Staff Reports
On January 3, 2026, in a bold pre-dawn operation, U.S. forces moved into Venezuela and captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife, a development that stunned the world and changed the terms of the fight against transnational crime. President Trump announced the seizure and the transfer of Maduro to American custody, a move framed by the administration as the enforcement of longstanding criminal charges rather than a mere political stunt.
Attorney General Pam Bondi declared that Maduro and Cilia Flores face a slate of serious federal charges — including narco-terrorism and cocaine importation conspiracies — charges that trace back to indictments first unsealed in 2020. The Justice Department and senior officials have been clear: this is a criminal prosecution brought by American law enforcement for crimes that have devastated our communities.
Conservative Americans should remember the facts many on the left want to sweep under the rug: the U.S. had publicly increased the reward for information on Maduro to a record $50 million in August 2025, signaling a sustained, lawful campaign to hold him accountable for trafficking and corruption. That bounty was no publicity stunt; it was part of a strategy to remove a regime that has long been accused of weaponizing drugs and migration against our country.
Make no mistake — this is not simply about “stolen elections” or the latest pundit theory floated for clicks. The administration’s stated basis for action is the criminal case and the public safety emergency caused by massive narcotics flows, fentanyl deaths, and the criminal networks tied to Venezuela’s security apparatus, which American prosecutors have long linked to transnational trafficking. Conservatives should insist on keeping the policy debate grounded in the criminal record, not in convenient narratives pushed by opponents.
Yes, there are geopolitical and economic angles at play — Trump himself spoke of overseeing a transition and rebuilding Venezuela’s oil sector — and opponents will scream “oil grab” to distract from fifty thousand American overdose deaths and the cartels’ reach into our neighborhoods. But fighting narco-terrorism and protecting the American people from illicit fentanyl is not a partisan luxury; it is the primary duty of any administration that puts citizens first.
The international outcry and questions about sovereignty are predictable and often hypocritical; regimes that tolerated Maduro’s abuses for years now feign outrage while refusing to confront the damage his criminal enterprise did to the region and to the United States. Conservatives should demand that critics explain why they spent years wringing hands about democracy while ignoring the cartel state that turned Venezuela into a narco-state exporting misery and migrants northward.
This is a moment for patriotic conservatives to stand firm: applaud the restoration of American resolve, insist on accountability in federal courts, and press for clear plans to secure borders and stop drug deaths at home. The work won’t end with an arrest in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center; it begins there, and it requires Congress, the administration, and the American people to keep law and order the north star of our policy toward rogue regimes that threaten our families.
