A month ago, US President Donald Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández in a pre-Christmas act of mercy. Three years earlier, during the term of Trump's predecessor Joe Biden, the "narco-dictator" Hernández - accused of collaborating with South American drug traffickers, led by the notorious Sinaloa cartel of Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán "El Chapo", who have supplied the US underworld with cocaine for decades - was handcuffed from his home in Tegucigalpa by the Honduran National Police after his overthrow and extradited to the US, where he was sentenced to forty-five years in prison in the summer of 2024.
The "narco-dictator" spent less than a year and a half in Hazelton Penitentiary in West Virginia, however: before the Christmas holidays - and actually before the presidential elections in Honduras - the new old president Trump pompously signed a pardon for Juan Orlando Hernández, explaining that his colleague was the victim of a political manipulation by the Honduran left and the senile Joe Biden. "Mr. Hernández had a unfair trial," Trump explained. "He was the president of a country, for Christ's sake!"
These days, barely a month later, Trump, without the knowledge or approval of Congress, ordered a lightning night attack on Venezuela: in Operation "Absolute Determination", an action unprecedented in modern history, one hundred and fifty planes and bombers targeted the defense infrastructure in Caracas, and special forces from the Delta Force unit landed in helicopters and broke into the presidential palace, kidnapping President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, immediately transferring them to the United States. Beaming with satisfaction, Trump addressed the nation the next day, accusing the "narco-dictator" Maduro of collaborating with South American cocaine traffickers, led by the Sinaloa cartel of the infamous Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán "El Chapo", who have been supplying the United States' underworld with narcotics for decades.
So, Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced that they are also preparing.
Is political sponsorship of cocaine exports a reason for military interventions in other sovereign states, kidnappings of presidents, and violations of every single canon of international law? Of course not: the former president of Venezuela - probably like the current presidents of Colombia and Cuba - is an unscrupulous dictator who, with the help of the army and drug cartels, ruled a deeply corrupt country, suppressed human rights, organized rigged elections, persecuted the opposition, and controlled the media.
In short, everything the former president of Honduras did.
Juan Orlando Hernández, however, was the victim of a setup by the Honduran left and the senile Joe Biden, "the president of one country, for God's sake!", while the "president of another country" Nicolás Maduro, well - just like the "presidents of the third and fourth", Petro and Díaz-Canel - is a narco-dictator. To avoid any misunderstanding about this, Maduro was also officially charged in a US court with "possession of automatic weapons and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess automatic weapons and destructive devices".
Yes, you read that right: Nicolás Maduro - the president and commander-in-chief of a country's military, for Christ's sake! - has been accused by Donald Trump's administration of "possession of automatic weapons and destructive devices."
So what is the difference between Honduran President Hernández and Venezuelan President Maduro? The question is good, but incorrect. The correct question is - what is the difference between Honduras and Venezuela? Excellent question: Venezuela is by far the world's largest crude oil reservoir with a capacity of an incredible three hundred billion barrels, more than Libya, Kuwait, Russia and the USA - combined. Honduras, on the other hand, has reserves of "black gold" in the amount of - just a moment to add up - exactly zero point zero barrels. According to official OEC data, according to which it imports wines worth a whole three thousand dollars from Croatia annually, Honduras currently has more Pelješac Plavac Mali than crude oil. Venezuela, on the other hand, with a production of one million barrels per day, has oil for - if you are standing, it would be a good idea to sit down - nine hundred years of continuous exploitation!
Of course, you got it - oil.
This banal thing - oil as the never-publicly stated and sole reason for all American interventionism - used to be a commonplace of all British geopolitical analyses. Today, however, quite in keeping with the British nature of the new American administration, this fact is casually acknowledged behind the bar by President Trump himself, who not only solemnly announces that "Venezuela is ruled by America from today", and openly declares the entire Western Hemisphere a "sphere of interest of the US", but also publicly promises to return to his wealthy friends the oil facilities that Venezuela nationalized fifty years ago.
Welcome, then, to a brave new world, in which it is even possible for such a man to be greeted with flowers in his own country by last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner.
So let's see if we understand correctly: is it permissible to intervene militarily and kidnap the president of a country that you declare to be your zone of interest, with the explanation that this unscrupulous dictator and criminal rules a deeply corrupt country with the help of cartels, organizes rigged elections, controls the media, suppresses human rights and - last but not least - possesses weapons? Of course not: only the United States is permitted to do that.
Excellent. If that is the criterion - and we agreed that it is - the United States at this moment has a much better candidate for kidnapping and trial than the presidents of Colombia and Cuba: a dictator and convicted criminal who rules a deeply corrupt country with the help of both the military and the cartels, organizes rigged elections, controls the media and suppresses human rights. And this in a country that is, I would say, the very heart of the American sphere of interest.
Government with the help of the military? Oh yes: last year the US National Guard took over Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland and other cities, including Washington itself. Cartels? In America, you wouldn't have known it, large corporations have recently been legally allowed to invest unlimited financial resources in election campaigns: Donald Trump, for example, received almost two billion barrels of money from large technology, energy and oil cartels for the last election. Yes, sorry, dollars.
Corrupt country? Watch the HBO documentary "The Dark Money Game", about how counties, sorry, electoral districts are drawn in America, and energy companies pay politicians and elect the government. Yes, rigged elections: if Maduro was installed in power by the Kremlin, then what can we say about Russian involvement in the US presidential election? Media? The owners of the largest social networks and newspapers peek under Trump's overcoat, and television networks fire undesirable commentators. Human rights? We are talking about a country where the police kill or deport black passersby, where women cannot have abortions, and the secret services check foreigners' Facebook.
Finally, weapons: Donald Trump, who justified Maduro's kidnapping by claiming to own a gun, also has a concealed firearm at his Mar-a-Lago estate. He did have several, but he had to surrender two of his guns to the police after he was convicted of financial fraud a year and a half ago. Yes, I forgot: President Trump is a convicted criminal himself.
So forget Colombia and Cuba: the next phase of Operation "Absolute Determination" will be a lightning airstrike on Washington, a spectacular helicopter landing on the White House lawn, and the kidnapping of the American dictator and his wife.
Because of its possession of weapons, or because it rules a deeply corrupt country with the help of the army and cartels, suppresses human rights, organizes rigged elections, persecutes the opposition and controls the media? Of course not, we are not fools. The United States, the world's largest producer of "black gold", still has reserves of seventy-five billion barrels of crude oil. Or, if that's easier for you, seven times more than Cuba, Colombia and the entire European Union - combined.
I'm telling you, it's all about the oil.
Bonus video:
