“Maduro has been captured”. Sovereignty was the object of this intervention

Trump said it without hesitation, with the casualness with which one announces the result of a game of golf: “Maduro has been captured.” Not arrested, not deposed, not defeated. Captured. A term from the world of bounty hunters, not international law. And already taken out of the country like a bulky parcel. In one fell swoop, Venezuela has gone from being a sovereign state to a criminal theatre, and its president from head of government to international prisoner. All without a declaration of war, without a vote in Congress, without a public debate worthy of the name. A single social media post is enough: Geopolitics is now played out on Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social media platform.
    This narrative has been tried and tested for decades and is reassuring in its brutality: Maduro is not a president but a boss, Venezuela is not a country but a den of thieves, the operation is not a war but an international mission. It is the world police who are striking. But when war disguises itself as a police operation, the last remaining barrier collapses: sovereignty. And when the sovereignty of one individual collapses, the sovereignty of all others is threatened.
    The comparison is obvious: Panama in 1989, when Manuel Noriega was picked up like a troublesome parcel. But Venezuela is not Panama, and Maduro is not Noriega. This is not just about one man who has been overthrown, but about an entire system that must be dismantled. What we have here is oil, a long history of sanctions, economic strangulation, remote-controlled opposition and, above all, a clear message: If we consider you a criminal, we can arrest you anywhere. Any thought of a proper trial is ignored, as is international law.
    There is one detail that many people deliberately overlook: If Maduro was indeed captured, someone within the Venezuelan system opened the door. Betrayal, collapse, complicity? In any case, it is not simply a victory. It is the beginning of a huge problem. Because removing the top leadership from power does not mean gaining control over what remains. Often, it means creating chaos that was previously prevented – for better or worse – by a central power.
    Here is the real crux of the matter, which remains unmentioned in official statements: The real crux turns on Venezuela’s resources. The political disempowerment of the Venezuelan regime is neither a moral act nor an act of universal justice. It is a cold, structural economic decision that has been planned for a long time in Washington. If a country possesses an exceptional quantity of strategic resources, politics and economics are inextricably linked, as are economics and security. An attack on the top means severing the chain of command that regulates access to wealth.
    Venezuela remains an unrealized energy superpower. Its uniqueness lies not in scarcity but in abundance: It has the world’s largest certified reserves of petroleum, most of which are difficult to extract and therefore require technology, capital, and a stable industrial-supply chain. The problem for Washington is not Caracas’s low oil production. The problem is rather that the small quantities of oil extracted are being instrumentalised for political purposes. And this future potential, if unleashed, could fundamentally alter regional power balances and global markets.
    Maduro has turned energy into an instrument of geopolitical resistance. Opaque contracts, barter deals, triangular relationships with China, Russia, and Iran, payments outside the Western system, systematic circumvention of sanctions. A survival economy that is not only economic but also protected by military and security apparatuses. As long as the leadership remains in place, this parallel architecture can continue to exist. “Normalisation” does not come about through negotiations, but through the elimination of the control mechanism.
    Targeting the boss therefore means reopening the market. A Venezuela that is willing to negotiate is useful: It grants licences, reissues concessions, and guarantees investments. A Venezuela that negotiates without relinquishing sovereign control over its resources is useless and dangerous. It demonstrates its resilience, its ability to circumvent the dollar and to survive sanctions. This is taboo, and Washington cannot afford it.
    In addition to oil, there is also the question of strategic raw materials. Although Venezuela is not yet a lithium hub, as are Bolivia or Chile, it does have deposits, development potential and, above all, areas with insufficient regulation – ideal conditions for the future extraction of lithium, coltan, gold, and rare earths. In view of the energy transition and the battle for supply chains, the United States cannot accept that new, critical hubs will come under permanent Chinese or Russian influence.
    It is no coincidence that Beijing has been investing in infrastructure and loans for years, accepting losses and delays to consolidate its strategic presence. Moscow uses Caracas as a geopolitical platform and testing ground to circumvent sanctions. As long as power remains concentrated, these agreements will remain in force. If the leadership fails, everything will be renegotiable. And vulnerable.
    Added to this is the precedent. A country that survives sanctions, reduces its dependence on the dollar and retains control over its resources sends a dangerous signal to other producers. Venezuela is not just a Latin American case, but a potential example of economic disobedience. Its destruction serves to confirm an unwritten rule: Strategic resources must remain within a controllable order. Those who leave it will be brought back. By any means necessary.
    And finally, American domestic policy. The “war on drugs” provides the perfect framework: It combines security, immigration, crime, and voter consensus. But behind the moral façade lies the real core: stable energy prices, control of supply chains and the containment of rival powers in the Western Hemisphere.
    The real question is not whether Maduro has been overthrown. It is what comes next. History teaches us a lesson that Washington always seems to forget: It is easy to overthrow a man, but extremely difficult to restore order. And when war is sold as a sort of ethical cleansing, it usually leaves behind even more dirt.    •

Sources and further reading

Original Italian source (La Fionda):
https://www.lafionda.org/2026/01/03/maduro-e-stato-catturato-la-sovranita-trasformata-in-retata/ 

Repost/aggregation referencing the original:
https://infosannio.com/2026/01/03/maduro-e-stato-catturato-la-sovranita-trasformata-in-retata/ 

Reuters (Jan 12, 2026) on U.S. oil strategy and investment control signals:
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/trump-says-he-might-keep-exxon-out-venezuela-2026-01-12/ 

AP (same story, Jan 2026) on Exxon / U.S.-mediated access:
https://apnews.com/article/137a77039675e6483a75673f02138d0f 
https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-us-oil-trump-exxon-137a77039675e6483a75673f02138d0f 

Reuters (Jan 7, 2026) on oil sales / sanctions easing (reported via CNBC):
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-sales-venezuela-continue-indefinitely-sanctions-will-be-reduced-cnbc-reports-2026-01-07/ 

Reuters Breakingviews on reserves/claims complexity (Jan 2026):
https://www.breakingviews.com/columns/considered-view/venezuelas-oil-claims-are-slick-goopy-mess-2026-01-07/ 

Reuters Breakingviews on debt/oil-price constraint (Jan 2026):
https://www.reuters.com/commentary/breakingviews/venezuelan-debt-is-bet-high-oil-prices-2026-01-09/ 

U.S. sanctions overview (CRS, IF10715):
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF10715 

U.S. State Department – Venezuela-related sanctions:
https://www.state.gov/venezuela-related-sanctions 

(archive) https://2017-2021.state.gov/venezuela-related-sanctions/ 

U.S. Treasury OFAC – Venezuela-related sanctions program page:
https://ofac.treasury.gov/sanctions-programs-and-country-information/venezuela-related-sanctions 

OFAC FAQ topic page for Venezuela sanctions:
https://ofac.treasury.gov/faqs/topic/1581 

OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin 2025 (PDF):
https://www.opec.org/assets/assetdb/asb-2025.pdf 

Operation Just Cause (Panama) U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff monograph (PDF):
https://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/History/Monographs/Just_Cause.pdf 

Truth Social (platform context):
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump 

(Translation Current Concerns)

*   Giuseppe Gagliano is an Italian journalist, geopolitical expert, and philosopher specialising in economic espionage, conflict analysis, and strategic studies, who writes for various Italian and international media. He is president and founder of the Centro Studi Strategici Carlo De Cristoforis, Cestudec, in Como and also teaches at the University of Calabria and the Istituto Alti Studi Strategici e Politici, IASSP, in Milan. He has published numerous articles on economic warfare and the role of intelligence agencies in modern politics.