Did Trump kidnap President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro and his Wife due to Drug Trafficking or for Venezuelan Oil?

Written By Dr. Ziva Rozen-Bakher

https://www.rozen-bakher.com/timeline-risks/07/01/2026/0542

Published Date: 07 January 2026

Rozen-Bakher, Z., Did Trump kidnap President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro and his Wife due to Drug Trafficking or for Venezuelan Oil?, Risks Timeline by Dr. Ziva Rozen-Bakher, 07 January 2026, https://www.rozen-bakher.com/timeline-risks/07/01/2026/0542

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Dr. Ziva Rozen-Bakher

Researcher in International Relations and Foreign Policy with a Focus on International Security alongside Military, Political and Economic Risks for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and International Trade

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07 January 2026 at 05:42. Did Trump kidnap President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro and his Wife due to Drug Trafficking or for Venezuelan Oil?. I think that the answer is clear to everyone that Trump did it for the Venezuelan Oil, but it is important to prove it and to show how Trump makes the USA a Tyrant Country. If we look at the 2024 Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), then several countries are mentioned in the UNODC 2024 report as hot spots for Drug Traficking, such as Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay (see below), while Colombia is mentioned as a hot spot for Drug Production in the American continent, but not only that Venezuela is not mentioned in the UNODC 2024 report in relation to Drug Traficking nor Drug Production, then Venezuela is not even mentioned at all in the UNODC 2024 report, excluding in the list of ‘questionnaire focal points’ (see below, like many other countries, such as  Germany, Palestine, Gambia, Finland and the UK, and even USA. Thus, clearly, Trump fabricated the ‘story’ of Drug Traficking in relation to Venezuela, and in particular, in relation to President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and his Wife. Still, the question that arises is why Trump did not kidnap the leader of Argentina or Brazil or Paraguay or Colombia? Again, the answer is clear because their countries lack oil like what Venezuela has, yet it is important to prove it. If we look at the Oil-proved Reserves worldwide in 2023 (see below), then Venezuela has the Biggest Oil-Proved Reserves Worldwide - 19% of the World Reserve, while the USA has only 3% that even has reduced since 2023 due to the USA’s sanctions on oil that has even led USA to use the USA’s Oil Strategic Reserves. Importantly, not only the USA lacks oil, but also the USA's allies, namely Russia-China Coalition has much more Oil-proved Reserves compared to USA Coalition, which increases the pressure within the USA to find a 'solution' to the limited resources of USA Oil, so the 'solution' that came up is to take over the Oil of Venezuela by replacing Maduro with a leader that will give the USA access to the Venezuelan Oil. 

The CIA is famous for ‘replacing’ rival leaders of the USA, and even for creating military coups to transform rival countries of the USA into the USA’s Allied Countries to preserve the USA Hegemony (see below), yet we need to distinguish between Internal Military Coup versus External Military Coup. In the case of Internal Military Coup, the CIA leads to the situation that local forces carry out the coup, which can be considered as a ‘Regular Coup’, while in the case of External Military Coup, the CIA failed to create a ‘Regular Coup’, so the coup was carried out via military intervention by the USA army, like what was done in Venezuela. The fabricated allegation of Drug Trafficking against Maduro by Trump has come up due to the four main failures of the CIA to replace Maduro via ‘traditional ways’ of the CIA in the last years. More specifically, the first failure refers to the trying to replace President Maduro via Venezuela's Interim President, Juan Guaido (see previous comment below). Over a few years, Western countries decided that Juan Guaido is the president of Venezuela instead of the President Nicolás Maduro. Everyone in the West insisted on calling Juan Guaido, the Interim President of Venezuela, while the West referred to Nicolás Maduro as not the President of Venezuela, but eventually this way failed because Maduro has tremendous support in Venezuela. The second and third failures refer to the trying to replace Maduro via Political Assassination, namely the failed attempt via the 2018 Caracas drone attack and the failed attempt during the 2024 Venezuelan Presidential Election. The fourth failure refers to the failure of the CIA to create a ‘regular coup’ (Internal Military Coup). It can be argued that the failure of the CIA to create a ‘Regular Coup’ (Internal Military Coup) against President Maduro during his second term has led the USA to ‘invent’ the story of Drug Trafficking as a pretext for the External Military Coup by the CIA alongside the USA army that includes the kidnapping of Maduro and his wife. More specifically, the CIA decided eventually to kidnap Maduro because the CIA did not succeed in finding collaborators in Venezuela that would carry out a ‘Regular Coup’ against Maduro due to the tremendous support that Maduro has in Venezuela, both among the Venezuelan army and among the Venezuelan people. It seems that the CIA succeeded only in finding a few local Venezuelan people that would give information to carry out the kidnapping of Maduro, yet the CIA’s decision to blackout Caracas during the kidnapping of Maduro and his wife from their bed at night signals that the CIA feared significant local resistance to Maduro's kidnapping, and indeed, the scope of casualties and damages in Venezuela signals that the USA used significant military force to kidnap Maduro because the USA lacks local support to carry out the External Military Coup and the kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife. 

