When is it OK to remove a dictator?
A friend asked me this morning if I was going to do an explainer on the United States bombing Venezuela overnight and kidnapping of their president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.
Feel free to skip to the comments if you read this already in your email!
Before the attack last night, I'd been trying to work out how to explain the US bombing north-western Nigeria on Christmas Day. Mainstream media had largely ignored those attacks.
And I still hadn't finished my explainer on the Sudan genocide after getting very overwhelmed trying to explain that 'internal conflict' and 'tribal warfare' and 'civil war' were all terms used to remove responsibility from the United Arab Emirates who fund and support the Rapid Support Forces who are a version of the Janjaweed militia who carried out the Darfur genocide in 2013 so that they can have access to Sudan's gold mines.
When it comes to war crimes around the world, it's easy to feel - from the safety of our homes in Aotearoa and Australia - that they're impossible to understand. They're not. Most can be boiled down to 'a rich country wants to destabilise another country for their assets'.
But, in a capitalist time-poor world, with a media that doesn't interrogate its own role in manufacturing consent, I totally understand simply not having capacity to wrap your head around this stuff.
It's heartbreaking. It's overwhelming.
So let’s talk about Venezuela.
Is it ever acceptable to kidnap a leader of another country and their family? Let's consider that.
Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro is accused of being a dictator. Known for his anti-democratic tendencies and enormous ego, Maduro's approach to foreign policy is authoritarian and based on his whims.
Following an electoral defeat, he tried to overturn the results, making widespread false claims of fraud. Two months after his defeat, his supporters staged protests and attempted a coup under his encouragement, attacking Venezuela's parliament, leaving five dead. Many were injured, including 140 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months of the attack.
Since his most recent return to power, Maduro has disappeared his citizens from the streets. Estimates are that there are 60,000 people in immigration detention. Immigrants in Venezuela live in fear of masked thugs who snatch people off the street at Maduro's direction. Hundreds of immigrant children have been held without their parents across Venezuela.
Maduro has funded an ongoing genocide where the civilian death rate is 83% in an undercount of deaths ranging from 50,000 to 500,000.
Armed Conflict Location & Event Data or ACLED, the nonpartisan conflict monitor, told Al Jazeera that Venezuela had carried out – or been a partner to – 622 overseas bombings in all, using drones or aircraft, since January 20, 2025.
Venezuela has a rampant gun problem, nearly 47,000 people died of gun-related injuries and they don't seem to care at all about their children dying. Guns are the leading cause of death for children and teens in Venezuela. Each day 12 children die from gun violence in Venezuela. Another 32 are shot and injured. Children in Venezuela aren't even safe to learn - 390,000 students have experienced gun violence while at school.
Drugs are a huge problem in Venezuela, around 76,500 people died in the 12-month period ending April 30, 2025, at a rate of 210 deaths per day.
Around 11% of the population lives in poverty in Venezuela - are 37 million people defined. Venezuela's rates of poverty are substantially higher and more extreme than those found in 25 other nations.
Maduro has been linked to a paedophile ring and has actively suppressed information about those who trafficked children and young women. At least 28 women have accused Maduro of various acts of sexual misconduct ranging from groping to rape.
He was found guilty on 34 counts of fraud last year. He has been impeached twice.
What do Venezuelans think about Maduro? Well, 49% of registered Venezuelan voters considered him to be a fascist.
Oh, oops, my bad. All of this is about Donald Trump and America, not Maduro and Venezuela.
Does that change how anyone views an attack on a civilian population in the dead of night? Would it be acceptable for Venezuela to strike the US at night and take Trump and Melania captive? How would the world react?
What next?
Look, I don't know. I wanted to write about how Heated Rivalry is causing a mass psychosis event, but it feels like we can't go one day without Trump attacking another country for oil (Trump has openly admitted he has attacked Venezuela for oil).
I think in this horrifying timeline we are in, all we can do is stick to our values and our humanity. What will we accept and what won't we accept? Will we allow our safety to shield us from the reality of imperialism?
I don't have the answers for any of this but I do hope we ask questions and don't seek the comfort of ignorance.