Former People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Minister and political analyst Dr. Henry Jeffrey has warned that the United States’ military intervention in Venezuela — including the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores — represents a troubling escalation that threatens international law and the security of small states, even as Washington claims it is overseeing a political transition.
In an op-ed titled “Political lessons from Venezuela,” published in today’s Village Voice News, Jeffrey examined the implications of President Donald Trump’s announcement that United States (US) forces carried out “large-scale” strikes in Venezuela, removed Maduro from power, and would “run” the country until “a safe, proper and judicious transition” to local leadership can be achieved.
Jeffrey questioned whether Maduro’s removal resolves broader concerns about the conduct of the current US administration. “But does this put an end to the major concerns surrounding the recent behaviour of the American administration? I think not,” he wrote.
Trump said Maduro and Flores were ‘captured’ and flown out of Venezuela during the operation. He later stated that the United States would temporarily “run” the country until Venezuelans are able to take over governance, assigning senior US officials to manage security and transitional affairs. The developments triggered regional and international concern over legality, sovereignty, and the precedent being set.
Jeffrey drew heavily on a Foreign Affairs article by Brian Finucane titled “America Unbound in the Caribbean: The Real Costs of Washington’s Use of Force,” which argues that recent US actions in the region are “extremely dangerous.” Finucane noted that between September and late November, the Trump administration carried out more than 20 lethal strikes on vessels on the high seas, killing over 80 people, while claiming the boats were transporting drugs from South America.
“These attacks endanger the legal order both domestically and internationally,” Jeffrey quoted Finucane as saying. “They suggest that the U.S. executive holds a license to kill… thereby posing a threat to international security that extends well beyond the Western Hemisphere.” Jeffrey added that legal professionals have denounced the actions as illegal, and that even Britain and France have distanced themselves from what are likely to be considered “extrajudicial killings.”
Providing historical context, Jeffrey recalled the influence of Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America, which chronicled centuries of European and US intervention in the region. He noted that the book shaped a generation of leftist thinkers and was later embraced by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, who came to power in 1998.
According to Jeffrey, Chávez pursued a socialist programme aimed at rapidly redistributing wealth and empowering marginalised communities, a process that required dismantling entrenched political and economic elites and inevitably provoked fierce resistance. Chávez also introduced a new constitution establishing the “Bolivarian Republic,” nationalised key industries, and adopted a foreign policy openly hostile to US regional dominance.
Jeffrey argued that liberal democratic systems are ill-suited to rapid revolutionary change, and that Chávez’s approach led to accusations of democratic erosion, suppression of dissent, and authoritarian consolidation — developments that ultimately contributed to economic collapse and a regional refugee crisis.
He recounted a personal encounter during the 2006 World Trade Organisation Doha Round negotiations, when a senior US trade official remarked that if Venezuela continued on its path “it will become small and vulnerable indeed.”
Jeffrey said Chávez was “quite lightfooted” on Guyana’s border controversy with Venezuela, claiming Chávez once stated publicly that the issue was “concocted by the United States as a contingency” in the event of a PPP government pursuing socialist policies in Guyana. Chávez later reinforced his ideological stance by presenting then-US President Barack Obama with a copy of Open Veins of Latin America at the 2009 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.
Jeffrey said he was surprised by what he described as Chávez’s remarkable confidence, especially in light of the experiences of leaders like Guyana’s Cheddi Jagan, El Salvador’s Salvador Allende, and Grenada’s Maurice Bishop. Chávez died in 2013 and was succeeded by Nicolás Maduro, who has largely continued the same policies. Jeffrey also noted that it was under President Obama that Venezuela was formally declared a U.S. national security threat in 2015.
He argued that while the international community may have concluded that external pressure was needed to force political change in Venezuela, military action against a sovereign state without proper authority crosses a dangerous line.
Referencing Finucane’s analysis, Jeffrey said that if the US acted against Maduro without national or international authorisation, the consequences are especially severe for small states that depend on a rules-based international order.
“Apart from concerns about adherence to due process for the victims,” Jeffrey wrote, “relatively small states cannot survive sensibly in the absence of a substantial, progressive international legal regime.” He warned that “with or without the capture of Maduro, the present position of Washington already endangered the existence of such an international regime and should be judicially pronounced upon and compensated for if the situation is to be salvaged.”
