The U.S. has a long-standing history of imperializing Latin America, ranging from the territorial acquisition during the Mexican-American War (1846-48) to the failed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) backed military operation known as the Bay of Pigs (1961).
However, in recent months, President Trump has zeroed in on Latin America by striking down alleged drug trafficking boats, sending immigrants residing in the U.S. to El Salvador’s infamous Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) without a proper trial. Most recently, he also captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife during a surprise raid with air strikes, resulting in 24 Venezuelan security officers’ deaths and an unknown number of civilian casualties.
While Trump has attempted to convince the American public that this is part of his plan to “Make Venezuela Great Again” and an effort to stop “narco-terrorism,” anybody with an IQ higher than his alleged body mass index (BMI) of “28.0” knows the true reason he’s focused on Venezuela is that it is an oil-rich country. His seizure of Maduro is simply a modern-day attempt of reinstating a new era of U.S. imperialism in Latin America.
Trump has labeled Maduro an “outlaw dictator,” which is ironic considering that Trump has forcibly captured Venezuela’s president, taken control over its oil reserves and has established U.S. oversight of Venezuela for years, all without Congress’ approval.
What happened to the separation of powers if the president can kidnap another president without any repercussions? Well, America is living through the answer, and unsurprisingly, Trump is once again not being held accountable. With that being said, it is undeniable to see that Trump has overstepped his power by involving himself in Venezuela’s affairs through Maduro’s abduction. His attempt at justifying this by claiming he is addressing “narco-terrorism” is a poor excuse for covering up his ultimate goal of exploiting Latin American countries’ abundant oil resources.
In fact, Trump has made it clear that he has his sights set on Mexico next, another oil-rich country he claims is ruled by “narco-terrorists.” He has stated that Mexico “needs to get their act together” or else “[the U.S. is] going to have to do something about it.” In other words, Trump is intervening in Mexico’s political affairs by demanding that the country address its ongoing drug trafficking-related violence, and if they fail to do so, he insists he will do the same to Mexico as he did to Venezuela.
Once again, this is not an attempt to address Latin America’s political issues but rather a cheap cover story to invade and steal their oil. Trump’s claim that his control over Venezuelan oil will “benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States” is a promise he cannot keep. A similar case was seen in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country rich in minerals that has turned into “one of the poorest [countries]” as a result of “colonialism, slavery and corruption have turned it into one of the poorest” where international resource extraction industries are the reapers of the benefits of the country’s minerals, rather than its own citizens.
While Belgian colonialism was largely responsible for invading the DRC, this serves as a warning of what can happen when other countries violate a nation’s sovereignty and exploit its natural resources, often its main source of wealth. Taking control of a country’s resources and managing for the so-called mutual benefit of both countries is an imperialistic strategy where only the colonizer country benefits.
As previously mentioned, there have been multiple civilian casualties as a result of the air strikes and direct ambush that took place during Maduro’s capture. Despite Trump reporting that there were no American deaths during the operation, his failure to mention the multiple Venezuelan citizens’ deaths goes without saying that it is a major missing piece of information and is deceptive.
Frankly, it makes the public further distrust his reliability to be transparent with the American public. By choosing to report important information about the attack, it made it seem as though this military ambush was casualty-free and by disregarding the innocent lives lost, the civilian deaths can be assumed to be considered an afterthought to the Trump administration.
Yet, this is not his first time lacking transparency with the public, as back in Oct. 2025, Trump ordered an “alleged drug trafficking boat” to be blown up. As it turned out, the deceased passengers of the boat consisted of “a fisherman … living on $100 a month … a career criminal … a former military cadet … and a down-on-his-luck bus driver.” These passengers don’t scream “narco-terrorists” or “cartel members.”
If Trump didn’t care about the civilian casualties, he doesn’t really care about the good of all Venezuelans, as he is promising in his latest interviews. Remembering the history of this country’s imperialism is essential to preventing history from repeating itself, exactly as the public is bearing witness to currently.
Venezuela’s dictator may have been removed from power, but this is not a celebratory event; this is one dictator replacing another.
