Graphic illustration comparing Donald Trump to Julius Caesar. Photo: Getty/iStock via Politico.
By Maria Páez Victor – Jan 10, 2026
“I don’t need international law.” –Trump (NYT interview, The Guardian, 9/01/26)
Caesar crossed the Rubicon and, by so doing, killed the Roman Republic—a warning etched in history forever.
The attack on Venezuela was today’s Rubicon.
Take heed.
In carrying out a mindless and unprovoked attack on an unsuspecting nation and kidnapping its head of state and his wife, Trump has crossed a political, diplomatic, and even military line that has, in one swoop, dealt a lethal blow to the United States republic and to the foundations of international law.
A peaceful nation, which was not a security threat to the US, not having even a quarter of its military might, was brutally bombed. 100 were killed in the attack. Among the targets were civilian dwellings, a large medical depot, a library, and a university campus. The unimaginable view of 150 planes, many helicopters, and missiles exploding over Caracas and other cities was horrific to Venezuelans who had never been to war with any nation since their nation’s bid for independence in the early 19th century.
The US, Europe, Canada, and other Western allies did not like Venezuela’s version of socialism, did not believe it is a democracy, did not like President Nicolás Maduro, and did not believe the US’s hostility was essentially about oil.
For years, they fully backed Washington’s illegal sanctions and cared not one whit that 100,000 Venezuelans died because of them. They lavished support, media coverage, and millions of dollars on the bunch of self-appointed “leaders” of the Venezuelan opposition who live in Miami and Madrid. They even gave one of them a Nobel Peace prize despite that person being a publicly known warmonger who even begged Washington and Israel to invade her own country. They fully backed Trump’s demonization of a country, a people, and their leader.
However, the blatant attack has spurred many spontaneous protests by the people on the streets within the US, as well as many anti-US protests around the world, especially in the Global South. But the elites, politicians, media, pundits, bought “influencers,” and social media have been guarded, nit-picking, when they should have been determinedly against this act of war and kidnapping. As to Europe, including the UK, to their peril, there has not been a serious enough condemnation by most of its leaders of the violation of international law (Janina Dill, Oxford university).
This in itself is horrifying: a tacit acceptance of Trump’s patched-up lies and his vile use of military killings for economic gain. These events have to be called what they are: unlawful use of military power, piracy on oil tankers, extrajudicial, abhorrent murders of 115 innocent people in tiny boats at sea, an unprovoked act of war, and the criminal kidnapping of a standing president.
Trump declared to the New York Times that the only limit to his power that he recognizes is himself: “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.” This is from a man who is a convicted felon 34 times over, a sexual predator, friend of pedophiles, and a serial liar who has been caught in 30,573 documented falsehoods during his terms of office. His sense of morality is seriously deformed. He is drunk with power and disregard for any law, domestic or international. This should horrify the United States and the world. (The Guardian) (CBC News).
The charges against Nicolás Maduro and his wife are sheer nonsense: drug peddling and having a stash of arms. The [US] Department of Justice just dropped the accusation against President Maduro of being the leader of “the cartel de los soles” because they had to admit that the cartel did not exist. It was an invention of the CIA, as Venezuelans had repeatedly said. However, they were not believed.
The inescapable truth is that the US attacked a sovereign nation without any legal justification. It was not acting in self-defense nor did it have the approval of the UN Security Council, the only two legal reasons that could have made it valid. “The US committed multiple acts of war against a state that posed no immediate threat to it, without even the flimsiest attempt to establish a casus belli or secure UN authorisation” (Tony Wood). This attack brings a fearful omen of the future: there was a clear violation of the rules that govern the relationships between nations, from the Westphalian principle of sovereignty of 1648, the Geneva Convention, the Vienna Conventions, The Statute of Rome, the Declaration of Universal Human Rights, to the United Nations Charter (Art. 2). On what basis will nations now relate to each other? On what basis will war be declared, waged, controlled, prevented? What country will be invaded next?
Trump has signaled his interest in controlling México, Colombia, Greenland, and Canada. Will “might” be de facto “right”? Certainly, countries will be increasing their arms spending to defend themselves. There also could be a run on developing nuclear weapons to avoid the fate of Venezuela.
