine China’s energy security and Eurasian connectivity—precisely why Washington continues its maximum-pressure campaign.

In this sense, Iran is the “testing ground” and Venezuela the “extended battlefield.” One strangles Eurasian corridors; the other cuts China’s foothold in the Western Hemisphere. Both serve the same objective: dismantling multipolarity to preserve U.S. unipolar dominance.

History shows that hegemony sustained by war and subversion only deepens global instability. Those who pay the price are not U.S. elites, but ordinary people across the Global South and beyond.

The Trump administration’s adventurism may yield short-term political gains and capital profits, but it is accelerating the breakdown of the global order and the collapse of hegemonic credibility. From Iran to Venezuela, what the United States is promoting is not “stability,” but a dangerous path toward systemic crisis. As military adventurism, economic plunder, and geopolitical maneuvering gradually reveal their true nature, reliance on force alone is no longer sufficient to sustain the legitimacy of domination. At this point, cognitive warfare becomes an indispensable auxiliary to the hegemonic system—through the manipulation of narratives, the fabrication of labels, and the inversion of cause and effect, acts of aggression are cloaked in the language of “justice,” “rule of law” and “human rights.”

V. Maduro’s Prestige: The Symbolism of Latin America’s Mandela

5.1 The Chávez Revolution: A Banner of Latin American Independence

To understand why the United States harbors such deep hostility toward Venezuela, it is necessary to revisit Venezuela’s revolutionary trajectory.

In December 1998, Hugo Chávez won the presidential election and formally assumed office in February 1999. Chávez was a retired military officer from a poor background, with a deep understanding of the hardships faced by the country’s lower classes. Upon taking office, he immediately launched a series of reform measures. The core components of the Chávez Revolution included the following:

First, the nationalization of the oil industry. Venezuela possesses the world’s largest proven oil reserves, yet prior to Chávez’s rise to power, the majority of oil revenues were divided between U.S. oil corporations and Venezuela’s comprador bourgeoisie. Venezuela had begun oil nationalization in 1976; in 1999, Chávez brought the oil industry fully under state control, substantially increased tax rates and royalty fees on foreign oil companies, and redirected oil revenues toward domestic development. These measures severely infringed upon the interests of international capital led by the United States.

Second, land reform. The Chávez government expropriated idle land and redistributed it to landless peasants, breaking the monopoly of large landowners over land resources. This directly struck at the core interests of Venezuela’s oligarchic elite.

Third, social welfare. Using oil revenues, the Chávez administration established universal free healthcare and free education systems, carried out large-scale public housing construction, and provided subsidies to poor households.

Fourth, anti-imperialist diplomacy. Chávez openly criticized U.S. hegemony, formed alliances with left-wing governments such as Cuba, Bolivia, and Ecuador, promoted Latin American integration, and helped establish the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas as a counterweight to the U.S.-dominated Organization of American States.

These policies made Chávez a hero to Latin Americans—and a target of U.S. imperialism. In 2005, he declared socialism the path of Venezuela in the 21st century, stating that capitalism leads to hell, while socialism offers humanity salvation.

5.2 Maduro: A Contemporary Mandela

Maduro enjoys immense prestige across Latin America. As Chávez’s successor, he continued the Bolivarian Revolution, pursued pro-poor policies, and resisted U.S. hegemony. Following his abduction, protests erupted across the region and a global movement demanding his release emerged, with supporters hailing him as a “contemporary Mandela.”

This resonance draws on deep anti-colonial memory. From Panama to Chile, Nicaragua to Venezuela, U.S.-backed dictatorships, coups, and sanctions have inflicted immense suffering. Maduro’s ordeal revived this collective memory of imperial repression.

The abduction and detention of Maduro and his wife evoke Mandela’s imprisonment under apartheid, and recall how the global “Free Mandela” movement eventually dismantled white minority rule.

VI. Cognitive Warfare: Essence and Historical Lessons

6.1 How Cognitive Warfare Operates

This crisis is fundamentally a cognitive war. Through control of international discourse, the U.S. portrays Maduro as a “dictator” and “drug trafficker” to mask its aggression. Western media cooperate through selective reporting, creating the illusion of “humanitarian intervention.”

Tactics include narrative control, demonization, selective exposure, and disinformation. In China and other developing countries, local media proxies spread claims that “Maduro’s fall has nothing to do with us,” encouraging cynical disengagement and misperception.

6.2 The Decline of Hegemony and the Awakening of Global Justice

The abduction of Maduro may yield short-term gains, but it is ultimately self-destructive. When economic and diplomatic tools fail, hegemony resorts to brute force.

Yet force cannot resolve fundamental contradictions. Venezuela will not surrender, Latin America will not remain silent, and global justice forces are mobilizing. Just as apartheid fell after Mandela’s imprisonment, this abduction may mark a turning point in U.S. hegemonic decline.

Maduro does not stand alone. Behind him stand the Venezuelan people, Latin America, and global forces for justice. History will judge the true criminals—not Maduro, but U.S. imperialism itself.

In the end, it may not be the United States judging Maduro, but Maduro—and history—judging the United States and the CIA.