​Venezuelan takeover draws mixed feelings

By Bryce Haugen

At age 43, Maria Romero remembers what it was like before the authoritarian takeover of Venezuela, when the oil-rich country was the most prosperous in South America and the currency was as strong as the U.S. dollar. Then in 1999, Hugo Chavez took over and the deterioration began. It continued under Nicolás Maduro, Chavez’s hand-picked successor, after the strongman’s death in 2013.

A resident of Margarita Island, Romero — who asked to use an alias to protect herself and her family back in Venezuela — explained that by the time she made the decision to obtain a visa to flee the country, she had lost her job, there were gasoline shortages, power blackouts, undrinkable water, runaway inflation and an utter lack of hope. Any dissent was squashed by the regime, with people getting arrested on a regular basis.

“You are not safe. Post something on Facebook against them and they can ‘disappear’ you,” said Romero, who arrived in Fargo-Moorhead with her husband and kids in fall 2022. (Life) was really, really hard. I was so overwhelmed.”

In the early hours of Jan. 3, American aircraft bombed Venezuela’s capital and Delta Force special operators captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, transporting them to the United States to face trial for narco-terrorism, cocaine importation and other charges. They are being held at a federal detention facility in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, the situation in Caracas is fluid, with the streets mostly empty and a tense calm prevailing, although lines at supermarkets are long.

This overt regime change was the most audacious U.S. operation of the sort since the toppling of Panama’s government in 1989. President Trump ordered the coup without any consultation from Congress, nor — in a break from norms — did Congressional leadership receive a briefing beforehand.

Venezuela’s Supreme Court appointed the vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, as interim president, but Trump says the United States is “in charge,” drawing international and domestic condemnation from some — who describe it as a blatant grab for Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world — but praise from right-wing governments in Latin America and from his allies in American political leadership. U.S. military presence in the region remains high, however there are no boots on the ground in Venezuela at this time.

Romero has mixed feelings about the ouster of the dictator. She is happy that Maduro is gone, but highly skeptical of U.S. tactics and intentions.

“Don’t get me wrong, Maduro is a piece of shit, but they didn’t complete the job,” she said, noting the interim president took her position in a 2024 election international observers deemed illegitimate. That’s while other regime loyalists, such as the foreign minister, continue to hold their positions and the leader of the country’s largest cartel remains at large. “I don’t know what is the next step, but we are not free yet. (Trump) took action not because he’s a good person, but because he wants the oil.”

Local protest

Within 36 hours of the coup, the Red River Valley chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America had organized a protest at the federal courthouse in downtown Fargo, which organizers estimate drew about 60 people. One sign read, “A government of laws, not of men,” quoting John Adams, while the crowd chanted “No more innocent blood for oil, U.S. off Venezuelan soil.”

The war harkens back to the Iraq War early this century, according to Colby Montigue, DSA Direct Action and Mutual Aid Working Group leader and a protest organizer.

“It’s very frustrating to a lot of Gen Zers and Millenials,” he said. “We saw this already and now we’re doing it again.” Montigue added that this action “seems somewhere between an oil grab and Trump’s lust for annexation.”

The assembled crowd was diverse, said protestor John Benson of Moorhead.

“It was cold, but worth being together to express our disappointment in what happened on (Jan. 3),” Benson said.

Lyn Doctor-Pinnick, a leader of the Red River United Indivisible group and BadAss Grandmas for Democracy, said we’ve been here before at the cost of thousands of lives.

“There is no pretending this is anything other than a hostile takeover of a nation — blood for oil,” she said, pointing to Trump’s recent pardon of the former Honduran president on the same type of charges he’s pursuing with Maduro. “Trump pardons one and arrests the other. These are the actions of an incompetent leader who is going to get American service men and women killed.”

Acting without Congressional oversight, Trump is behaving like a dictator himself, Doctor-Pinnick said, adding the claim that the U.S. will now control Venezuela is “an open act of aggression and a violation of international law that can easily lead us to war.”

Protestor Garrett Maurer said he “cannot quietly condone the administration through indifference or apathy. What the Trump administration did … may qualify as a war crime.”

“Maduro should be held accountable for the acts he’s taken against the people of Venezuela,” Maurer added. “This should be done through international cooperation and in adherence with the established law. For anyone who believes this capture of Maduro was justified and right, remember — if laws don’t apply to everyone, then eventually they’ll apply to no one.”

National, international reaction

Striking the middle ground in reaction, European leaders from France, the United Kingdom and Germany celebrated Maduro’s departure while emphasizing that international law must be upheld.

According to public statements and social media, reaction in Latin America was divided. Right-leaning governments in Argentina, Ecuador and El Salvador supported the intervention, while left-leaning governments condemned it. Brazil’s president said the action “crossed an unacceptable line” and was “a grave affront to Venezuelan sovereignty, while Colombia and Mexico said it violated the United Nations charter.

Russia and China’s foreign ministries called it a shocking violation of international law.

And UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply alarmed;” the intervention represented a “dangerous precedent.”

Closer to home, the reaction in public statements and social media was likewise split among partisan lines, with Republicans almost universally applauding the coup while Democrats inversely widely panning it.

North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer said, “When America leads, the world is safer.” The state’s senior senator, Republican Sen. John Hoeven stated, “We appreciate the brave servicemembers and law enforcement officials who undertook this extremely complex and difficult mission to make the United States safer and more secure.” North Dakota’s at-large congresswoman, Julie Fedorchak, said the world is safer without Maduro in power: “The world needs strong and decisive leadership right now and President Trump and his administration is providing that.”

Across the Red River, Minnesota’s two Democratic senators struck a much different tone.

“No tears shed for Maduro, an illegitimate authoritarian ruler,” said Sen. Tina Smith. “But what comes next? There are serious concerns about the risk this poses to American lives and national security. This is why we shouldn’t be at war without a vote of Congress. This unauthorized strike will embolden our adversaries/competitors. It’s compromising our global economic and security interests. Doesn’t seem like America First to me.” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar added that the administration shouldn’t put Americans in harm’s way without careful Congressional deliberation: “Wars for regime change can lead to unintended consequences,” she said.

‘Dangerous precedent’

Romero is skeptical the U.S. intervention will make her home country safe enough for her to return, although she’s not ruling that out if conditions improve enough.

“Every time the U.S. takes a country to save it, they leave the country even worse than it was — Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq,” she said. “It’s crazy because there is no constitution in the world that allows (Trump) to rule our country. Who decides which country? What is the next one? Greenland? This is not the first crazy stuff he’s done. I think it sets a dangerous precedent.”

Contact the author at brycevincenthaugen@gmail.com.