The Caracas Rupture bleeds world order

This is not diplomacy; it is an eviction notice served by Delta Force

- Imran Khalid

Seized: A blind-folded Nicolás Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima.

(Photo: United States Department of Defense)

In the early hours of Saturday, 3 January 2026, the international order did not just bend; it broke.

Images of a blindfolded Nicolás Maduro, whisked away from Caracas to a federal detention centre in Brooklyn, signal something far more consequential than a mere arrest.

The spectacle of a sovereign leader answering to a local magistrate in Manhattan two days later further underscores the reduction of international diplomacy to a domestic criminal docket.

We are witnessing the birth of a world where the strong no longer feel the need to justify their actions through law but rather through the raw arithmetic of power and resources. This is the "Trump Corollary" in its most naked form.

The capture of a sitting head of state on his own soil, without a United Nations mandate or a declaration of war, is an unprecedented departure from the norms that have governed the planet since 1945. By framing Operation Absolute Resolve as a law enforcement action, the White House has effectively turned the US judicial system into a weapon of regime change.

The logic is as simple as it is dangerous: if the US indicts you, your sovereignty ceases to exist. Trump has gone so far as to call the indictment against Maduro "infallible," underscoring the administration's intent to turn the courtroom into a geopolitical battlefield.

This "law of the wild" creates a terrifying precedent that adversaries like Russia and China are already seizing upon.