Strategic seizures

The US seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores under the cover of widespread strikes on the country’s capital should surprise no one. The US has over decades refined the “art of the snatch” after Washington kidnapped Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega in 1989 and found and arrested Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2003 during the US invasion of Iraq.

The Maduros were transferred to a detention facility in Brooklyn and have appeared in a New York City court. US attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife “have been charged with conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices” [to be used] against the US.

Donald Trump said the US would “run the country until such time as we can do a safe and proper and judicious transition.” Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has been named interim president by Venezuela’s Supreme Court while Trump has said she was ready to do “whatever the US asks.” However, when she appeared on Venezuelan television, she contradicted Trump by demanding Maduro’s release, said he remained president, and declared Venezuela would defend itself. Trump replied by saying the US would mount a fresh attack if needed. He is clearly unwilling to surrender his prize. This is likely to alarm Canada, Greenland, Cuba, and Panama which Trump has previously mentioned as countries he wants to control.

Trump has dismissed the candidacy to succeed Maduro of Nobel Laureate and Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado who, he claimed, has neither the popular support nor the national respect to assume leadership. His negative attitude toward her may have been caused by her award of the Nobel, which Trump has long coveted. Before Trump snatched the Maduros, Machado had called for Edmundo González to take over. She backed him in the 2024 presidential election and argued that the vote count released by her party showed he had won by a landslide but had been denied his victory. If Trump were wise, he might accept her suggestion in to achieve a smooth transition.

As Venezuela has 303 billion barrels of crude oil which is about a fifth of the world’s oil reserves, Trump said the country will recruit US oil companies which could maximise production, exports and profits. “We’re going to be taking a tremendous amount of wealth from the ground” which would enrich Venezuela and the US. He added, “We’re going to get reimbursed for everything we’ve spent.” Naturally. Trump is a businessman who expects returns on investments.

The US invaded Panama in 1989 to depose de facto leader Manuel Noriega, a military officer and intelligence chief. He seized power after forcing democratically elected civilian President Nicolas Ardito Barletta to resign in 1985 and cancelled the 1989 elections. From the 1970s Noriega was seen as a key player in the smuggling of drugs into the US and laundering of drug earnings. Nevertheless, he was recruited by the US Central Intelligence Agency to spy on leftist governments in Cuba and Nicaragua. However, he switched allegiance to nationalist Panamanians who were bombing US interests in Panama and began to support rebel movements fighting pro-US governments in Latin America. After his capture he was tried in the US and Panama and died in jail in 2017.

The George W. Bush administration falsely accused Saddam Hussein of amassing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in 2002-2003 despite denials by Baghdad. Bush Jr. was determined to occupy Iraq although his father George H.W. Bush refrained from doing so in 1991 when the US drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Baghdad invaded Kuwait, claiming it had a been a part of greater Iraq until Britain and France divided up the Ottoman Empire after World War I. Bush senior deployed US troops in Iraq but did not order the capture of Baghdad and left a weakened Saddam Hussein in power. He was ordered to dismantle his nuclear programme and destroy all WMD held by his military. This was completed by the summer of 1991. He never had nuclear weapons and had not reached the point of building them, reported inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

I exchanged emails with a member of the IAEA team which had visited Iraqi installations. I was also with fellow journalists who were taken on a tour of these facilities after the IAEA team had completed its inspections in early 2003. We found empty, dust covered ballistic missiles lying alongside the road. The most striking aspect of our tour was the lack of security at the sites and the coming and going of employees carrying lunch in paper bags as they were entering the site. A German member of our group who had visited weapons-manufacturing and storage installations in Europe was amused by US WMD charges.

Saddam Hussein was captured by the US military near the town of Tikrit on Dec.13, 2003, and was shown on television in humiliating circumstances. I was in Baghdad at the time and was having lunch with Iraqi friends who were furious over his rough treatment even through they were not among his supporters. Their view was that the US had no right to mistreat the president of Iraq. He was tried for crimes against humanity and executed in 2006. He was shown dressed in suit and tie and standing tall as he walked in dignified fashion to his appointment with a hangman who claimed to be out of practice. The world waits to see how the US will treat the Maduros.

Photo: TNS