Comment by andsoitis
3 days ago
If you're wondering WHY, good to read the Maduro indictment from 2020[1] and the press release at the time[2]
[1] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6819579-Maduro-Indic...
[2] https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/nicol-s-maduro-moros...
That’s not why, it’s just the official justification and the charges we’ll use to keep him.
Also good to read the Hernández indictment from 2022[1] and the press release at the time[2].
> Maduro and Other High Ranking Venezuelan Officials Allegedly Partnered With the FARC to Use Cocaine as a Weapon to “Flood” the United States
> Hernández Allegedly Partnered with Some of the Largest Cocaine Traffickers in the World to Transport Tons of Cocaine through Honduras to the United States
[1] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21698603-us-v-juan-o...
[2] https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hern%C3...
I'm generally confused about how the US DOJ has jurisdiction in Venezuela.
They don't have an extradition treaty so they took him. What Maduro was doing was illegal in Venezuela too.
If you can give me an argument about why it's illegal or improper to try Maduro in a USA court for crimes he committed against the USA, like drug trafficking, I would love to hear it.
If you think the extraction itself was illegal - under what law? What do you think a military is for? If you have a military to defend your country and capture a criminal who you then try for laws that he broke - this seems like a good reason to have a military.
Under normal circumstances - diplomatic relations can solve this, but the consequences of breaking diplomacy is that the only way to get criminals into court is military/CIA. It's not diplomacy or nothing, that's not the world I want to live in, that's Neville Chamberlain theory.
"Might is right", pretty much.
I guess somehow the US will argue that Maduro was directly responsible for smuggling drugs to the US, and that he has broken US laws. Or acts of "drug terrorism".
The second someone without US jurisdiction as much as investigates US servicemen abroad, or Israel for that mater, they are sanctioned by the US. See ICC judges that have been sanctioned for doing exactly those things. The US argues that ICC does not have any jurisdiction to do so.
When it comes to US geopolitics, there's a wafer-thin line between taking the moral high ground, and straight up hypocrisy backed up by "who's gonna stop us?"
Is this likely to meet any substantial legal resistance in any US courts?
[flagged]
As far as I can tell from the narrative, Venezuela was basically serving as a puppet state for China, and if that's true, I would probably give that as the primary reason, but who knows. Maybe it's because Venezuela did poorly in the FIFA World Cup qualifier and this was action dictated by his recent peace prize award.
On a slightly more serious note, the charges against Maduro were actually filed in 2020: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/nicol-s-maduro-moros...
Good call on the China angle. Maduro is a first grade asshole. But this is just one bully taking out another on a pretext. I'm thinking more along the lines of a gang war over territory than a goal of lifting up Venezuela to the point that they will be freely able to deal with whoever (or nobody) when it comes to their natural resources.
What a well reasoned take.
Let's hear your well reasoned alternative take then.
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> Trump loves ... drug dealers as long as they kiss the ring.
I'm not aware of a specific example. Who is a drug dealer that Trump loves?
The one he just pardoned a couple weeks ago?
1 reply →
You’re getting downvoted but your take is simply the truth. Trump does not think like a politician or leader- he does not listen to, care about, or consider things like facts or broader consequences. Insiders in his administration have repeatedly leaked that they are not allowed to communicate information or facts to him, and he never shares reasons for his orders, they have to creatively make that up after the fact for the media. He operates the presidency as a reality TV show, he is interested only in how an action will play with the public and his base in the short term- will it increase his power and help him shift public narratives the way he wants, or not?
It gets better, the comment is now flagged, which is funnier still considering that Trump & Co are now on the record that it was indeed about the oil. I wonder how that will affect Maduro's court case...
None of these things are the most likely reason. The national security establishment doesn't want a Chinese-allied socialist state with a regime perceived to be hostile in South America, especially if its resource-rich. But the timing is very convenient for burying the Epstein stuff.
keep that american imperialism propaganda bullshit narrative to yourself.
I mean the real answer to "why" is probably going to be pretty boring considering the nature of this administration.
That's not to say that the steelmanned "why" isn't much more interesting than the real "why".
Whoever is telling you it is about drugs is lying.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/02/trump-honduras-pard...
Indeed:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jan/03/caracas-e...
Or in the words of DJT (quoted in article):
> "We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it."
May the liberation of Venezuelan oil fields commence!
Maybe Trump captured Maduro just so he could pardon him? This would be a joke but comedy died when that man was elected, and this might actually be the case.