By Juan Luis Manfredi
On the back of every dollar bill, the phrase Novus Ordo Seclorum (“New order of the ages”) hints at the principle guiding the US’ new security strategy.
The attack on Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro herald the decoupling of Trump’s United States from the rules-based international order, and the end of liberal order as a whole. A new international order is now emerging, based on the use of force, revisionism and security on the American continent.
Here are five keys to understanding the outcomes of the military intervention, and the new order it ushers in.
1. Expanded presidential power
The attack cements the new doctrine of an imperious president, one who executes orders without waiting for congressional approval, legal validation or media opinion.
With checks and balances weakened, the second Trump administration is free to present the new order as a question of urgent security: with the US at war against drug trafficking (or migration) and threatened by “new powers” (a euphemism for China), it has no need to respect proper procedures or timelines.
Trump identifies himself with historic, founding American presidents like Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt. All three were charismatic leaders, and with the 250th anniversary of the US republic approaching such comparisons feed into Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric.
Erosion of the US political and legal system is undeniable. The president has approved an extensive package of regulations that promote emergency powers, a permanent state of crisis, and suppression of political opposition and the judicial system. The attack on Venezuela is yet another milestone in the reconfiguration of the presidency’s relations to the legislative and judicial branches of power, in line with the Hamiltonian tradition of a strong and unifying executive branch.
2. (Latin) America for the (US) Americans
On the international stage, the attack on Venezuela advances a diplomatic agenda that is rooted in the defence of national interests. The concept of “America for the Americans” has made a strong comeback: Panama, Mexico and Canada have all been made to bow to Trump’s will, while the administration continues to push for control of Greenland.
In Latin America, Brazil and Colombia’s left-wing governments lead regional opposition to the US, while Chile’s newly elected José Antonio Kast and Argentina’s Javier Milei are Trump’s ideological allies. The continent as a whole is witnessing a broad shift towards nationalist, right-wing parties that oppose migration.
If Venezuela’s post-Maduro transition aligns with these values, any hope for national unity and a peaceful transition to full democracy will disappear.
3. Control of resources
Once again, it’s all about oil, but for different reasons than in Iraq. In a world where globalisation has shifted to geoeconomics, the United States wants to project its power in international energy markets and regulation. Venezuela’s infrastructure, ports and minerals are key to making this happen.
The US therefore doesn’t just want Venezuelan oil to supply its domestic market – it also wants to impose international prices and dominate supply. Its new vision aims to align energy sovereignty and technological development with trade and security.
Pax Silica – the international US-led alliance signed at the end of 2025 to secure supply chains for critical technologies such as semiconductors and AI – ushers in an era of transactional diplomacy: computer chips in exchange for minerals. For the “new” Venezuela, its oil reserves will allow it to participate in this new power dynamic.
4. Geopolitical realignment
The American view of territory fuels a revisionist foreign policy based on sovereignty – similar to those of China, Israel, or Russia – which is rooted in the concept of “nomos”, as defined by mid-20th century German philosopher Carl Schmitt. This is a worldview where the division of nations into “friend or foe” prevails over a liberal worldview governed by cooperation, international law, democracy and the free market.
Under this logic, spheres of influence emerge, resources are distributed, and power blocs are balanced, as the above examples demonstrate: without opposition, China would dominate Southeast Asia, Russia would scale back its war in exchange for 20% of Ukraine and control over its material resources and energy, and Israel would redraw the map of the Middle East and strike trade agreements with neighbouring countries.
5. Europe, democracy and Hobbes
Ideals like democracy, the rule of law and free trade are fading fast, and without effective capacity, things don’t end well for the European Union. As we have seen with Gaza, the EU often has strong ideological disagreement with other major powers but doesn’t command enough respect to do anything. The US’ military intervention revives Hobbesian political realism, where freedom is ceded to an absolute sovereign in exchange for peace and security.
In Trump’s new order, it is presidential authority – not truth, laws or democratic values – that has the final say.
US domestic politics
2026 is an election year in the US, with 39 gubernatorial elections and a raft of state and local elections to be contested between March and November.
