Under the Full “Wolf” Moon, on Saturday, January 3, 2026, the USA under the acknowledged command of Donald Trump, without approval of Congress (required by our Constitution) and in complete and brazen contempt for International Law, invaded Venezuela, a sovereign country and kidnapped its duly-elected President, Nicolas Maduro and his wife. 

The US flew them to New York, paraded them through the streets to a detention center and now announces it will try them on “trumped up” charges. These are more “drug lies” to justify the theft of the vast oil, gas and mineral resources of Venezuela.  Such lies of intercepting drugs have been used in the past few months while this administration bombs boats in the Caribbean claiming they were carrying drugs, all without evidence or due process, not even identifying more than 100 people blown up in territorial waters of Venezuela.

Now Trump spouts his truth. We’re going to “Run” that country.  We are going to take the oil.  It’s our oil. They stole it from us.  Who is this “us”? Is Trump confusing the US government with the global petroleum corporations whose campaign contributions helped put him in office? 
 
EMPIRE NO LONGER HIDES BEHIND HUMANITARIAN JUSTIFICATION. Trump’s America is announcing to the world: The World’s “Rule Based Order” is DEAD! The United Nations and all the people of the world have been thrown into the
 
Graveyard of International Humanitarian Law.
IT IS NOW THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE! 
MIGHT MAKES RIGHT!

Do what I (and little Marco Rubio and Hegseth and Vance and the Techs and our War Machine) say or this will happen to you. And in the same weekend, in announcements to the world, the president of the United States makes all of us complicit as he threatens Cuba, Columbia, Nicaragua, Iran, and sends special envoys to Greenland to steal that territory (vital to our defenses, he says) from Denmark, a fellow NATO member. And the Congress, (owned by the AIPAC and the military-tech media-think-tank-industrial complex campaign contributions, or blackmailed with the Epstein extortion videos) trembles silently as Netanyahu heaps praise on his boy Donald, visiting only recently, again, in Mira Lago to, no doubt, harden plans for the next attack on Iran.
 
These attacks constitute flagrant violations of several fundamental principles of international law, in particular Articles 1 & 2 of the United Nations Charter, (which the US helped propagate after WWII to prevent anything like this from happening again). Most seriously these acts violate Article 2(4) which “prohibits threat or use of force against the territorial integrity of political independence of any state”. This is “illegal aggression”, a supreme international crime at Nuremberg. These actions also violate the right of the people of Venezuela to self-determination, which is guaranteed by Article 1(2) of the UN Charter.
 
There are two exceptions: Self Defense under Article 51, and Security Council authorization under Chapter VII. Neither applies in the case of Trump’s “Perfect” military operation which Rubio claims is just carrying out an “arrest warrant”.
 
Venezuela did not attack the United States. The Security Council authorized nothing. “This is textbook aggression under the Rome Statute, the very definition of the crime that got Nazi leaders hanged at Nuremberg”.  (Ahmaad Ibsais, 1/3/26 Substack, “America’s Favorite Pastime is Bombing Countries to Steal What Isn’t Theirs”).
 
GAZA WAS THE CANARY IN THE COAL MINE.
If the US and Israel can commit genocide while the whole world is watching, they can do this anywhere. And the Chicken’s gunna come home to roost—as these cruel imperial military actions are being carried out everywhere and increasingly with illegal treatment of people in our own communities being snatched up and incarcerated based on racism, religion and skin-color.  
 
Trump bombed Nigeria on Christmas day (under the lie that he was protecting “Christians”). What about all the Christians in Bethlehem in the land where Jesus walked? Is he going to bomb Israel for killing all those Christians in Gaza and the West Bank that have lived there for more than 2000 years? And Venezuela is a Christian country, (Liberation Theology and largely Catholic). Eighty people were killed in Trump’s “perfect” strike.
 
This administration thinks it has impunity. That’s because the world and we citizens of this country have not, over my lifetime, held these murderers accountable while they slaughter people based on made-up lies and destroy our planet so they can steal resources. They use the wealth created by the people’s labor to build weapons that if used, will kill us all.  And they threaten our people who even speak out about this.
 
I have written elsewhere decrying the United Nations Security Councils’ approval on November 17, 2025 of Resolution # 2803, Trump’s “Peace” Plan for Gaza.
 
But it needs to be mentioned here.  Because it gave the imperial emperor impunity.The resolution was passed by a vote of 13 to 0 with Russia & China abstaining.^[1]

This action clothed Trump and Israel’s neo-colonial plan to rule Gaza and the Palestinian occupied territories, with the cloak of legitimacy, while stripping the Palestinian people of their rights to self-determination and self-defense. Trump anointed himself the unelected ruler of Gaza’s “Board of Peace”, with UK Iraq War-criminal Tony Blair, to serve as his viceroy, (and Trump’s son-in-law, no doubt, the developer of the Gaza Riviera). The Trump Plan has nothing to do with Peace. It didn’t stop the killing, destruction and ethnic cleansing of the people of Gaza.
 
Pursuant to Trump’s 20-poimt Peace Plan, “Ceasefire” was supposed to have gone into effect October 10^th. Hamas released all remaining living Israeli hostages and most of the bodies of the deceased.  But that has not halted the horrific genocide and displacement.  Over a thousand Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since this latest so-called Ceasefire, mostly women and children. No one wanted ceasefire at the expense of Palestinian human rights.  The plan failed to address any basic elements to bring justice, dignity and peace to Palestine. 

