OPINION:
The United States is responsible for Venezuela now. On Saturday, a Delta Force team nabbed Nicolas Maduro, the socialist dictator “elected” to represent the South American nation’s 31 million citizens.
Operation Absolute Resolve was swift and decisive, but it was not the sort of mission Donald Trump promised in his “golden escalator” speech at Trump Tower 10 years ago. As a presidential hopeful, he blasted the folly of overseas adventurism.
At least this excursion has a few upsides. Unlike in the Middle East, events in Venezuela have some impact on the United States. More Venezuelans have abandoned their homeland than people of any other nation, except Ukraine and South Sudan. Out of the 8 million natives who have left Venezuela since 2010, many end up on our shores.
As Mr. Trump is fond of saying, “They’re not sending their best.” On the campaign trail, he accused Mr. Maduro of emptying his prisons. “They’re taking their gangs and their criminals and depositing them very nicely into the United States,” Mr. Trump said at a 2024 rally in Wisconsin.
If freedom returns in Venezuela, we should have no problem repatriating the half million who sneaked into this country and were granted “temporary protected status” by Democrats eager to capture their votes.
Venezuela has everything it needs to become a paradise. Its proven crude oil reserves of 303 billion barrels exceed those of Saudi Arabia. Instead of digging for black gold in an inhospitable desert, Venezuela’s prime location off the Caribbean Sea offers a comparatively mild tropical climate with plenty of fresh water and fertile land.
Harnessing the power of envy, Hugo Chavez secured election as Venezuela’s leader in 1999 by vowing to spread that wealth. “We think first and foremost of our country’s best interest and the collective’s best interest,” the communist authoritarian said in his inaugural address.
Instead, he plundered Venezuela for himself and his buddies. Transparency International rates Venezuela as the third most corrupt nation on the planet, missing out on the top title only because Somalia and South Sudan are more adept at kleptocracy.
When he took over, Mr. Maduro maintained tradition by looting the resources that should have created prosperity. Diversification into the narcotics trade was his downfall. In 2020, the Justice Department indicted Mr. Maduro as the head of the Cartel de los Soles criminal syndicate, a move providing a legal pretext for Saturday’s invasion.
It almost didn’t happen. Last month, the House came within two votes of adopting a Democratic-sponsored resolution that would have blocked military action in Venezuela without congressional approval. The left promoted the measure only because they hate Mr. Trump, but that doesn’t mean they are wrong about the policy.
The constitutional requirement for a declaration of war is supposed to make intervention in the affairs of other nations difficult, and the oft-mischaracterized Monroe Doctrine didn’t alter that reluctance. James Monroe sought to prevent European states from establishing new footholds in the Western Hemisphere, where they would perpetuate their petty squabbles.
His secretary of state and the future president John Quincy Adams said America “has abstained from interference in the concerns of others … [and] she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.”
Mr. Trump was elected to make America, not Venezuela, great again. He may succeed in freeing the South American country from the warm embrace of collectivism, but his priority ought to be liberating America from the same socialist influence.
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