The Dangerous Phase Shift Behind the Kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro

by: Harley Schlanger
President, the LaRouche Organization (TLO)

The abrupt phase shift in U.S. military-strategic policy, which became evident at the end of 2025 through the first days of 2026, was adopted at breakneck speed, catching much of the world by surprise.  

From the release of the 2025 National Security Strategy document on December 5, through the armed seizure of Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela and his wife on January 3, and the comments made by President Donald Trump following Maduro's capture, a new level of uncertainty in international affairs has been introduced, provoking concern that the international order has entered a period in which a new world war has become increasingly likely.

The center of the uncertainty is U.S. President Trump, whose new security document shifts the focus of U.S. military-diplomatic engagement from Europe to the Americas.  Among the more controversial comments at his press conference after U.S. forces had seized the Maduros, he said that the U.S. would now "run Venezuela” and take over its oil reserves.  He proclaimed that "American dominance in the Western Hemisphere won't be questioned again", saying some are calling this the "Donroe Doctrine", a new version of the Monroe Doctrine.  Secretary of State Marco Rubio used Trump's comments to warn competitors for influence in the region, namely Russia and China, that "we're not going to allow...the oil industry in Venezuela to be controlled by adversaries of the U.S."

Further, Trump breathed new life into a previous provocation of Europe, reiterating his view that the U.S. should take over Greenland, as essential for U.S. security.  Greenland is a semi- autonomous territory of Denmark, and its seizure might trigger the activation of collective response by NATO members under Article 5.  Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the president wants to buy it, while Stephen Miller, Trump's militant deputy chief of staff, suggested that the United States could seize it by force.

Trump topped off this war bluster by announcing a $500 billion increase in the U.S. defense budget in 2027, demanding a total allocation of $1.5 trillion.  The 2026 defense budget totaled $1.01 trillion, which was already a 13% increase over 2025.

TRUMP AND THE NEW "UNIPOLAR ORDER"

Lest one assume that such comments were the result of an adrenaline-driven moment of exuberance following a successful military strike, Trump left no doubt of his intentions in an interview given to the {New York Times} on January 8 ("Trump Lays Out a Vision of Power Restrained Only by 'My Own Morality'").  He reiterated that he may remain in Venezuela "for years", and he would not be happy with anything less than "ownership" of Greenland.  According to the article on the interview in the NYT, he indicated "that he did not feel constrained by any international laws, norms, checks or balances."  

Asked if there were any limits on his use of American military power, he responded, " “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It's the only thing that can stop me....I don't need international law."

This confirms the warning made by the Schiller Institute's Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her weekly video interview on January 7.  She opened by stating that while such interventions by the U.S. are not new -- for example, the arc of regime change wars defending the Transatlantic empire since Vietnam --  what is new "is the sort of blatant, unashamed attitude of President Trump, who seems to have forgotten his earlier election promises that he would not involve the United States any longer in endless wars, and that he would try to stop all the ongoing ones -- he seems to have lost his memory completely."

She characterized this form of "diplomacy" as conforming with "the principle of Schrecklichkeit, that is, we do it with such shock and awe, and demonstrate such a precise military power, who would want to oppose it?"  This is "one more final blow to the already non-existing, unipolar world, rules-based order", which under the presidents from both Bushes, Clinton, Obama and Biden, provided a "pretext of legality and legitimacy."  She stated that she expects this new era will be short-lived, because the "majority of the world is definitely interested in a global governance system ruled by international law."  

Zepp-LaRouche anticipates a "huge backlash" against this, as the "trend of history is in the direction of civilization and not barbarism," referring to this "new" direction as a return to the "law of the jungle" associated with the dystopian strain of the City of London's imperial geopolitical order, typified by the work of Thomas Hobbes.  While Trump ran for President in 2024 on the promise to dismantle the "Deep State" behind America's "endless wars", this new direction seems to be a decisive rejection of that promise.

GLOBAL ORDER

This new militarism is not limited to the U.S. role in the Americas.  In recent days, Trump and his war hawks, led by Rubio and Miller, have warned of a new attack on Iran in alliance with Israel, and the commitment to defend Taiwan.  It is also reflected in the ongoing negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, in which Trump accused Russia of lying when it presented evidence that the West aided Ukraine in a heavy drone barrage against Putin's residence near Valdai.  Trump's initial reaction to a report of the attack was anger directed against Zelensky.  However, following a briefing by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who claimed that there was no such assassination attempt against Putin, Trump sided with the CIA.

While some diehard Trump supporters say that he is sticking with the agreements he made with Putin in their Alaska summit, others warn that he has shifted away from his desire to achieve normalization of relations with Russia, and that he is now following a course set by the network of neocons and War Hawks which he had pledged to remove from his administration.  Chief among these are Rubio and Miller, who have served as spokesmen for the latest policy turn. 

Rubio has long-term ties with the CIA-linked veterans of the Bay of Pigs, and has dedicated ten years to target Maduro, as a benefactor of Cuba, including making wildly unsubstantiated claims that Maduro is directly involved in cocaine trafficking to the U.S.  Rubio's political career has also benefitted from generous support from Zionist billionaire Paul Singer, who bankrolled his candidacy against Trump in 2015-16.  Singer bundled over $2.5 million to a SuperPAC in 2016 for Rubio, as part of $18 million in total to Republican candidates.  

His support for Rubio parallels his own push for the ouster of Maduro. Singer bought a significant stake in bonded debt of Citgo, an oil company owned in large part by Venezuela.  When Citgo defaulted on its debt, Singer filed a legal suit to demand payment.  He ultimately won in court, giving him a stake in Citgo worth approximately $18 billion, for the $4 billion in debt obligations he was holding when Citgo defaulted.  For Singer, being a "vulture capitalist" paid off! 

The Executive Intelligence Review sponsored an emergency round table discussion on January 12 and presented a picture of the danger explicit in this phase shift, and organized ways to counter it. The title of the event was "It's Worse Than You Think; The Strategic Implications of the Attack on Venezuela and How to Bring the World Back from the Brink."