Trump Coup Normalizes Regime Change, Israeli Criminality

Trump’s Venezuela coup is catastrophic on multiple levels:

For Venezuela: its sovereignty and human rights have been violated; its natural resources are now ripe for pillaging

For the US: whose citizens went to sleep on November 3rd in a democracy and woke up the following day in a criminal dictatorship

For Latin America: a return to gunboat diplomacy, in which the US speaks loudly, carries a Big Stick; and imposes its will by whim–and at the barrel of a gun (or in Matthew Perry’s case, a cannon)

For the world: regime change is normalized, and any country with any historical grievance can act with impunity to invade, occupy and/or eliminate any state it wishes

Forget about international law or the rules based order. They are dead and buried somewhere in the sands of Gaza and ruins of Lebanon.  They no longer exist in any meaningful way.  It’s more appropriate to examine the issue from a pragmatic viewpoint: how will the coup and anticipated invasion impact the practical interests of states?

There is no doubt Maduro was hated; that he was corrupt; that he presided over a police state.  No doubt that he lost the last election.  But there is a huge difference between knowing these things and executing regime change.  Invading a country and throwing its leader into a prison used to be the exception, rather than the norm.  Now that the US has done it, everyone will follow suit.  The result will be global chaos.

There’s no doubt that Trump has provided a green light for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s likely invasion of Taiwan.  They are pleased that he has legitimized their own aggression against their own neighbors.  Now, Israel will assassinate Khamenei (it proposed doing so last June, but Trump rejected it). If Israel doesn’t get him first, Khamenei could assassinate Mohammed bin Salman. Putin would assassinate Zelensky–or vice versa.  Xi Jinping will invade Taiwan and arrest or assassinate its president.  Who would stop them?  And who could blame them, considering the opportunity Trump has laid at their doorstep?  Unfortunately, there are many prepared, even eager, to emulate his criminal behavior.

Israel has already invaded and occupied southern Lebanon and Syria. That set the precedent for Trump’s invasion of Venezuela.  This explains the closeness between Netanyahu and the US president.  They both harbor the same grandiose delusions and self-worship. Both are willing to use all the force of state power to attain their goals.  Neither accept any limits on their power.

The world is entering a veritable nuclear winter of dictatorship and mass violence.  In fact, given the breakdown in global order, taboos once thought unthinkable are now not only thinkable, but inevitable.  As I wrote in yesterday’s post, nuclear arms are not longer weapons of last resort.  Only a fool would believe Netanyahu or Trump would not use such a doomsday weapon, if it permitted him to realize an otherwise unattainable goal.

As for Latin America, it has known the American boot since the days of the Monroe Doctrine.  America has created countries, overthrown governments, stolen its resources, imposed lackey-leaders, and bellied up to its dictators.  The very term “banana republic” described American satellite states whose agricultural plenty was raped by tinpot dictators on behalf of US corporate interests.

For example, Henry Kissinger orchestrated the Chilean coup, which violently overthrew the Marxist Pres. Salvador Allende and installed Gen. Augusto Pinochet as our puppet.  Rather than surrender to the goons, Allende killed himself, becoming a martyr, resisting US-backed tyranny to the end. Decades of violent repression followed, including the murders of tens of thousands of leftists, some of them US citizens.

Then there was Bush overthrowing Manuel Noriega in Panama and Reagan invading Grenada to overthrow revolutionary leftist, Maurice Bishop.  Not to mention our cozy relationship with dictators Fulgencia Batista in Cuba (see Godfather II) and Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. We enjoyed a similar relationship with “Baby Doc” Duvalier in Haiti. After he was overthrown, we essentially washed our hands of the country and watched it devolve into chaos and mass violence. It has become a drug-running web of gangs. Not even a narco-state, because there no longer is a state.  We made the mess and walked away, making it someone else’s problem.  Similarly, Trump has added Cuba to the list of future vassal states, claiming “it is ready to fall” (undoubtedly he’s prepared to give it a push).  More recently, Trump pardoned the drug dealing former president of Honduras.  We are a toxic, malevolent force in Latin American politics.

America has returned to its colonial past.  Latin America has, or threatens to become our sphere of influence, to do with what we wish regardless of what the citizens want.  Trump’s detestation of historical precedent sets back US-Latin American relations by a century.  It may take decades and barrels of blood before we can return to some semblance of decency.

The Venezuelan people are today rid of Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship and can only rejoice.

By seizing power and trampling on fundamental freedoms, Nicolás Maduro gravely undermined the dignity of his own people.

The upcoming transition…

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 3, 2026

The sheer effrontery of Macron presuming that Venezuelans are “rejoicing” while US war planes bomb their capital and a US dictator tells them he runs their country.  This is no less an insult to the “dignity” of Venezuelans than Maduro was.

The UK has long supported a transition of power in Venezuela. We regarded Maduro as an illegitimate President and we shed no tears about the end of his regime.

I reiterated my support for international law this morning. The UK government will discuss the evolving situation with…

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) January 3, 2026

It is shocking that world leaders and international institutions have either offered fulsome praise for the US coup; or bland calls for “calm and restraint” (whatever that means).  They have determined that ousting Maduro and catering to the whims of an American dictator trump human rights and the principle of territorial sovereignty–values that once stood for something.

This should come as no surprise, since some of those countries (Britain, France, etc.) were once colonial powers, guilty of the same crimes Trump is now committing.  While it would be hypocritical for them to condemn the coup considering their past, at least they would be standing for humane values they now claim to believe.  Instead, they have reverted to the worst excesses of their past.  It is a shameful betrayal. They will pay for it when the bill comes due.

One would have to be a fool to think that Trump’s invasion will have no repercussions beyond Venezuela and its neighbors.  Trump already has nearby states in his sights. He’s explicitly warned Cuba, Columbia, and even Mexico that they are, or could be next.  The sky’s the limit as far as his vision of imperial grandeur is concerned.  Nor is his appetite confined to this hemisphere: he’s already launched a massive bombing campaign against Iran.  As Tom Lehrer once sang, “Who’s next?”  Greenland? Denmark? Panama?  South Africa?  No doubt, policymakers and generals are preparing billions in new military spending to defend against Trump’s depredations.

But there are limits to Trump’s imperial ego.  Like all bullies, he preys on the defenseless. He has an eye for weakness and exploits it ruthlessly.  But he also understands self-interest. That means he will appraise a situation. If a rival offers stiff resistance. If s/he can fight back and inflict pain, he will back off.  Bullies don’t fight bullies.  They may be cruel, but they are not stupid. They know they can get hurt. So he steers clear of powerful states like Russia, China, Turkey, even North Korea, etc. with powerful military capabilities.

The world has become a maelstrom, a “war of all against all.” A state of nature, again quoting Hobbes, that is “”solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”  We will have only ourselves to blame.