Venezuela Deserves Democracy, Not a Protection Racket
The new-old regime may simply pay tribute to Trump rather than Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran.
Uriel Epshtein is the CEO of the Renew Democracy Initiative.
The fall of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro is a good thing.
As the son of Soviet dissidents, I would be happy if Vladimir Putin were dragged from his bed and removed from power. My first thoughts would be celebration, regardless of which American president deposed the tyrant.
Venezuela was once South America’s wealthiest country. Today, after a quarter century of socialist dictatorship, the poverty rate there has surpassed 90%. Nearly eight million Venezuelans have emigrated over the last decade of Maduro’s rule (the population is now just 30 million). Maduro stole multiple elections (most recently in 2024) and his thugs shot protesters who demanded that their vote be respected.
Just look at the legions of Venezuelan expats cheering at today’s news. It’s important for us to understand why they are happy.
Those of us whose families come from Russia are used to hearing: “What if the next guy is worse than Putin?”
Removing the devil you know is always a risk. Yet when things are as bad as they are now, that risk can be worth it.
But there’s an important caveat here: pushing out the dictator is merely a tactic. You don’t chop off an infected limb and just leave the patient to languish. They will bleed out and die.
At this stage, it appears that there is either no strategy—or that the Trump administration’s strategy is not about ensuring freedom for Venezuela.
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US special forces seized Maduro last night. But other regime functionaries remain in place. Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez Gomez is still in power. When Maduro was captured, Rodriguez was visiting Russia (of course), though Moscow denies this (also, of course).
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, the country’s senior-most military officer, is also still there. He says Venezuela will resist American intervention.
If US forces nabbed Maduro only to leave his deputies in charge, it will have been a deeply irresponsible action. The United States will have incurred all of the geopolitical, financial, and reputational costs in exchange for… what?
The answer may be a mafia-style protection racket with whatever unelected authoritarian replaces Maduro.
Allow me to explain.
Trump was asked about democratic Venezuelan leader Maria Corina Machado at a press conference today. Trump responded that Machado lacks the “support” and “respect” to lead the country (As far as support and respect go: international monitors have confirmed that the opposition led by Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won the country’s last presidential election by an overwhelming majority).
Instead, Trump said that “all political and military leaders in Venezuela should understand [that] what happened to Maduro can happen to them.” Evidently, there has been a “conversation” with Vice President Rodriguez (recall, a Maduro associate) and that she is prepared to “make Venezuela great again.”
This should be read as a demand for loyalty to the Trump administration, not a call for democracy. The new-old regime will simply pay tribute to President Trump rather than (or in addition to) Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran.
This is the clearest confirmation of Trump’s belief in spheres of influence. He may have removed a pro-Russian dictator in Caracas, but he will give Putin a free hand in Ukraine. That is no victory for freedom.
Even setting aside the geopolitical cynicism on display, the way this operation was carried out should alarm anyone who cares about constitutional limits here in the United States.
Many have called out Trump’s unilateral use of force without congressional approval or even involvement.
Now, we have to be honest with ourselves here. Presidents of both parties have bypassed the legislative branch to pursue military action. The legal qualms about Trump’s behavior in Venezuela are valid, but Democrats need to acknowledge this bipartisan bad habit in order for the concerns surrounding it to have a chance of being taken seriously.
Still, Trump’s decision to bypass Congress on matters of war and peace is especially damaging because it fits with a pattern of behavior that sees the president bypass Congress on many things, from tariffs to TikTok.
Trump is now teasing military action in Mexico and apparently Greenland is back on the menu. Given this—and America’s ongoing constitutional crisis—there’s never been a better time for Congress to reclaim its warmaking authority.
Finally, if Trump removed the Venezuelan dictator only to continue to deport Venezuelans without due process to El Salvador’s CECOT dungeon, then he will be no friend of the Venezuelan people.
In short: If nothing else changes, this will have been a very expensive and very dangerous photo op. Tactics without strategy. Experimental surgery without a recovery plan.
We should be happy when dictators are ousted. Maduro cannot be returned to power, and anyone stuck looking backwards—or, god forbid, mourning his removal—will find themselves rapidly overtaken by events.
We Americans should jealously guard our democratic institutions at home. We must also remember that for Venezuela, a democratic transition is the only justifiable next step. With a sound, pro-freedom strategy, there do not have to be any question marks about the country’s future. Venezuelans elected Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado, and Maduro held onto power anyway. In the interest of democracy and long-term stability, the Venezuelan people’s wishes must finally be realized, and their rightfully elected representatives must be allowed to lead.
More from The Next Move:
In Defense of María Corina Machado—and Freedom Fighters Everywhere
Uriel Epshtein responds to María Corina Machado’s critics. Jay Nordlinger contextualizes the award for the Venezuelan dissident and its place in Nobel history.
FOFCON Pod: Resistance and Rebuilding
David Smolansky talks exile, the fight to restore democracy, and his vision for a free Venezuela.
It is mortifying to watch as someone who spent years in the foreign service defending the rules-based international order.
When the U.S. conducts airstrikes on a sovereign capital, extracts a head of state via special forces without congressional authorization, and announces it on social media from a private resort, we’ve just demolished every argument we’ve made about Ukraine for the past three years.
From a diplomatic perspective, this is catastrophic.
Every international law argument we’ve made: sovereignty matters, territorial integrity is inviolable, regime change by force is illegal, the UN Charter means something; just became “rules for thee but not for me.”
We just became the thing we claimed to oppose. And every person still there knows it, even if they can’t say it publicly. And frankly, it’s pathetic that they will still work for this regime. Disgusting…
That’s the real cost of this operation, not just Venezuelan lives, but American credibility on every principle we claimed to defend.
—Johan
To increase America’s access to oil, Fascist dictator, Donald Trump has invaded Venezuela—the latest in a series of impeachable offenses committed by our criminal president. Trump is intellectually, cognitively, ethically, and morally unfit to perform the duties as President of a Constitutional Republic.
The release of the transcript of Jack Smith’s testimony to the Judiciary Committee confirms “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Donald Trump tried to overthrow the government of the United States on January 6, 2021–a blatant act of treason. The majority of Americans reject his treasonous attempt to overthrow the 2020 elections. They reject his invasion of the sovereign nation of Venezuela. They reject his deployment of ICE thugs, they reject his sexual predations, his fraudulent financial dealings, his pardoning of criminal oligarchs, his murderous attacks on the high seas, his deployments of the U.S. military against the American people, and his compulsive and continual lying.
Opposition to Trump’s presidency continues to grow. Revealed by the October 18th “NO KINGS” protests followed by the total rejection of MAGA Republicans in the November 4th elections, the Trump presidency—as reported by Fox News on November 18—was approved by only 38% of Americans; 60% of the American people disapprove.
Every aspect of Trump’s Presidency is rejected by the majority of the American people. This majority will not rest until the convicted criminal Donald Trump, and his MAGA Neo-Nazi enablers, are removed from office, prosecuted for treason, convicted, and punished as dictated by the Constitution.