"Despite early appearances, the Trump administrationâs abduction of President NicolĂĄs Maduro of Venezuela doesnât seem to be a regime change operation. After all, America is leaving the regime, now headed by Maduroâs vice president, Delcy RodrĂguez, in power. As of Monday, all of Venezuelaâs ruling officials aside from Maduro appear to have remained in their posts, including Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino LĂłpez and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who controls the police and was known as one of Maduroâs most fearsome enforcers.
âThatâs very odd, historically, to see something like this,â said Javier Corrales, a professor at Amherst and the author of âAutocracy Rising: How Venezuela Transitioned to Authoritarianism.â âTo see that you get rid of the leader, but the regime stays in place.â
But for Donald Trump, the preservation of something close to the status quo makes sense, given that his goal is extortion, not political transformation. Rather than the moralistic imperialism of George W. Bush, Trumpâs foreign policy is imperialistic gangsterism. As one administration official put it to me, thereâs âsomething refreshing about Trump just saying, âYeah, we are taking the oil.ââ"
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/opinion/trump-venezuela-regime-change.html
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