Through its actions in Venezuela, the Trump administration is effectively debating its model for succession. One faction, led by JD Vance, wants to avoid problems abroad and to renew the industrial economic model. The other, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is committed to rebuilding the international order with a strong and dominant US. The outcome of the Venezuelan operation may tip the balance, and could determine Trump’s successor in the 2028 presidential elections.
The attack on Venezuela is not just an intervention in the region: it also reflects the changing times in which we live. While international Trumpism was previously confined to disjointed slogans, it has now taken its first step into military strategy. Gone are the days of soft power, transatlantic relations and peace in Ibero-America. A new order is being born.
Juan Luis Manfredi is Prince of Asturias Distinguished Professor, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha.
Atwp says
A new world order from a crazy man is never good. Hitler is a good example.
Just sayiing says
A want to be dictator captures another dictator over oil.
Edith Campins says
Poor Venezuelans. They have just traded one dictator for another. Let’s be clear, it is their oil. The American oil companies that built the infrastructure did so because they knew full well their profits would cover the costs. And they did indeed, they made millions while they were in controL
As for the lies about the drugs…no proof whatsover that there were drugs on the boats they sank. Fentanyl comes from
China, it is not manufactured in Venezuela, don’t see trump threatening China, do you? Our own intelligence services, until trump shut them up, have said that the drugs coming out of Venezuela were mostly going to Europe. Lastly, while so concerned about drugs he pardoned exp president Hernandez, who was indicted, tried and convicted in American courts…fo bringing tons of drugs into the US.
Dave says
Kinda sorta about China. China Concord Resources Corp (CCRC) investing over $1 billion in a 20-year deal for two oilfields, aiming for significant production increases, challenging U.S. sanctions and solidifying China’s role as Venezuela’s primary oil buyer. This follows earlier state-backed Chinese investment, with a focus now shifting due to U.S. sanctions, though China remains a key partner.
Laurel says
“In Trump’s new order, it is presidential authority – not truth, laws or democratic values – that has the final say.”
Y’all want a daddy. One who may give you an allowance now and then. A daddy who will take off his belt to rule, but you think he will not rule you with the belt. Wrong. Personally, I want to be a free adult.
Republican values of free trade, government not in your bedroom and rule of law, gone. So, is it just “owning the libs”?
joe says
So….the “imminent threat” to us from the small boats was a lie. This “threat” was so imminent that in reality, months were spent in planning the illegal invasion of Venezuela.
Get ready, America – Trump’s new National Security memorandum defines “anti-christian”, “anti-capitalism” (and other) views as “domestic terrorism” – his unrestrained dictatorial impulses will be set loose upon us – it’s only a matter of time.
Laurel says
The current incompetent administration disgusts me.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/hegseth-censures-sen-kelly-warning-150257307.html
Tony Mack says
More on Venezuela — which will probably never be seen in our media…
Venezuela is one of the founding members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), established in 1960. The country has historically played a significant role in the organization, which aims to coordinate and unify petroleum policies among member countries to secure fair and stable prices for petroleum producers.
U.S. imports of crude oil from Venezuela averaged 222,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the first 11 months of 2024, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data, making it the fourth largest crude supplier to the United States. While Venezuela’s oil accounted for only 3.5% of total U.S. crude imports in November, it was about 13% of crude oil imported by U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, according to the EIA.
About 90% of all crude from Venezuela last year headed to the U.S. Gulf Coast, and the remaining 10% went to the East Coast, the data showed.
Refiner Valero Energy was the top buyer of Venezuelan crude in the United States in the period, accounting for 44% of the total, followed by oil major Chevron with 22%. PBF Energy bought about 14% of the crude.
