In a stunning attack on January 3, 2026, on the world's most oil-rich country, the US Special Forces abducted the President of a sovereign nation, Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, while they were asleep in their home inside a heavily guarded military complex, in gross violation of international law and the UN charter. This would put any civilised nation to utter shame.

The Military Operation lasted less than 30 minutes, triggering 7-8 blasts across Caracas, the capital. Maduro and his wife were dragged out of their beds, blindfolded and handcuffed, and flown out on choppers, with the CIA and the FBI agents coordinating the operation, and placed on the warship, and taken to New York City. Maduro is held at the Brooklyn jail, called 'hell on earth' for its rampant violence. He is facing the trial on trumped-up charges of drug trafficking and narco-terrorism, for which there is no evidence.

Trump gave interviews to media outlets to boast about the raid, excitedly telling journalists he had watched the incursion live from his Mar-a-Lago resort: "I watched every aspect of it, and I listened to the communication between ... where we were in Florida and in the field in Venezuela. It was amazing to see the professionalism, the quality of leadership."

Trump, a vocal critic of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and someone who promised to be a peacemaker when he took office for the second time last year, has betrayed the commitment. He rode to power on his promise of focusing on America and ending 'forever wars,' coining the slogan 'Make America Great Again.' And from a 'President of peace,' he has now donned the mantle of a 'President for war,' rechristening the Department of Defence as the Department of War.

A day after a blistering speech accusing the Trump administration of kidnapping Maduro, Venezuela's Vice President, Delcy Rodríguez, and now acting President, adopted a more conciliatory approach, expressing the willingness to cooperate with the Trump Administration in running the country. She said: "We extend an invitation to the US government to work together on a cooperative agenda, oriented toward shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence." Incidentally, Rodríguez, Maduro, and his wife are devotees of Satya Sai Baba. Rodrigues visited the spiritual guru's memorial twice. She visited the Prashanti Nilayam in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, to offer her respects in August 2023 and October 2024.

Trump snubbed the prominent Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado as a potential interim President, because she accepted the Nobel Prize for peace last year, which he desperately wanted, and instead backed Rodríguez, saying that Machado does not have the 'support or respect in Venezuela to become its leader.' In fact, Machado was a bitter critic of Maduro's dictatorship. She was banned from contesting the Presidential election last year, which was rigged. Her candidate, Edmundo González, won the election, but Maduro was declared elected as the President, following the electoral fraud that the world condemned.

Machado is in exile. The people saw Maduro's ouster as a chance for Machado's rise. The hope of returning to her country and becoming its President is dashed. The Washington Post cited two people close to the White House saying that if she had turned down the Nobel Prize in favour of Trump, she'd be the President.

America returns to the Monroe Doctrine of interventionism. Named after the 5th President James Monroe in 1823, the doctrine is one of the most consequential American foreign policy agendas of the 20th century. It laid out the American opposition to new or expanding European involvement in the Americas, after centuries of colonial rule.

Progressively, the US extended this tenet to include South and Central America as a strategic backyard within its sphere of influence and hegemony. It became a significant element of American foreign policy, used as an alibi to justify meddling in the internal affairs of Latin American countries and effect regime change. And according to Anil Sasi of The Indian Express, "between 1898 and 1994, the US government intervened successfully to change governments in Latin America at least 41 times, ostensibly to protect its interests and counter communism."

The invasion of Venezuela is similar to the protracted, pointless conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are strong similarities to the invasion of Iraq. The US is attacking an arguably illegitimate foreign leader based on nebulous connections to terrorism, potentially turning what was a stable situation into an unstable one. Venezuela is home to the largest crude reserves on Earth, sitting on over 300 billion barrels worth of crude – about a fifth of the world's global reserves. The US is more interested in exploring these oil reserves.

Though some countries have condemned the American invasion of Venezuela and the abduction of Maduro and his wife, the responses from biggies like Russia and China, which have high stakes in Venezuela, were lukewarm. It is not a collective expression of outrage and outright condemnation. The Russian and the Chinese reactions are understandable because they, too, like Trump's America, have neo-imperialistic ambitions to expand their sphere of influence and establish hegemony over countries across the globe.

However, a coalition partner in the Sri Lankan government has shown much courage in condemning the US aggression. The chief of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) of Sri Lanka's ruling National People's Power (NPP) coalition, in a statement to the media, said: "We strongly condemn the United States's military aggression against the independent and sovereign State of Venezuela and the abduction of democratically elected President Nicholas Maduro and his wife."

No country has any business intervening in the internal affairs of other countries and bringing about regime change, however bad and unpopular it may be. It is up to the people of those countries to bring about change in their regimes. "As in any other free and sovereign state, the right to determine the future and the leaders of the country rests on the people of Venezuela. Powerful countries do not have the right to violate this principle," said Tilvin Silva, General Secretary, JVP.

