OPINION:
For years, Washington talked. Our enemies acted.
That’s why I strongly support President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in their effort to finally hold Nicolas Maduro accountable in U.S. courts. This isn’t about oil, corporate profits or ideology. It’s about national security, the rule of law and the stability of our hemisphere.
Let’s be clear about who Mr. Maduro is. He is not merely an authoritarian ruler presiding over a broken economy. He is the head of a transnational criminal organization, a narco-trafficking enterprise that has moved massive quantities of drugs into the United States, fueling crime, addiction and violence in our communities. His regime has collaborated with foreign adversaries and criminal networks to launder money, traffic narcotics and destabilize democratic governments throughout the region. This isn’t speculation; it has been documented. Mr. Maduro’s Venezuela is no longer simply a dictatorship. It is a criminal state.
Yet whenever the United States finally acts to defend itself, the same argument resurfaces: America is in it only for oil. That claim is not just wrong. It is also a deflection designed to undermine American interests and excuse inaction.
If the United States is in it only for oil, then what, exactly, were China, Iran and Russia doing in Venezuela? No one objected when China locked up energy concessions and infrastructure contracts. No one protested when Iran built intelligence, financial and logistical networks across Latin America. No one cried foul when Russia militarily and economically propped up the Maduro regime. No one accused them of imperialism or destabilization.
Only when the United States reasserts its interests does outrage suddenly appear.
That double standard reveals the real goal: not protecting democracy or sovereignty but preserving a global order that has allowed hostile powers to entrench themselves in our own hemisphere while America is told to stand down.
That order has failed. It has produced failed states, mass migration, criminal empires and regional instability. It has turned parts of Latin America into havens for drug cartels, terrorist networks and foreign intelligence services operating just miles from our border. It has done so in the name of restraint, diplomacy and elite comfort while ordinary Americans have paid the price.
Mr. Rubio understands what too many policymakers refused to accept: You cannot have a strong, secure America without a stable and democratic Western Hemisphere.
Democracies do not export drugs, mass migration or organized crime. Narco states do. Failed states do. Authoritarian regimes do. Venezuela today is not just a humanitarian tragedy; it’s also a strategic threat.
So yes, bringing Mr. Maduro to justice is not only justified but also necessary. It’s necessary to dismantle a criminal network poisoning our communities with drugs, to sever the footholds our adversaries have established in our backyard and to restore the principle that leaders who traffic narcotics, launder billions of dollars in criminal proceeds and conspire with hostile powers will not be shielded by borders, titles or political excuses.
Those who reduce this to oil are not serious actors in this debate. They ignore that American companies were pushed out while our adversaries were welcomed in. They ignore that instability in the hemisphere costs American families far more in enforcement, health care, migration and security than any energy market could ever offset. They also ignore the moral cost of tolerating criminal regimes in the name of convenience.
If we had acted sooner, the region would not be in the condition it is today.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Rubio are right: This cannot be a one-off. We cannot selectively enforce order. We cannot tolerate pockets of lawlessness that function as operating bases for those who wish us harm.
The Western Hemisphere matters. It always has.
If I were part of the Cuban government or any regime that survives by exporting instability and sheltering America’s enemies, I would not sleep well. Because America is awake again, and the era of pretending that criminal regimes are just sovereign governments is coming to an end.
• Emilio T. Gonzalez, Ph.D., is a retired intelligence officer who served on the faculty at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, as director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council in the White House and as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services within the Department of Homeland Security.
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