US Violence Against Venezuela

Regina Garcia Cano and Konstantin Toropin for the Associated Press on 2026-01-03:

The United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him out of the country in an extraordinary nighttime operation that was accompanied by a flurry of strikes following months of escalating Trump administration pressure on the oil-rich South American nation.

...

The legal authority for the attack was not immediately clear. The stunning American military action, which plucked a nation’s sitting leader from office, echoed the U.S. invasion of Panama that led to the surrender and seizure of its leader, Manuel Antonio Noriega, in 1990 — exactly 36 years ago Saturday.

I condemn this action by the United States as one of its citizens. There is no plausible self-defense justification. It is clearly a hostile act of war. Regardless of Maduro's record of abuses against his own people, that does not give the U.S. authority to extrajudicially intervene in Venezuela.

The action is also quite clearly unconstitutional and illegal, under the U.S. Constitution—Article I, Section 8. Kidnapping a foreign leader from their country using violence is an act of war, which only Congress has the right to initiate. Congress passed no declaration of war, and the administration notified the Security Council only after the fact, making this an unconstitutional action taken by the President. Along with countless other constitutional violations in 2025 by Trump, this is clear grounds for impeachment and removal from office.

Article I, Section 8: The Congress shall have Power ... To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

Updated 2026-01-03 at 21:45: As per usual, the emperor has no clothes. Trump has explicitly said that this is a war for oil.

"We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country."

Jamelle Bouie's take is worth listening to: