When power turns lawless, the result is not policy but
brutality. The latest revelation that Donald Trump secretly authorized the CIA
to conduct lethal operations in Venezuela exposes the United States’ old
imperial reflex — to destroy what it cannot control. Cloaked in the language of
“national security,” Washington is once again exporting death under the banner
of democracy.
According to The New York Times, Trump’s inner circle — led
by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe — gave the
agency sweeping authority to target Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, with
or without military coordination. This covert license coincides with Trump’s
deadly boat bombings in the Caribbean that have already claimed civilian lives.
What began as a “war on drugs” now reeks of a war for oil and geopolitical
dominance.
The much-hyped “America First” doctrine has mutated into an
unapologetic form of gunboat diplomacy. History is repeating itself — coups in
Guatemala, Chile, and Nicaragua are being replayed in a new theater. By
designating drug cartels as “terrorist organizations,” Trump has arrogated to
himself the right to kill without consequence, erasing the last boundaries
between law and lawlessness.
Human rights groups call it what it is — murder. Even
Colombian President Gustavo Petro warns that a new war zone has opened in the
Caribbean, a tragic reminder that Washington’s militarism remains as
indiscriminate as ever. The Caribbean, once a symbol of trade and culture,
risks becoming another testing ground for American aggression.
Trump’s Venezuela campaign is not a policy — it is a crime
unfolding in real time. Behind the patriotic slogans lies the same old formula:
destabilize, divide, and dominate.
Empires do not collapse when they are challenged — they
collapse when they mistake impunity for strength. Trump’s dirty war in the
Caribbean may well be remembered as that fatal arrogance, when America’s moral
compass finally sank beneath its own waves.
