Trump deserves credit for ending Maduro’s Venezuelan regime with a military strike

For years, the people of Venezuela have endured a nightmare imposed by socialist tyranny. Under President Nicolás Maduro, a once prosperous nation was reduced to deprivation, violence and despair. Families were starving. Hospitals ran out of medicine. Millions fled their homes. Venezuela became an example of how socialism destroys everything it touches.

That dark chapter has come to an end.

I have always believed that Maduro must go, and I will always be proud of the work of the Trump-Pence administration in Venezuela. Together, we led the charge against Maduro, building an unprecedented coalition of more than sixty countries and forging a bipartisan consensus in Congress to recognize the illegitimacy of the dictator’s power.

We froze the regime’s assets so they could not use the funds to fuel their human rights abuses, while providing nearly $1 billion in aid to the Venezuelan people. For the first time since September 11, 2001, we have invoked the Western Hemisphere’s version of a mutual defense pact to demonstrate our commitment to Venezuelan security and freedom.

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Although we ultimately fell short of our goal of liberating the people of Venezuela, I was encouraged when the President ordered the military strike that captured Maduro and brought him to justice in the United States.

Thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump and the professionalism of the US armed forces, Maduro is gone. His hold on Venezuela has been broken and a long-suffering people now has a historic opportunity to regain their freedom and rebuild their nation.

For years, the United States rightly recognized that Maduro was a dictator with no legitimate claim to rule. He stole the elections, imprisoned political opponents, silenced the free press, and turned the government apparatus into a criminal enterprise. Trump deserves the gratitude of all who cherish freedom for taking bold and historic action to end this socialist catastrophe.

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No free people knowingly exchanges prosperity for poverty. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, forced that decision on Venezuela – replacing free markets with centralized control, seizing the oil industry, commandeering electricity and telecommunications, and crushing private businesses. The results were as predictable as they were devastating: food shortages, rolling power outages, massive inflation and the collapse of civil society.

I witnessed first-hand the toll of this tyranny during a visit to the Venezuelan border in 2019. I met displaced families who had fled with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Their heartbreaking stories left no doubt that Maduro’s regime was not only incompetent, but also extremely cruel.

That brutality spread beyond Venezuela’s borders and spread misery across the Western Hemisphere. Millions of people fled the country, leading to one of the largest refugee crises in modern history. Many eventually found their way to the United States, some illegally and others by exploiting a broken asylum system.

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At the same time, Maduro’s regime became deeply entangled in the international drug trade, flooding American communities with poison and destroying countless lives. Even the Biden administration recognized the criminal nature of Maduro’s rule and placed a multimillion-dollar bounty on his arrest for narco-terrorism and corruption.

Maduro also invited America’s opponents to our own hemisphere. Russia, Iran, Cuba, and communist China expanded their influence under his protection, making Venezuela a platform for hostile powers operating dangerously close to our shores—a clear and present national security threat to the United States.

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Trump deserves the gratitude of all who cherish freedom for taking bold and historic action to end this socialist catastrophe.

The progressive left and some on the populist right have criticized Trump’s decision to move forward with absolute determination in bringing Maduro to justice. However, the Constitution gives the president broad authority as commander in chief to take limited but decisive action to protect our nation, and he has a duty to faithfully execute the laws of our nation, including the criminal laws that Maduro is accused of violating. Presidents of both parties have exercised these powers for generations. To deny them now would dangerously weaken future presidents and put America at greater risk.

Nicolás Maduro must answer for his crimes. He must answer for the corruption that has hollowed out a nation, for the violence that has silenced dissent, and for the drug trafficking that has cost the lives of countless American citizens. Long-delayed justice will finally be served.

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The Venezuelan people now stand on the threshold of a remarkable opportunity. They deserve a rebirth of freedom – a new Venezuela governed by Venezuelans, rooted in the recognition of God-given freedoms, committed to free markets and supported by free and fair elections. They deserve a future that is not determined by fear but by hope.

Thanks to President Trump and the courageous men and women of our armed forces, that future is within reach today. Libertad can finally be restored. And as freedom takes root again in Venezuela, it will strengthen security and prosperity throughout our hemisphere – just as America has always been prepared to do.

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