(1)The plan did nothing to end Israeli Occupation of Gaza.

(2)There was not a word about Palestinian Rights of Self-Determination and Independence (Gazans are just supposed to accept rule by a foreign power without election or consent, at the hands of one who has been complicit in the genocide).

(3) Not a single word is in the resolution about accountability for the massive deaths, destruction, inhumanity, pain and suffering and erasure of schools, universities, clinics, hospitals, water systems, sewage treatment plants, electricity, streets, buildings, targeting journalists and incarcerating doctors—all as conditions continue to worsen for the people this winter. This is clearly a plan to force the population to leave. 

(4) This resolution showed neither acknowledgment nor respect for international humanitarian law; rather it bestows criminal impunity to the Genocide perpetrators continuing their stated plan of ethnic cleansing non-stop.  Under Trump’s 20-point peace plan issued at the end of September, 2025, Israel was supposed to allow humanitarian aid and food to flow to end the famine and allow people to receive needed medical treatment. But instead of the 600 trucks per day, only about 100 per day have been allowed to enter the enclave.
 
The passage of #2803 came as such a shock to many.  Only a month before, on September 16, 2025, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry appointed by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations found that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 
 
And the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued orders to Israel two years ago in January 2024 to stop blocking goods into Gaza.   Israel was found by the ICJ to be illegally occupying the West Bank and they were given until September 18, 2025  to cease the illegal occupation. Further, the International Criminal Court charged Prime Minister Netanyahu and defense minister Gallant with war crimes and crimes against humanity. But, the ICJ has no enforcement mechanism. And the US is not party to the Rome Statute and never signed on to the International Criminal Court. 
 
So instead of complying with United Nations rulings and orders, the United States issued presidential decrees to prosecute and sanction the ICC, charging them for holding Israel accountable.  If the U.N. cannot protect its institutions, prosecutors, judges and staff, then enforcement must be provided by hosting states.  But the United States and most other world states have been permitting Israel to violate humanitarian laws with impunity. There is thus a Blanket of Fear over the United Nations’ two most important legal organizations.
 
The United States and Israel are making a “Graveyard of International Humanitarian Law” and this inevitably leads to the “Law of the Jungle”. (Raji Sourani, People’s Academy of International Law, Course 10, “International Law Protects Struggles for Liberation and Emancipation”).

SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO? 

Will countries of the world sanction the US? 
Will anyone bring charges against Trump and gang in the International Criminal Court?
Will other states expel our ambassadors?
Will they cut diplomatic ties?
Will the countries of the world join together under a “uniting for peace resolution” in the General Assembly to take action to hold our government and Israel accountable? 
 
It’s scary. China might sell off our bonds, interest rates might rise.  If Israel drags US into another bombing spree in Iran or Yemen, our oil in the neighboring Arab states is going to be interrupted and prices at the pump are going to skyrocket. It’ll take boots on the ground in Venezuela and some say 10 years and billions of investment dollars to bring the oil production in Venezuela by US Corporations up to capacity. More lives lost.  More taxes for war and killing—and all the time the disparity between the billionaires and the rest of us in this country grows. Inflation.  Loss of Jobs to AI. Increased Medical Insurance costs. How long before the people rise up? How can we do it? 
 
David Swanson, WORLD BEYOND WAR, points out that the drug lies can’t legalize the supreme international crime, and members of Congress who pat themselves on the back supporting the Monroe Doctrine, are endorsing murder and kidnapping. So we have to demand of our Congress members to:
 
“End all war and hostilities toward Venezuela.
Cut off funding that allows such crimes.
Free Venezuela’s kidnapped president.
Bring all U.S. troops and equipment back to the United States from Venezuela and vicinity.
Cancel the brutal economic sanctions, naval blockade and no-fly-zone.
Renounce overthrows and the Monroe Doctrine.
Impeach, convict and remove President Trump from office”.
 
And as to all of us: Mass mobilization, joining in solidarity with all those, even of different stripes or political persuasion who stand for truth and justice and we must be protesting and demonstrating at every embassy the world over and at every state and local government in the United States and in Washington D.C. in a manner to prevent the functioning of the “Monrovian mafia.”
(David Swanson, World BEYOND War, January 3, 2026)  https://worldbeyondwar.org/lies-and-the-lying-liars-who-kidnap-presidents/

There is a Global Day of Action NO WAR ON VENEZUELA on January 17, 2026. Go to World BEYOND War website. Also, ANSWER COALITION has been organizing protests. Code Pink gives numerous ways to get on board. Many others. I wish I could list all the wonderful groups rising up. Join with Left Unity Party! Your union!  Whatever church of community groups you are part of to reject imperialism. Come on People, Time to Get Together, Try to Love One Another Right Now. Join the struggle! Solidarity! Time is now.
 
As one union organizer recently reminded me: We do it all with Loving Kindness—changing ourselves to address other’s deep needs. Metta, Chesed!

^[1] The Permanent members of the Security Council are China, France, Russia, UK and US; the Non-Permanent members at present are Algeria, Denmark, Greece, Guyana, So. Korea, Pakistan, Panama, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Somalia