For once, Trump said something truthful by openly admitting that the attack on Venezuela was to control its oil—not “democracy,” not drugs. However, he went so far in his delusions to assert that the land and oil belong to the USA and that Venezuela had stolen it from them. The absurdity of this mendacious statement has made Trump a laughingstock in the Global South. In fact, 24 foreign oil companies were compensated at the market price of one billion dollars [USD] for the expropriation of their installations. They never owned either the land or the oil; they only worked under limited contracts. Venezuela never handed over ownership of land or natural resources to foreign companies at any time in the history of the oil industry, only working concessions and contracts. Venezuela owes the oil companies nothing for 60 years of blatant exploitation, at the risible return of 1% of profits on billions of barrels of oil, before nationalization.
There is a lot of fear too as Trump’s lackeys follow his lead, giving fascism a wider foothold than just their leader: Trump’s most powerful adviser, Stephen Miller, stated that “the real world should be ruled by force” (Jason Stanley, Toronto Star, 9 January 2026). Trump is opening the door to true fascism, and unless the Western nations stop trying to cover this up with lame excuses about Venezuela, “dictator,” “failed nation,” “drug cartels,” etc., they will not be able to stop the next victims of Trump’s megalomaniacal lust for power and territory. He has dealt a direct blow to democracy in his own country, violating the US Constitution by not seeking Congressional approval to wage war, and to international law, which he is arrogant enough to say he does not “need.”
The kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro and his visibly brutalized wife, Cilia, who, as a lawyer, is a foremost champion of women’s rights in the country, has been widely condemned, especially on the streets of the Global South, where it is said that President Maduro is a victim of “the Washington cartel.” Supporters of US interventionism are justifying this act of war under the guise of the deplorable Monroe Doctrine, which has been aggrandized even more by Trump’s new National Security Strategy. This document clearly states the US intent to dominate the Hemisphere: “After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American pre-eminence in the Western hemisphere… We will deny non-hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our hemisphere.” Obviously, this is to stop China, Russia, or Iran from doing business in Latin America and the Caribbean. Perhaps he intends to build a wall around the continent?
US leaders criticizing the attack have largely ignored the moral implications. There is no moral excuse for a nation with nuclear capacity to use such unequal and deadly force, that ended in killing and devastation, upon an unsuspecting population that did not even merit a declaration of war as a warning. As Interim President Rodríguez has said, “the Venezuelan people did not deserve this.”
However, it did not all go according to plan for Trump. While the military “defense shield” of Venezuela obviously failed due to an overpowering cyber technology, even despite heroic attempts to fight the invaders, the socio-political shield held fast. There was no “regime change,” the nation’s institutions seamlessly continued to function, the Constitution was followed meticulously, and Dr. Delcy Rodríguez was duly sworn in as interim president by both the Supreme Court and the National Congress. There was no civil war. There was no break in the top echelons of the government party. There were no riots. Indeed, for those who swore the opposition parties were the majority, they were not in the street celebrating. All opposition party leaders (the real ones, not the Miami/Madrid imposters) were appalled by these events and wholeheartedly rejected the US attack and kidnapping. In fact, the war attack had the consequence of not only strengthening the governing Chavismo party but also of uniting Venezuelans of every political stripe against the US and creating a widespread surge of anti-US attitude among Venezuelans due to this outrage.
This act of war has had profound geopolitical consequences too: enter China, Russia, and Iran. Washington, seeking to break Venezuela with more than 1,000 illegal sanctions, cut it out of the international financial system. It impeded it from producing and selling its oil, its main source of revenue. Venezuela could not get loans, could not buy or sell, could not get dollars; its funds in foreign banks were all outright stolen, including 31 tons of gold in the Bank of England (directed by Mark Carney) and the CITGO oil company in the US. Even COVID-19 vaccines were denied to Venezuela. Some of those billions were actually given to the supposed opposition in Miami/Madrid, who proceeded to use them to finance sabotage, coups, and plenty of luxurious living. Washington shunned, beggared, and demonized Venezuela, and it became a political pariah and economically wounded.
How was Venezuela to feed its people? It diversified its economy, it accelerated agricultural plans for food security, and it obtained new friends and allies who were willing to help it and do business with it despite the sanctions. There was plenty of humanitarian help from other nations, such as China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Cuba, and regional nations, and solid bilateral commercial agreements and contracts. Venezuela received loans, outlets for its petroleum and non-petroleum products, and best of all, social, cultural, and political solidarity from these countries. Washington kicked Venezuela out, but Venezuela picked itself up and now has one of the fastest-growing economies in the region, with a GDP growth of 6% this year.
