President Donald Trump dedicated a moment of his 90-minute rambling speech at Tuesday’s Republican summit to insisting that he should be thanked for the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela Saturday.
“You know, at some point they should say, ‘You know, you did a great job. Thank you, congratulations,’” he said.
Trump praised the early hours operation, saying it was “amazing” and boasting that no Americans were killed. Though he did mention that “a lot of people”—including 32 Cubans—were killed during the multicity mission.
Trump also seemed to take issue with Maduro imitating his dance moves.
“You know, he’s a violent guy. He gets up there, and he tries to imitate my dance a little bit,” he said.
Maduro was taken into custody with his wife, Cilia Flores, and was arraigned in New York City Monday morning. He pleaded not guilty to U.S. prosecutors’ claims that he participated in a drug-trafficking operation and partnered with cartels designated as terrorist groups.
When news broke of Maduro’s capture, the reaction among Venezuelans was—as it undoubtedly would be in matters of international intervention—extremely mixed.
Venezuelans who fled to the United States during Maduro’s and former President Hugo Chavez’s terms took to the streets with flags and cheers, but it also brought uncertainty for their futures. And according to a recent AtlasIntel poll, about 64% of Venezuelans living abroad supported the military move..
In a conversation with Daily Kos, Nixon Leal—who was granted political asylum in the United States after being imprisoned and tortured by Maduro for his work with the opposition party—echoed a similar sentiment.
“I see things from the point of view of a Venezuelan who wants justice and freedom in his country so he can return,” he told Daily Kos. “I lived under a dictatorship. So when people ask if I support what Trump did to depose Maduro, of course I do.”
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The feeling of hesitant support reverberates within the GOP as well.
GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia says she’s worried that Trump’s plan to “run” Venezuela until it can rebuild oil infrastructure and carry out an election is a rerun of past interventions.
“I don’t think our nation wants to be into nation-building and to be trying to create a government for another country, especially after the Afghanistan situation,” she told The Hill.
U.S. involvement in another country’s politics for economic gain—in this case, oil—is exactly what the opposing opinion finds problematic too.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published Monday, 72% of Americans are worried that this will lead to the country getting too involved in Venezuela. Between Democrats and Republicans, the support and opposition to capturing Maduro is almost evenly split.
Protesters demanding the United States to get out of Venezuela—with some demanding the release of Maduro—have also flooded the streets.
Similarly, Trump has lost the praise of U.S. allies. During an emergency U.N. meeting, several countries—including U.S. ally France—said that the raid was a violation of international law.
In Venezuela, people have openly denounced the capture of their president, with thousands of people protesting in Caracas on Monday.
In a text conversation with Daily Kos, a young woman living in Táchira, a Venezuela city on the Colombian border, shared that sentiment.
She asked to remain anonymous out of fear of government retribution. In fact, multiple Venezuelans declined to comment out of fear of punitive action from internal and external governments.
“We may or may not agree with how the country has been run, but agreeing to be governed by the U.S. or any other government, and to have our resources stolen, is another matter entirely,” she told Daily Kos. “And I think this is a national feeling. You don’t have to be Chavista or opposition; you just have to love the country, as we were taught, and as we grew up studying the history of our liberators. We do not want to be a colony of anyone.”
So while Trump celebrates his actions in Venezuela, he might need to hold off on demanding praise from an international audience.
Alix Breeden
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