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In the days since U.S. Delta Force detained Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores on grounds related to drug and weapons charges, there have been frantic questions about the operation. Why would President Trump direct something so brazen and, potentially, illegal? What is the U.S. government’s plan for Venezuela’s future? And now that we’ve pulled off the audacious kidnapping of a head of state and essentially taken over a foreign country, could it happen again?
At the moment, Trump is renewing threats to take Greenland, the island territory under Danish administration that he says is strategically important for national security. But other countries, like Colombia, Cuba, and Iran, are at risk from an unchecked president.
Trump has been in a prolonged spat with Colombian President Gustavo Petro. In September the State Department took the extraordinary step of sanctioning Petro and a number of his family members. Trump has claimed that Petro himself is involved in the trafficking of cocaine, there’s no evidence to support that. But Petro’s time in power is drawing to a close; he is limited to one term, and the new election season starts in March, when the U.S. could intervene in the presidential election, similar to Trump’s successful efforts to sway midterm legislative elections in Argentina via a $20 billion credit lifeline.
When it comes to Cuba, there isn’t much there for the U.S. to plunder, like the oil reserves in Venezuela. Trump has not signaled a major appetite to intervene, and seems to think that the Cuban government will fall on its own. But there are still Cuba hawks and lots of anti-Communist Cuban Americans (particularly in vote-rich Florida) who might want to see regime change—most significantly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
And then there’s Iran. Since the hostage crisis over 45 years ago, Iran has had varying levels of conflict with the U.S., which usually plays out in diplomatic or clandestine actions, like the Stuxnet virus unleashed on Iranian nuclear facilities in the early 2000s. That long-term conflict already puts Iran in Trump’s crosshairs, coupled with Israel’s repeated attacks on Iranian soil as part of its war on Gaza and Trump’s own willingness to use force against the regime. Trump is threatening action in the face of ongoing protests against the regime over abysmal economic conditions. |
