Three themes coalesce in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. One is the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA).

This pertains to the remarkable and efficient reserve of hard power that the United States possesses. Because of RMA, the US military was able to ‘take out’ Maduro without resistance.

To employ a boxing metaphor, a ‘knockout’ blow was delivered that incapacitated Venezuela’s military capabilities.

Two, the ‘takeover’ of Venezuela appears to be a corollary or a clear instance of the US National Security document. 

The document made it clear that the US, under Trump, would orient itself toward Latin America through the grid of the ‘Monroe Doctrine’.

Three, power is the ultima ratio of world politics and international relations. 

International law, no matter its philosophical and jurisprudential elan, remains a weak scaffolding for either. This is to state the obvious.

The ‘how’ of Maduro’s capture raises an important set of questions. 

No matter a given country’s hard power capabilities, its technological sophistication, and elan, Human Intelligence (HUMINT) is the sine qua non of a successful operation.

While The New York Times claims that a CIA team had been clandestinely operating in Venezuela since August 2025, mostly to track Maduro’s movements, this alone cannot be enough.

The exact whereabouts of a given ‘target’ who is constantly on the move can usually be known only by someone within the inner circle. 

Moreover, taking out a ‘high-value target’ entails the possibility of reaction or resistance, either from individuals or from power elites loyal to the target.

Till now, this has not happened in Venezuela. 

And this lends some depth to speculation: the months-long operation to oust and ‘take’ Maduro may also have been complemented by a ‘softening up’ of certain members of the Maduro regime.

To stretch the speculation further, this may explain US President Donald Trump’s post-invasion confidence and his chiding remarks toward the country’s new president.

All this pertains to operations, tactics, and terrain, or battlespace, matters. The larger issue lies in the broader conceptual and political implications and consequences.

Inferentially, it may be prudent to refer to the Trump administration’s billions-of-dollars bailout to Argentina. This helped the country’s president, Javier Milei, salvage his government.

Pertinent to mention here is President Donald Trump’s equation with the Uruguayan president. While Venezuela is far from being the centre of gravity of Latin America, Argentina and Uruguay are important countries in their own right.

There are, then, elements of the use of American power (through regime change), features of influence (the Argentina bailout), and aspects of ‘soft power’ (the equation with Uruguay, largely over illegal immigration) involved here. 

While there is no theoretical peg or neat precedent to which these actions can be traced, they nevertheless hark back to the US National Security document released by the Trump administration in the closing month of 2025.

The NSS 2025 made it very clear that the United States’ orientation toward Latin America would be a ‘Monroe Doctrine corollary’. 

The inference that may be drawn here is that the actions taken by the US, including Maduro’s capture, are part of this corollary.

In all likelihood, the US now sees Latin America as its ‘sphere of influence’. (Obiter dictum, it may be that the swift invasion and capture of Maduro were also intended as a demonstration effect for others in the region.)

This has implications for the world at large. 

Because of MAGA promises, President Trump’s pledge to his base not to involve America in ‘forever wars’, and other allied reasons, it is doubtful that the Trump administration would go whole hog with regime change elsewhere.

But it stands to reason that the world must take notice.

The US NSS 2025, released by the Trump administration, is not an airy-fairy document made public for the heck of it. It is a document whose declarative principles, themes, and intent must be taken seriously by states across the world.

The swift invasion of Venezuela, the capture of Maduro, and a quick exit of sorts may, besides the immediate consequences for the country and the region, serve as a demonstration of this.

The world, then, must take note and notice.