Meanwhile, in the US, oil experts told Trump late December 2025 that the oil reserves were dangerously low because both the Biden and Trump’s administration had been using that reserve to keep the price of gasoline down. Gasoline prices being a bellwether in US voting politics and mid-term elections are looming. Suddenly, Trump realized that contrary to what he had previously boasted, that the US did not need Venezuelan oil, in fact it was absolutely not true.
Trump could have very easily strengthened the contract of Chevron, because Venezuela has never refused to sell oil to the US. It in fact sells about 27% of its exported oil through Chevron to the US. The US oil company Chevron has been working in Venezuela for 100 years and still does. Any restriction on Chevron has come from Trump’s own sanctions and licenses, not Venezuela. But he decided to use military force to “own” Venezuela.
After the military act of war, the psychological war against Rodríguez and the governing Chavista party has gone into full force. The rumor machine is belittling her, accusing her of betraying Maduro, that all this was a “pact’ with Trump and other slanderous accusations. They seriously underestimate the ability, the experience, and the revolutionary dedication of Rodríguez. Washington just cannot believe it did not get regime change nor social chaos as it hoped. Rodríguez is an expert negotiator; she is in a dangerous position trying above all to ensure the life of President Maduro and his wife, safeguarding the country’s sovereignty and at the same time avoiding another military attack.
Nevertheless, living his fantasy, Trump assures he now “controls” the Venezuelan government, that he will own 30 to 50 million Venezuelan oil barrels which he himself would keep, sell, and distribute the money as he wills. He threatened Rodríguez that if she did not obey him, there would be another attack and she would have a fate worse than Maduro’s. He said that he “owns” Venezuela and that the Venezuelan government must do as he says. Furthermore, he has demanded Venezuela stop selling oil to Russia, China, Cuba, and Iran and must buy all its products from US companies. In other words, Venezuela must become a colony. This will never happen. Most emphatically, Rodríguez has unequivocally stated that Venezuela will never be a colony. For these absurd Trump demands to take place he would have to invade and kill most of the country’s inhabitants. It would be Vietnam redux.
There is also the reality of the reduced Venezuelan oil producing capacity. More than a decade of devastating sanctions has seriously impeded its production, reducing it from about 3 million barrels a day it once was capable of producing, to not nearly one million a day. Today it is not able to produce the 30 to 50 million barrels Trump is boasting about. Middle Eastern and Chinese oil experts have estimated that it would take an investment of $183 billion over 16 years to get the Venezuelan oil production to 3 million barrels a day (Pepe Escobar).
Hence the reluctance of oil company executives to step in and try to “restructure” Venezuela’s industry as Trump proposed to them. Furthermore, with all the uncertainty that the military attack has provoked, the economic risks are very high. Trump will not rob Venezuela’s oil; he can get oil if he buys it in the normal commercial way.
The media is not eager to report what the Venezuelan government is actually saying: that only the people of Venezuela and its government will make decisions about its oil, that it is very willing to sell oil to the US, but also to any other country in commercial contracts. Rodríguez has said firmly that Venezuela will not turn its back on contracts with Russia, Cuba, China, Iran, or any other nation.
Trump does not realize that the contracts Venezuela has signed with China, Iran, and Russia are binding and legal, not just something that can simply be brushed away. Contracts, like private property, are a pillar of the economic system backed by serious laws. Venezuela has signed more than 600 bilateral contracts with China for projects such as airports, dams, roads, communications, etc., that are paid for in barrels of oil. This is a debt of perhaps around US $6 billion. In other words, most of Venezuela’s oil is already “sold” to China under these binding, legal contractual arrangements. If Trump wants to steal Venezuela’s oil, in fact, he would be stealing from China, and China will not simply let that happen.
Unless the peoples of the United States and of the world and their leaders, revolt and oppose these crimes of the US under this megalomaniacal leader, they are encouraging more atrocious acts, and against any other country. “This is how impunity functions. The more you feed it the hungrier it becomes” (Craig Mokhiber).
The question now is: what is the UN, Europe, Canada, Japan, and all nations going to do about countering this deadly blow to international law? If restraint is not forced upon Trump and his lackeys, we will enter a time of impunity and lawlessness at a world scale that will lead to chaos and most deplorably, to war.
MPV/OT
Maria Paez Victor
María Páez Victor, Ph.D. is a Venezuelan born sociologist living in Canada.