Following the US aggression, the UN Security Council called an emergency meeting to discuss the developments. A top UN official condemned the US attack on Venezuela, saying it violated international law; could fuel instability in the region and set a concerning precedent that could make violent conflicts more likely; and called for an 'inclusive democratic dialogue' to help determine the future of the country. The UN Under-Secretary General Rosemary DiCarlo said: "The UN Charter should always be respected. International law contains tools to address issues such as illicit traffic in narcotics, disputes about resources and human right concerns."

At troubled times, the world looked to India, led by Gandhi and Nehru, to arrest the brazen aggression against sovereign countries. The Nehru and the Indira Gandhi periods are a testimony to this. India's response to the naked aggression of the US on Venezuela was a great disappointment. It expressed 'deep concern' about the developments, but did not condemn the aggression that overthrew the elected government. It is silent on the capture of President Maduro and his wife. India lost the vantage point to make a difference in the international order by virtue of being the world's most populous country and the largest democracy.

The developments in Venezuela have given a new twist to Indo-US relations. The bulldozing tactics of the Trump administration are exposed. Trump, while talking to reporters on Sunday, January 4, aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, DC, from Florida, said: "They (India) wanted to make me happy; basically, Modi is a very good man; he is a good guy. He knew I was not happy, and it was important to make me happy. They do trade, and we can raise tariffs on them very quickly, If India continues its oil imports from Russia, it would be very bad for them."

And during a press conference held by Trump, the Republican Senator Lindsay Graham, Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, made a startling disclosure: "I was at the Indian Ambassador's house (Vinay Kwatra), about a month ago and all he wanted to talk about is how they are buying less Russian oil. Would you tell the President to relieve the tariff (of 25% imposed by the US over and above 25% reciprocal tariffs). This stuff works."

Again, on January 6, Trump, while delivering remarks at the House GOP Member Retreat, claimed that "Prime Minister Modi came to see me: 'Sir, may I see you please?' 'Yes.' I have a very good relationship with Modi. He's not that happy with me because you know they're paying a lot of tariffs now because they're not doing the oil, but they are, they've now reduced it very substantially, as you know, from Russia." Since September 2025, India's oil imports from Russia have been declining. The official trade data shows that India's imports from Russia declined by over 18 per cent last year as compared to the previous year. India surrendered the right to freedom of trade under pressure from Trump.
And now comes another shocking revelation from the US. The Hindu, January 7, 2025, carried a front-page report titled Indian Embassy hired Trump aide's firm for talks on trade, bilateral ties during Operation Sindoor. The report in a nutshell:

"The Indian Embassy in Wahington made four outreach requests, including three to White House officials and one to the US trade representative on May 10, 2025, the day a ceasefire between following Operation Sindoor was announced. It approached White House Chief of Staff Susie Wils, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Ricky Gill of the National Security Council, and Director of Communications Steven Cheung to discuss 'media coverage' of the conflict, says a filing by US lobby firm SHW LLC with the US Department of Justice ... The Narendra Modi government has thus far repeatedly denied that the US played any role in mediating the India-Pakistan conflict, despite several claims by US President Donald Trump, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio." 

The Modi government was lying to the nation.

The filings raised eyebrows amongst diplomats in Delhi, as the firm claimed it had set up meetings for several Indian officials with the top Trump administration over the past year. The filings made by SHW Partners LLC mentioned assistance rendered to the Indian Mission for the period from April to December 2025. On June 23, days before Mr Jaishankar visited Washington to attend the Quad Foreign Ministers' meeting, SHW sent emails requesting meetings with the US Vice President, JD Vance; the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth; and the CIA Chief, John Ratcliffe. This is the first time a lobbying firm has been asked to set up meetings with US officials.

The Modi government is maintaining a studied silence on these revelations. It is a total collapse of Indian diplomacy. No leader and no country have been so badly humiliated, bullied and insulted openly as Narendra Modi and India by Trump. Yet, the Modi government keeps quiet. Modi owes an explanation to the nation. What is the reason for his abject surrender to Trump, staking the self-respect and dignity of India, compromising national interest?

Having failed to secure peace in Ukraine, Trump has resorted to military adventurism to divert the people's attention from economic slowdown and domestic scandals, particularly the 'Epstein files,' which have serious national and international ramifications. Now he chose to follow the footsteps of Putin by attacking a sovereign country in the backyard. It is the Putinisation of America.

Russian President Putin invaded Ukraine four years ago and managed to annex 20 per cent of its territory. But he failed in securing President Zelensky's surrender. Trump has succeeded in abducting President Maduro of Venezuela. Both Ukraine and Venezuela are big countries, each having around 30 million people. Trump's unilateral military adventurism poses a grave threat to international peace and order.

And what he did to Venezuela, he may do not only to countries like Mexico, Cuba, Panama, and Colombia in his immediate neighbourhood, but even to a faraway Iran in the Middle East to make them submit to his neo-imperialist expansionism. He is threatening military action against Greenland and wants to take it over. The BRICS, major powers, and Latin America should speak in one voice to halt this dangerous new paradigm that defies international law and the moral principles that govern the community of nations.