As Yunus Emre Erdölen underlines, Trump’s concern is neither democracy nor drugs; as he himself openly states, it is Venezuelan oil and U.S. interests.What once happened behind closed doors in Trump’s new world is now unfolding right before our eyes. The rudeness of hard power stands naked in all its rawness and brutality. For this reason, seriously sitting down to debate whether “Maduro was good or bad” or whether “the attack was legal or illegal” has little importance in this new world.

Exactly 35 years ago, on January 3, 1990, American soldiers blasted rock songs through large speakers in front of the Vatican Embassy in Panama. The Clash’s “I Fought the Law,” U2’s “All I Want Is You,” and Bruce Cockburn’s “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” were just a few of the “symbolic” songs on the American soldiers’ playlist.

Of course, the American soldiers were not carrying out a cultural initiative to promote 1990s hit songs in a Latin American country hundreds of kilometers away from their homeland. When Panama’s dictator Manuel Noriega—once supported by the CIA and the United States—began acting against U.S. interests and using money obtained from drug trafficking against America, U.S. President George H. W. Bush pressed the button and decided to remove Noriega. The operation that began in December 1989 involved 27,000 American troops; Panama was invaded, and Noriega, who had no real support among the people, could not resist and sought refuge in the Vatican Embassy.

To exert psychological pressure on Noriega, an opera-loving dictator, American soldiers surrounded the embassy building and blasted rock music at full volume day and night. However, this psychological torture lasted only three days. The Vatican told the United States that embassy staff were also disturbed and requested the music be stopped, and the Americans put the speakers back into their trunks.

Despite the end of the American rock music torture, Noriega’s resistance was broken in 10 days. Fearing that he would be lynched by his own people, he surrendered to American forces and was taken to the United States by Delta Force units to stand trial.

Noriega was sentenced to 40 years for drug trafficking and money laundering, released in 2007 for good behavior, then extradited to France where he was convicted and imprisoned, and later returned to Panama to serve his sentence there. He died at the age of 83 in the hospital where he was receiving treatment.

By sheer coincidence, exactly 35 years later, again on a January 3, American soldiers once more abducted a Latin American leader from his country with Delta Force units and brought him to the United States to stand trial.

But this time not by blasting rock music in front of an embassy—rather by storming a sitting president’s bedroom and abducting him and his wife in their pajamas, forcing them onto a helicopter.

Venezuela’s Curse, Law’s Lament

In the Venezuela operation—originally planned for Christmas but delayed due to attacks in Nigeria—the United States first bombed military targets and symbolic locations such as Chávez’s tomb. Then, using intelligence sources close to Maduro, a special Delta Force team raided the private compound where he was staying. American soldiers stormed Maduro and his wife’s bedroom and woke them from their sleep. As the couple ran toward their shelter, they were prevented from closing the door and were taken in their pajamas onto a helicopter, then transferred to a military ship waiting in open waters.

The “official” justification for the operation—which Trump himself said he watched “like watching television”—was drug trafficking and Maduro’s alleged anti-democratic rule. But Trump himself does not even emphasize these official reasons. Trump openly states that the United States will distribute Venezuelan oil and profit from it, even stressing that it will be managed in a way that benefits everyone by sharing it with countries like China.

Trump’s decision to abduct a country’s leader from his bed without involving Congress violates both international law and American law. And yes, Maduro is an autocrat who condemned his country to rigged elections, high inflation, corruption, and poverty.

After Chávez’s death in 2013, Maduro took office and, when he lost the 2015 parliamentary elections to the opposition, steered decisively toward autocracy. First, in order to block the opposition’s constitutional majority, the Supreme Court annulled the mandates of three MPs, depriving the opposition of its two-thirds majority. Then, again through the court, parliament’s powers were stripped on the grounds of alleged electoral fraud and transferred to the judiciary, with parliamentary immunity lifted to prosecute lawmakers. Although parliament’s powers were later nominally restored amid backlash, Maduro’s government deemed the legislature illegitimate and ignored its will.

Maduro then called for a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution and held a referendum boycotted by the opposition. With only 41% turnout, Maduro supporters won all seats. The Constituent Assembly’s first act was to abolish the powers of the legitimately elected opposition parliament and redesign the political balance under Maduro’s command.