Company Volume (barrels per day)
Valero Marketing & Supply 95,189
Chevron USA 47,228
Paulsboro Refining 30,509
Phillips 66 23,596
Repsol Trading USA 10,323
Current Oil Clients of Venezuela
Venezuela, despite its vast oil reserves, has faced significant challenges in maintaining its oil production and exports. The country’s oil clients primarily include:
Major Importers
Country Estimated Daily Imports (Barrels)
China 300,000 – 400,000
India 200,000 – 300,000
Cuba 50,000 – 100,000
Russia 50,000 – 100,000
Export Overview
Venezuela exports approximately 700,000 to 900,000 barrels per day.
China is the largest buyer, significantly relying on Venezuelan crude to meet its energy needs.
Dusty says
Due diligence is needed for you liberal whiners. Maduro was a dictator. He lost the last election. Do a little more if your precious research for a change instead of the anti anything Trump does train!
Jaguar fan says
We’ll be extremely busy if the US wants to overthrow every dictator. And hasn’t Trump been quoted in the past as saying the US should not involve itself in other countries affairs?
Skibum says
Excuse me, Dusty, but speaking of due diligence…
Maduro, as you stated, was a dictator and all legitimate accounts of Venezuela’s last election did in fact show that he lost to Machado, who reportedly received 70% of the votes cast before Maduro confiscated the ballots, apparently had his own corrupt people count them again and wo and behold, he “won”!
So my question to you is this: You want to praise what our convicted felon prez did, but didn’t he conveniently ignore in the plan to remove Maduro the 2nd important step which would have, should have been to publicly show support for Machado and ensure she was rightly installed as Venezuela’s new, legitimate president?
Why do you think that didn’t happen, and instead drumph is supporting the same old Maduro regime with his VP as the acting president?
I think I know why. Do you? Does it not flash big red flags in your head that Machado is the same Venezuelan opposition leader that was recently awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize that drumph sought for himself so fiercely? I imagine he is so incensed that the Nobel committee dissed him and instead awarded this woman “his” peace prize that he absolutely cannot and will not accept her becoming Venezuela’s president out of pure spite and his usual man-child, diaper twisting anger.
Care to disagree?
Sherry says
Thank you Skibum for your excellent comment! Thank you for “pointing out” the fact that “if” trump were acting “honestly” (LOL! LOL! LOL!) he would be backing the person who actually “WON” the last Venezuelan election.
It’s obvious to everyone that, just as you said, trump’s thin skinned feelings are hurt over Machado’s winning “his” Peace Prize. Plus trump wants to “install” a Venezuelan President who is his sycophant and puppet. Someone who will kowtow to him at every moment. How else will he line his pockets with those oil billions?
Just like a mafia boss. . . trump “just wants a taste”! The Maga GOP is ready and willing to give it to him! All in the name of cutting off China at the pass. . . a situation that was created, in part, by trump’s tariffs, to begin with. . .
Soooooo. . . who’s next Columbia or Greenland?
Skibum says
… or Cuba???
Sherry says
Right On Skibum!
I’m guessing it just may be up to what “Project 2025” has instructed trump to do. Laurel is certainly correct when she says trump is not smart enough to have come up with this plan on his own.
PaulT says
Maduro was a cruel tyrant and no one questions that, though Trump’s claim that Venezuela will be ‘run’ by the White House is illegal, Venezuela is still a sovereign country even if it’s president was removed by the US military. And why does Trump prefer to work with the existing Venezuelan administration who supported the dictatorship? Is it perhaps because he knows he can adapt their corruption to suit his own aims / But why not do things right and promote the opposition, it is accepted that they wom the 2024 election but Maduro fixed the results..
Ed P says
Paul T,
Maybe a better analyst of “we are going to be running Venezuela”is a broader understanding that the U.S. military currently has a naval blockade. Nothing substantial moves without allowing. Almost a quarantine situation. A literal “running” is not reality.
Maybe the large oil companies will be able to negotiate their way back into the country and get their billions of seized assets back and reinvigorate Venezuela’s declining oil output that once was 3 million bpd and has recently been struggling to reach 970 thousand bpd.
The acting President Delcy Rodriguez has already softened her position. Remember years ago Venezuela was the rated in the top 20 global economies. Their oil reserves could return them to that position.
It’s relatively early to speculate but prior to the Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro regimes, Venezuela was home to 8 million more citizens and many are ready to return and ignite the economy.
Tired of it says
Keep dreaming if you think the Venezuelans living in the US are going to go back to “help” rebuild. The oil companies were raping the Venezuelan resources for their own profits. Before you comment on the “billions seized” perhaps you can refer to the facts. The foreign oil companies made billions in profits, far outweighing the values of the seized assets. The Venezuelans got virtually nothing in return. Yes, Maduro was a dictator so why put his second in command in charge now?
Ed P says
Tired,
Check the numbers. The US owned oil company infrastructure that was nationalized was estimated to be $20-$30 billion.
These same oil companies did not rape the Venezuelans. They actually propelled their economy into the top 20 global economies prior to Chavez. So you are absolutely wrong with your opinion.
Without the foreign oil investments/assets (not only US) that the Venezuelan economy was primarily agrarian and poor, relying on coffee and cocoa. The oil transition started around 1920. The country’s GDP has fallen nearly 80 in the last decade.
So no, don’t blame the oil companies for anything but propelling the country into the 20th century.
FYI. Chevron still operates through a joint venture with the government national oil company today in Venezuela. They help support the economy.
Ps Of course many displaced Venezuelan nationals will return home once the dust settles and things stabilize. There will be programs to assist them in recovering lost assets and entice them back replacimg the brain drain that occurs when 25% of the population flees.
Sherry says
* Masked thugs assaulting citizens
* Protesters pepper sprayed
* Heavily armed military taking over sections of cities
* President’s crime family raking in “Billions”
* Crimes of fraud and sexual assault swept under the rug
* Attempted election stealing and insurrection
* Suppression of the free press
* Prosecution of political enemies
* Pardoning violent criminals and drug dealers
* Using technology to “spy” on citizens
* Murdering citizens of other countries without evidence of criminal activity or due process
* Bullying and threatening leaders of other countries
Absolutely ! That corrupt criminal should be captured, arrested and sent to prison!
BTW . . . Maduro has done some bad things also!
PaulT says
Sherry, you post represents reality so surely can’t be criticized, but the adulation and condemnation of dictators can be a little inconsistent.
It seems that the views of Republican administrations and their loyal followers, including some of our neighbors is :
Right wing billionaire dictators are ‘Good Guys’ and ‘our allies’ no matter how corrupt they are.
Liberal or worse still mildly socialist foreign leaders are ‘Commies’ and ‘Criminals’.
And since that’s what Fox Noise tells them it must be true.
Sherry says
Thank you PaulT. . . your assessment is excellent!
Dennis C Rathsam says
If BIDEN or OBAMA freed the Venezulan people….. Ya,LL be dancing a jig! Bullshit the baker you get a bun, bullshit me you get none!
Kennan says
I had no problem having issue with any president on either side of the aisle. The difference here is Obama, or Biden would have only liberated Venezuela legally. Through a vote in Congress, and certainly wouldn’t be stupid enough to just rape that country of its oil. Trump thinks it belongs to him. That’s what dictators do.
FedUp says
Tisk, tisk, tisk. Find something more productive to publish in your online news source. Maybe something pertaining to LOCAL NEWS.
Edith Campins says
Before you buy the nonsense about how much the oil companies spent in infrastructure in Venezuela……”Oil companies extracted significant profits from Venezuela prior to government takeovers. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips were heavily invested in Venezuela’s oil sector, benefiting from high global oil prices and favorable contracts. Estimates suggest that these companies made billions in profits, with some reports indicating that ExxonMobil alone earned around $1 billion annually from its Venezuelan operations before the nationalization efforts began under Hugo Chávez in 2001.
Sherry says
Awwww. . . Maga says how dare you publish news about how “Lord and Master” trump is destroying our constitutional democratic republic. Maga wants you to be a good boy, stay in your lane, and stick to “Local News” Pierre.
