The Caracas Precedent

The US raid on Venezuela was more than an arrest—it was a seismic challenge to sovereignty, international law, and the fragile balance holding the global order together

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The Caracas raid signals a world where sovereignty is conditional and power decides legality

In the predawn hours of January 3, 2026, the skies above Caracas were shattered by the roar of an unprecedented military operation.

City dwellers, jolted awake by explosions, bore witness to a scene once thought relegated to the height of the Cold War. In a high-stakes raid, U.S. Delta Force operators, supported by the CIA, apprehended the Venezuelan President and his wife. Within hours, they were flown to the United States to face federal drug and weapons charges - an act that has sent shockwaves through the international community.

To understand this crisis, one must look back to the early 20th century. Following the discovery of massive oil deposits after World War I, U.S. influence in Venezuela deepened. Under the three-decade rule of General Juan Vicente Gómez, U.S. giants like Standard Oil (now Exxon-Mobil) were famously allowed to help draft the nation's petroleum laws. Washington later supported the regime of General Marcos Pérez Jiménez, who received the Legion of Merit from President Eisenhower before being ousted in 1958.

The contemporary friction began with the "Bolivarian Revolution" led by Hugo Chávez in 1999 and continued under his successor. By nationalising natural resources and forging ties with Cuba, Russia, China, and Iran, Venezuela became a bastion of anti-imperialist resistance and became a target of sustained U.S. pressure, including embargoes and sanctions that have crippled the domestic economy.

The abduction of the President is a modern echo of the Monroe Doctrine—a 200-year-old policy asserting the Western Hemisphere as an exclusive U.S. sphere of influence. As Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel observed, this expansionist trend is woven into U.S. history, dating back to the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and the systematic expulsion of European powers from the Americas.