Every time I say “He wouldn’t go that far”, he goes farther.
All bets are off. Donald Trump has demonstrated no respect for human life or international law. The United States government has committed crimes that transgress not only law, but all sense of human decency. It is not just Venezuela that is at risk– it is every nation that has something the US wants, every human being who stands up for democracy and human rights, the planet itself. This is not the first time, but this is our moment to either react or resign ourselves to authoritarianism at gunpoint.
This has nothing to do with whether you agree with the politics of whoever rules a country–using public funds for an unauthorized and unprovoked attack on sleeping communities, on people making plans for a new year, violates law and threatens our ability to live together as nations.
The mass media has been worse than useless–hours later, not one has attempted to assess or report on civilian deaths and damage to neighborhoods and basic services. They parrot the administration’s claims as fact with no proof and– on the verge of dragging the US into armed conflict– focus only on the whereabouts of Maduro and his participation or not in an illegal drug market created by US prohibitionism and masssive consumption. We are left grasping for real information in a void of journalistic professionalism and on the cusp of a hugely expensive and potentially bloody war that the US public did not vote for and does not want.
U.S. military forces bombed the capital city of Caracas and the provinces of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday. Trump has announced that President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were taken captive. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez announced that Maduro is the “only president of Venezuela” and called for his liberation after the “illegal kidnapping”. She stated that “Venezuela will never be a colony of anyone” and called for the emergency mobilization of the armed forces and the population. Rodriguez confirmed deaths among Venezuelan civilians and military personnel. Trump claimed some members of U.S. forces were wounded but there are no deaths so far.
In today’s press conference, Trump announced that the U.S. will run Venezuela for an indefinite period. When asked who, he said “the people behind me”, namely, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth and the U.S. military. He stated the U.S. military will protect the takeover of oil platforms and production and added, “we´ll be taking a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground” and selling it to China, Russia and whoever else wants it.
The response from European nations is nauseating. England is “waiting for more information” as images of U.S. bombs in Caracas flood social media and Trump himself is crowing about the attacks. Spain calls for “de-escalation”. What does that even mean when only one side has attacked? The statement from the European Union’s representative of foreign affairs Kaja Kallas defies all diplomatic norms and moral precepts: She states that she immediately checked in with Washington, then reiterates the alleged illegitimacy of the Maduro government as if the entire country deserves to be wiped out by foreign bombs, and in the same breath reaffirms international law with no reference whatsoever to how it applies to the US’s illegal acts. Russia and Iran have condemned the attacks.
In our region of Latin America, Colombia. Mexico, Chile and Brazil have strongly condemned the attacks, as the extreme right governments fall into line behind Trump. The Venezuelan government called it “an imperialist attack” and urged the world to respond in defense of international law and peace. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum issued an urgent call “to cease any act of aggression aginst the government and the people of Venezuela.” The Caribbean nations in Caricom met but did not take a stand, although Trinidad y Tobago immediately announced it was not involved in the attacks.
As a political analyst, I am at a loss for words. As an activist, I am struggling to shed familiar frameworks for action and build new non-violent strategies in a world where a handful of powerful white men impose their “might makes right” prerogative, obliterating “right” completely. As s feminist, I am appalled at the hypermasculinity that disdains all expressions of life that do not submit to the power and the will of men with weapons. As a Latin American and a dissident, I am a target. As a US citizen, I am ashamed. As a human being, I am heartbroken.
Seek out the compassionate and fair-minded among us, who reject the death-dealers and want a different world for ourselves and our children. Stop this insanity. Wherever you are–in the U..S as members of a flawed democracy that made a terrible mistake, or in other countries where submission has allowed a tyrant to cross all lines of civility–ACT.
Act collectively, act peacefully, but act. Let 2026 be not the year of destruction that Washington has planned for us, but the Year of Healing, where we correct course. Join with all women and men who are protecting the earth and its human, animal and plant communities to survive into a better future on this marvelopus planet. Don’t let the weapons industry and sick men who see women’s bodies and earth’s resources as their fields of exploitation prevail.
We can stop this.
Laura Carlsen is the Director of the feminist international relations think tank, Mira Feminisms and Democracies, based in Mexico City. She is a political analyst, commentator and journalist on regional relations, U.S. policy, social movements and gender justice.
