Gautam Mukunda, Lecturer at the Yale School of Management & Bloomberg Opinion Columnist, reacts to Nicolas Maduro’s capture and the broader impact on US politics and foreign relations.
The US raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro put America’s allies and adversaries on notice: President Donald Trump has a new world order of his own.
In the aftermath of the stunning late night operation that saw Maduro and his wife whisked from a guarded military base near Caracas to a New York jail, Trump demonstrated just how far the US is willing to go to eliminate a leader seen as a threat to American interests and security.
“The future will be determined by the ability to protect commerce and territory and resources that are core to national security,” Trump said in his news conference announcing Maduro’s capture. “These are the iron laws that have always determined global power, and we’re going to keep it that way.”
That approach sent shockwaves around the world, drawing criticism from Brasilia to Beijing. Coming after strikes in Trump’s second term on Somalia, Nigeria, Syria, Iraq and Iran, as well as in international waters, it marked the culmination of a far more aggressive foreign policy style that puts Trump’s view of US interests above all else.
The toppling of Maduro will be seen as “a stark lesson in power politics,” Sun Chenghao, a fellow at Tsinghua University’s Center for International Security and Strategy, said in an interview. For global peers such as China, the move “accelerates a broader trend toward a reconfigured global order,” he added.
With Maduro awaiting trial in a New York jail, Trump wasted no time fueling speculation about where his next targets might be. They included Cuba, which suddenly lost its most important benefactor with Maduro’s jailing — “We want to help the people” there, Trump said Saturday — as well as a warning for Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who should “watch his ass.” Then there’s Greenland, part of NATO-ally Denmark’s territory.
“We need Greenland from a national security situation," Trump said Sunday aboard Air Force One, adding that “Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”
Denmark’s prime minister denounced the notion, saying the US “has no right to annex” any of its territory. European leaders quickly backed her.
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