Trump’s Monroe Doctrine Takes Out Maduro

AENN

Chriss W. Street

MountainTopTimes

Jan 03, 2026

President Trump authorized the 2-hour overnight regime change in Venezuela following indictment of strongman Nicholas Maduro for narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devicesagainst the United States.

President Trump’s precision deployment of U.S. military special forces and American naval forces captured Maduro and his wife before they could run to a fortified safe room in the capital palace in Caracas. Maduro and his wife have been transferred to a U.S. warship and is on the way to the U.S.

January 3^rd has historical significance, because it is the same day that Panamanian strongman Noriega was captured and transferred to a cell 10 stories underground in Alexandria, Virginia; and the targeted assassination of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Qasem Soleimani.

Venezuelan dissident Maria Corina Machado in a post on X that the removal of Maduro is Venezuela’s “hour of freedom” has arrived. She is supported by opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez who said, “we are ready for the reconstruction of our nation.”

It is widely believed that that Venezuelan’s elected Edmundo González Urrutia on July 28, 2018, before the Maduro regime rigged the nation’s voting machines to reelect Maduro as President for another 6 years.

When Nicolas Maduro was sworn in on January 10, 2019, 50 nations failed to recognize the elections May that elected Maduro for a second term.

Venezuela’s precedent for totalitarian rule long predates Maduro or his predecessor, Hugo Chavez. In fact, in its nearly two centuries of existence, Venezuela has functioned as a modern, Western-style democracy for only 40 years, from 1959-1999. (Though Chavez won power in democratic elections in 1998, his presidency brought a decisive end to the period of democracy.)

Venezuela has operated under a strong central government led by a single individual empowered through a patronage network, an idea that traces back to the caudillo system in the colonial period.

Caudillos were affluent men who owned or oversaw production on land and rejected Spanish rule. Because they were too few in number to fight on their own, they used their elite social status to enlist the help of the lower classes, whom they organized and led as militias against Spanish troops.

The tradition continued even after Venezuela won its war for independence. Without their Spanish overlords or a reliable national government to provide security, local landowners established patronage systems and local fighting forces, which they used to seize control of assets, such as customs houses, and territory. The most successful caudillos became generals in their militias and could project power beyond their region to compete on a national level.

The caudillo system reinforced the need for a strong centralized government in Venezuela and gave rise to the dozen or so revolutions in the country’s history. The constant jostling for ascendancy made the caudillos in power, and those aspiring to it, vulnerable to attack.

At the same time, the system’s emphasis on regionalism made it difficult for leaders in one area to secure buy-in elsewhere in the country. Maintaining power required a firm hand. Still, rifts and shifts in allegiance were common, and when an opposition group wanted to challenge the government for power, a revolution broke out.

Strongmen rulers rose and fell for much of the country’s history. Since independence, the country has had 27 different constitutions, the most recent of which came about in 1999, under Chavez.

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