The opposition, which refused to recognize Maduro’s disputed 2018 victory, took to the streets, organized mass protests with millions participating, declared parliamentary speaker Juan Guaidó the legitimate president, and sought to delegitimize Maduro internationally. Rather than legitimizing a rigged system by narrowly losing, the opposition chose to reject it outright.

By clinging to power against his own people, Maduro imposed a permanent instability on his country, triggered a humanitarian crisis that forced 7 million people to flee over the past decade, and presided over a catastrophic economic collapse. Even left-wing governments in Colombia, Chile, and Brazil distanced themselves from Maduro. Still, the opposition persisted and organized a massive primary in 2023 with 2.5 million voters. Opposition leader María Corina Machado—who won 93% of the vote—later received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Despite mediation efforts by countries like Norway and agreements that politics should not be shaped through bans, Venezuela’s judiciary once again barred Machado from running and later excluded her substitute candidate from the ballot due to “technical issues.” Machado then arranged for the last-minute candidacy of little-known former diplomat Edmundo González, whom the Maduro government assumed could not win.

Under constant threat of arrest, Machado campaigned alongside González and mobilized voters despite political bans. Claiming victory based on signed tally sheets, the opposition was met with repression as the Maduro regime declared itself the winner with 51% and accused the opposition of disinformation. Numerous international bodies, including left-wing Latin American governments, questioned the election’s legitimacy. As repression intensified, the label “dictator” became openly used.

González, declared the legitimate president by Maduro-opposing countries, sought refuge in the Spanish consulate after publishing the tally sheets and fled to Madrid on a private military plane.

Two years later, it was Maduro who was forced to leave his country by helicopter—abducted from his bedroom on Trump’s orders. The Maduro regime was unplugged.

But none of this really matters. Because in Trump’s world, “who is right, who is wrong; what is democratic or not; what is legal or not” is irrelevant.

The Weak Are Crushed

Debates over whether Maduro is a “brave anti-imperialist” or a “brutal dictator” belong to the old world. In Trump’s new world, raw power reigns. States always suspended principles through hard power, but they used to at least cloak it in justification. Trump’s America no longer needs even that.

This is not about drugs—Trump just last week pardoned a former Honduran leader convicted of drug trafficking, calling the trial unfair.

This is not about democracy—Trump openly supports and praises autocrats worldwide and draws inspiration from them for his own country.

As Trump has made abundantly clear, this is about pure economic and pragmatic interests: oil and U.S. spheres of influence. What once happened behind closed doors is now done in plain sight. The message to the world is simple: only power matters. Maduro and his regime became the first to be eliminated in this new order because of their inability to even protect their leader’s bedroom.

There is little point in engaging in neat “neither Maduro nor the U.S.” debates or theoretical discussions in a world governed by brute force.

Like it or not, this is the new world order. The gates of hell are open; everything is permissible. When Trump feels like it, he can have a head of state abducted from his bed in pajamas.

This time not with rock music, but with a massive televised spectacle designed to distract from the Epstein files and win over Hispanic American voters fleeing left-wing autocrats ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Trump has launched the 2026 season of his new reality show, with himself as the star and the world as a powerless audience.

Maduro was the first contestant to be voted off the island.

This year’s theme: Stable chaos.

We’d better get used to it. Unfortunately.

Yemen’s internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government has launched an operation aimed at reclaiming military positions from the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, sharply escalating tensions in the country’s east and exposing deepening rifts within the anti-Houthi coalition. The move, announced on Friday by the Saudi-backed governor of Hadramout province, was framed as a limited and “peaceful” effort to restore order. Within minutes, however, the STC said Saudi airstrikes had begun, underscoring how quickly political declarations are translating into military confrontation on the ground.

The operation marks the latest phase in a standoff that has been building since December, when the STC expanded its military footprint across large parts of southern Yemen. While both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened together in Yemen in 2015, their competing interests have increasingly diverged, with Hadramout and al-Mahra emerging as strategic fault lines bordering Saudi territory.

“Not a Declaration of War”

In a televised address, Hadramout Governor Salem Ahmed Saeed al-Khunbashi said the government had appointed him overall commander of the Homeland Shield forces in the province, granting him full military, security and administrative authority. “This is not a declaration of war,” he said, adding that the operation aimed to prevent armed camps from threatening security and to stop Hadramout from “sliding into chaos.” The government said the move was designed to reassert state authority over sensitive military sites.

