The Current Illegal Power Grab in Venezuela: But Where Next? Donald Trump Talks Peace But He Is a Man of War.

The toppling and alleged seizure by incursive US forces of Venezuela's socialist president will dispatch a tremor of dread and alarm around the world. This coup is illegal, unprovoked, and destabilizing for the region and the world. It overturns international norms, ignores national territorial sovereignty, and potentially creates an state of anarchy within the country.

It is chaos made policy. But this is the reality we currently inhabit – the world according to the US President.

An Extraordinary and Perilous Declaration of Unfettered US Power

The direct attack on Venezuela marks an extraordinary, dangerous declaration of unfettered US power and comes in the same week that the President menaced armed attacks against a further disliked government opposed to the West: that of Iran. It follows many months of increasing US pressure through military, economic, and political means on Maduro, encompassing deadly naval strikes on vessels suspected of drug smuggling.

Trump claims to be acting to stop illicit drugs entering the US through Venezuelan routes and to halt an purported flood of “criminal element” migrants. In an repetition of the American incursion into Iraq in 2003, he is also accused of coveting Venezuela’s huge petroleum and natural gas reserves – doubts strengthened by frequent, unlawful US seizures of Venezuelan oil tankers.

But Trump’s chief motivations seem to be individual hostility directed at Maduro, and a desire to revive the 19th-century Monroe doctrine by establishing a American zone of control and dominance throughout the west.

Regional Outrage and Global Repercussions

Regional leaders, such as Colombia’s president, who has conflicted with Trump in the past few months, met the takeover with fury and concern; not least, perhaps, because they fear they too could become targets of Washington’s newly aggressive dominance. Cuba’s socialist administration has particular cause for concern. It depends significantly on Venezuela’s regime for low-cost fuel and backing in politics and economics.

The US top diplomat has made no secret of his desire for regime change in Havana. In Panama, too, levels of concern will be elevated. Trump has in the past menaced military action there, over authority over the Panama Canal. Indeed, the reported capture of Maduro recalls the 1989 US incursion into Panama and the toppling and arrest of its leader at the time.

Authoritarian, anti-democratic regimes around the world will be closely observing Trump’s next steps, as will Washington’s democratic allies. Iran condemned the coup. It has valid cause to be fearful. But Russia’s president may not be totally displeased by the removal of his Venezuelan ally.

A Perilous Benchmark for Global Conflicts

Trump’s unjustified turn to force is not so very different from actions in invading Ukraine. Both have unlawfully assaulted a neighbouring country and sought to remove its leadership. For China’s leader, whose forces were recently practising military action against the “breakaway factions” of Taiwan, Trump has just established a benchmark he may eventually happily emulate.

Trump’s coup is of great concern to Britain, the EU and democratic Western nations. They should, and must, clearly denounce it. It directly challenges the laws and tenets of the global system they hold dear. The US has yet again disregarded the United Nations and conventional approaches of addressing disputes between nations. And it is proceeding with seemingly little consideration for the subsequent events in Venezuela.

An Unclear Future and Risk of Disorder

The Caracas government has been decapitated, but remaining high-ranking figures of the regime seem to remain in place. They are calling for opposition and, possibly, reprisals against the US. There are unverified accounts of civilian casualties. If a power vacuum forms, civil stability could collapse, sparking internal conflict or a possible military coup. And it is unclear whether the latest US military action has ended, or may intensify more.

The notion that banished dissident figures will quickly come back and that full democracy will now be restored is naive. The coming days will be decisive. And it’s all down to Trump.

The Myth of the Peacemaker

Trump’s reckless action should at last bury his perpetually deceptive self-portrayal as a “world peacemaker”. It’s high time that leaders in Europe openly acknowledge him for what he is – a international provocateur of war, a universal menace.

Each time he stumbles clumsily into areas of dispute, setting deadlines, delivering final demands, choosing sides and monetising misery, the quest for fair and enduring peace is hindered.

Little wonder peace is elusive. And strangely, even while presenting himself as a disinterested peacemaker and non-interventionist, Trump simultaneously wages war on the world. The US conducted unprecedented levels of air strikes in the Middle East and Africa last year, surveys show.

A Legacy in Blood

Since returning to office a year ago, the ostensibly peace-seeking President has launched strikes in Yemen, negligently causing the deaths of many non-combatants after loosening rules of engagement; bombed Nigeria, to counter-productive effect; bombed Somalia, Iraq and Syria; and targeted Iranian sites, where he mendaciously exaggerated the effectiveness of American attacks on nuclear facilities. He even refuses to rule out attacking Greenland, a independent land of a Nato ally.

What’s going on inside Trump’s head? A charitable view is that in matters of war and peace, he has no idea what he is doing – no strategy, no clue – and invents strategy as he goes, depending on how he feels.

The more ominous reading says he is fully aware what he is doing, that greater and more severe actions is to come. Like previous leaders in their final term who exhausted options at home, Trump finds the global platform offers greater possibilities for the exercise of power and self-importance. He is building a legacy in blood.

Trump’s reckless, perilously unstable behaviour is getting measurably worse. His Venezuela “triumph” may encourage him to try further and larger, irrational atrocities. He parades and postures, cries havoc! and lets slip the dogs of war.