INTERVENTION WITHOUT MANDATE?

2026 has opened with a moment that feels both familiar and unsettling, recalling older eras of great power intervention even as it unfolds in a far more complex and globally interconnected world.

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The United States operation in Venezuela, culminating in the dramatic seizure of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, has transformed what was once a prolonged confrontation of sanctions, diplomatic hostility and ideological rivalry into an overt display of hard power. For years, Venezuela has existed at the crossroads of domestic political crisis and international strategic competition, its economy ravaged, its people pushed into mass migration, its oil wealth simultaneously enormous and inaccessible. Washington's move from coercive pressure to military action did not emerge in a vacuum; it was born of decades of mutual distrust, contestation over strategic influence, anger over nationalisation of assets, and a geopolitical tug of war involving Russia, China and Iran. In that sense, the strike represents not simply the removal of a contested leader but a declaration that the United States intends once again to define outcomes in its perceived sphere of influence. It marks the most forceful assertion of American dominance in Latin America in a generation, wrapped not only in national security justifications but also in broader visions of energy control and strategic reassurance to domestic constituencies.