The STC rejected that account. Amr Al Bidh, a senior STC official, told Reuters that the operation was never intended to be peaceful. “Saudi Arabia knowingly misled the international community by announcing a peaceful operation that they never had any intention to keep peaceful,” he said. “This was evidenced by the fact that they launched seven airstrikes minutes later.” Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the strikes.

Military Sites and Air Power

According to Bidh, three of the seven airstrikes hit the al-Khash’a military camp, one of the largest facilities in Hadramout, with capacity to house thousands of troops. Three Yemeni sources told Reuters that armored vehicles belonging to Saudi-backed government forces were moving toward the camp, which the STC seized in December. STC spokesperson Mohammed al-Naqeeb said forces across the region were on full alert and warned that the group was ready to respond “forcefully.”

The UAE backs the STC politically and militarily, while Saudi Arabia supports Yemen’s internationally recognised government. The confrontation reflects a broader struggle over who controls Yemen’s southern and eastern provinces, areas far from the main Houthi front lines but critical for borders, ports and energy infrastructure.

Aden Airport and Gulf Fallout

The military escalation has coincided with a parallel crisis over Aden International Airport, Yemen’s main gateway outside Houthi control. Flights remained halted on Friday after Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Al-Jaber, accused STC leader Aidarus al-Zubaidi of blocking a plane carrying a Saudi delegation from landing on Thursday. Al-Jaber said Riyadh had spent weeks trying to de-escalate but faced “continuous rejection and stubbornness.”

The STC-controlled Transport Ministry countered that Saudi Arabia had imposed an air blockade by requiring all flights to undergo additional checks via Saudi territory. The dispute follows the UAE’s announcement last week that it would withdraw its remaining forces from Yemen, after Saudi Arabia backed a demand for their departure within 24 hours. While that move briefly eased tensions, the current fighting shows disagreements among local allies persist.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, both key OPEC members, now face a rare public confrontation that carries implications beyond Yemen. With OPEC+ members meeting online on Sunday and expected to maintain first-quarter output levels, the Yemen escalation highlights how geopolitical rivalry can spill into both security and economic coordination.

On January 3, 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump said that American forces executed a “large scale strike” against Venezuela overnight and captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, asserting they had been “flown out of the country.” The announcement, made in a Truth Social post early Saturday, followed months of U.S. pressure on Venezuela over alleged drug trafficking and questions about the legitimacy of last year’s election. Trump said the operation was carried out “in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement” and that more details would be provided at an 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. A U.S. official told Reuters that elite special forces troops were responsible for capturing Maduro.

Explosions in Capital and States

Explosions and aircraft activity were reported in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, and in the states of Miranda, Aragua, and La Guaira in the early hours of Saturday, according to Reuters witnesses and social media imagery. Witnesses said blasts and black smoke were visible across Caracas from about 2 a.m. (0600 GMT) for roughly 90 minutes. Helicopters were seen flying amid plumes of smoke. A power outage affected the southern area of Caracas near a major military base, and local media linked to the ruling party said explosions had taken place near the Fuerte Tiuna and La Carlota military bases.

Caracas Defiance, Regional Reaction

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino issued a defiant statement on state media around the same time Trump posted his message. “Free, independent and sovereign Venezuela rejects with all the strength of its libertarian history the presence of these foreign troops,” he said, urging unity and resistance. There was no detail from Caracas confirming Maduro’s capture or departure.

Cuba and Iran were quick to condemn the strikes. Tehran called the action “a blatant violation of national sovereignty and territorial integrity” and urged the United Nations Security Council to intervene to stop what it termed “unlawful aggression.”

U.S. Buildup and Legal Questions

Trump’s announcement comes amid a significant U.S. military presence in the region, with an aircraft carrier, warships, and advanced fighter jets stationed in the Caribbean. In recent months, the U.S. has expanded sanctions, pursued a blockade of Venezuelan oil, and struck more than two dozen vessels it alleges were involved in drug trafficking in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, operations that have killed more than 110 people. It was unclear under what legal authority the latest strikes were conducted, and legal experts have raised questions about the legality of prior actions against suspected drug vessels.