No one has the right to decide who is the legitimate leader of Venezuela but only the citizens of Venezuela, who recently decided via democratic election that Maduro is the President of Venezuela, so the world should respect it. Clearly, Trump fabricated that President of Venezuela Maduro committed a crime of Drug Trafficking, only to get the USA’s hands on the Oil of Venezuela. Importantly, according to the UN charter and International Law, no country has the right to kidnap leaders of other countries via ‘External Military Coup’ as done in Venezuela. If the USA believes that someone in Venezuela committed a crime that is related to the USA, then the USA should ask for an Extradition Request, and not kidnap anyone or kill anyone, as Trump did when he ordered the killing of drug traffickers in their boats via military attacks as a pretext for the kidnapping of President Maduro. Moreover, any country has criminals, yet some of them are in jail, while some of them are still free, so it’s ridiculous to blame the leader of the country for their crimes. Trump should not be in jail because of the crimes that were committed by American criminals, which is the same for President of Venezuela Maduro or for any other leader. Hence, the USA should release the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife without any delay because it will backfire on the USA in a big way without achieving the illusion of making Venezuela a colony of the USA. Therefore, my prediction is that Venezuela and its allies will resist the idea of ​​turning Venezuela into a USA colony, while there will be fierce resistance in the event of a USA invasion of Venezuela, including resistance to any USA attempt to steal the Venezuelan oil.

However, if we look at the big picture, then the USA should find the way to ‘control’ the erratic behaviour of Trump, which reminds us of dark leaders from the past, whom we would like to forget, who were also involved in the ‘invasion project’, such as Trump, who has already attacked other countries or declared his intention to turn other countries into USA colonies (informal or formal) by attacking, annexing or occupying their countries, such as Canada, Greenland, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia and Mexico. However, if the USA can not stop the ‘Invasion Project’ of Trump, then the USA should immediately remove Trump from his office via Impeachment or even via Mental Incompetence for the sake of global security. Otherwise, Trump will intensify the Fall of the Empire of the USA, namely Empires Rise and Fall, and it is clear that the USA has already started the Fall Stage (see below), yet the Fall Stage could be short or long, so the combination of erratic behaviour, ‘Invasion Project’ and the illegal ‘Reciprocal Tariff’ will escalate the Fall of the USA instead of making ‘Greater America’.

Relevant headlines:

Information about Drug Trafficking from the 2024 Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

World Drug Report 2024 of (UNODC): https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/world-drug-report-2024.html

Oil-Proved Reserves Worldwide in 2023

Rozen-Bakher, Z. 2025 Global Survival Rank (GSR) by Dr. Ziva Rozen-Bakher, 2025 Global Survival Rank (GSR) by Dr. Ziva Rozen-Bakher, 12 October 2025, https://www.rozen-bakher.com/gsr/2025

Note: The 2025 Global Survival Rank (GSR) uses the indicator of the Oil-Proved Reserves in tonnes in 2023, based on the calculation of the Gas-Proved Reserves that were in 2020 minus the Gas Production that was during the years 2021-2023, as explained in full details in Methodology Note II in Section D6. The database was retrieved from the Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy on 24 April 2025. See Section D. Methodology, 2025 Global Survival Rank (GSR) by Dr. Ziva Rozen-Bakher https://www.rozen-bakher.com/gsr/2025/d/methodology

The Role of the CIA in Preserving USA Hegemony via Military Coups

Rozen-Bakher, Z., Can External Players Topple a Leader in a Rival Country? Venezuela Interim President, Risks Timeline by Dr. Ziva Rozen-Bakher, 25 April 2023, https://www.rozen-bakher.com/timeline-risks/25/04/2023/1641

Source: DuckDuck

Trump’s ‘Invasion Project’

Rozen-Bakher, Z., Empires Rise and Fall: The Case of USA, Risks Timeline by Dr. Ziva Rozen-Bakher, 07 September 2022, https://www.rozen-bakher.com/timeline-risks2/07/09/2022/1442

Dr. Ziva Rozen-Bakher

Dr. Ziva Rozen-Bakher - A Researcher in International Relations with a Focus on Security, Political and Economic Risks for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and International Trade

https://www.rozen-bakher.com/
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