Mothersworry says
C’mon folks, wake up!! This isn’t about oil, it is about EPSTEIN !! Trump has been running around like a scared rabbit trying to draw attention away from EPSTEIN. He has babbled about Canada as a new state, taking over Greenland, Mexico, Columbia and well, who knows what country today. The news cycle hasn’t mentioned EPSTEIN in a week. That is what he is truly after, shutting down all talk that may cast him as the low life that he is.
Laurel says
Motherworry: Okay, I will rewrite my previous response.
It’s about oil, money, power, greed…and the Epstein files.
Absolutely. The U.S. is already in the process of forgetting.
What did he do now (as he consumes us all)?
Kennan says
The law and order party is breaking the law every day, both in and out of our country.
Follow me if you can:
OIL..OIL…OIL. That’s what Trump and his billionaire class want.
First, it’s about fentanyl, which doesn’t come from Venezuela at all. It’s boats both in the Caribbean and the Pacific being blown out of the water with absolutely no evidence whatsoever that there were drugs on board. Never even tried to present evidence.
Maduro? Not a good guy, But you don’t get to call a leader, a narco terrorist without evidence while hardening a known narco terrorist in Nicaragua.
Trump pardons 1,675 US terrorists that stormed the capital that would’ve hung vice president Mike Pence. Why? he had the audacity to accept the transfer of power and not push the unfounded fiction that Biden stole the election. How dare he!!!
Back to oil. This was planned. Invade, sovereign nation, bomb their infrastructure and various basis to steal and control there OIL, GOLD, and whatever else they can get that isn’t theirs . The US has done this type of thing in.
“ Proxy fashion” For decades, but the shamelessly overt nature of this lawless administration will greenlight countries like Russia, North Korea, and China to do the same.
Shining city on the hill? Not even close.
Don’t fool yourself. This is not about protecting the country or it’s interests….. Our interests. This is about profit through piracy. Profit for Trump. These actions will not make America Economically strong. America will never see economic strength, and our people will continue to suffer, as well as have a target on our backs that our president put there.
On top of all this…. We have no funding for childhood cancer. The department of education is getting gutted. Tens of thousands of government workers laid off. Snap gone. Food stamps gone, Because being poor is a crime!
I would be curious to see how many January 6 domestic terrorist that were pardoned were hired by ICE. handsome bonus package and salary. Oh, you get to hide behind a mask so that the 96% of brown people that have never been convicted of a crime, as well as 1/3 American citizens can be treated like animals with no DUE PROCESS.
Oh, that’s not forget responsible “Brown People” Being bated and kidnapped at immigration offices for simply playing by the rules!!
Oh God!!!! I forgot about all the redacted, Epstein files, lawsuits, and Let’s not forget Greenland!! Greenland!
Here is my love letter to you, the American Trumper:
I guess you thrive on chaos. You must be tired though. The Tired Old Nazi You elected KING Is coming after you too.
The red, white, and blue T-shirts, shorts, and meaningless flags?
The audacious, constitution shirts, flags, and stickers?
You have no conceptual understanding of what the constitution means. Freedom of speech is my speech and no one else’s in terms of HUMAN RIGHTS.
Bumper sticker patriotism and STOLEN VALOR is what you represent.
Intellectual shallowness and a complete bankruptcy of MORALS.
Sherry says
Thank You Kennan! Your factually correct, excellent comment has connected many of the dots on the horrific actions of a dangerously mentally unhealthy person that indoctrinated Maga cult members put in the white house! We are all suffering the consequences because the Maga Republicans in Congress are completely “complicit” and the Democrats are too weak and “bumfuzzled”! The “FIX” is in with the Supreme Court who is hell bent on giving trump the power to be “DICTATOR”!
We were warned by many. . . including his niece Mary Trump!
Kennan says
Thank you, Sherry.
I was on a bit of a “Rage and Roll”. Lotta grammatical gaffs.😬
Sherry says
Loving your intellect, your passion, your critical thinking and your common sense Kennan! Too bad so many of the maga radicalized cult members refuse to read and be influenced by your excellent postings. What will it take to engage their thinking ability and bring them back to any kind of “fact based” reality?