Venezuela

The good news about the U.S. abduction of Nicolás Maduro is that Venezuela is finally rid of a corrupt, violent and buffoonish leader.

The bad news is that the country may soon be under the power of another corrupt, violent and buffoonish leader — Donald Trump — who is itching to use his military might on other countries in the Western Hemisphere.

That means nervous calculations are taking place in the capitals of the countries he has threatened: Havana, Bogota, Mexico City, Ottawa and Copenhagen.

Ginned up outrage. The Star uses a pic of an astro-turfed demo and didn’t Maher once compare Antifa extremists with the men who landed on D-Day.

In the calculus of modern-day populism, there is no greater currency than the decisive act. In an unprecedented moment this past week, the world watched as U.S. President Donald Trump cashed in, deploying American special forces to snatch illegitimate self-proclaimed leader of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro from Caracas and deliver him to a New York jail cell.

In the immediate aftermath, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre did not hesitate to add his own signature to the transaction. By congratulating Trump on this “arrest” and branding Maduro a “narco terrorist” who must rot in prison, Poilievre has done more than just celebrate the fall of a tyrant; he has signalled a willingness to dismantle the very international order that keeps a country like Canada safe.

Maduro is bad but Poilievre is worse cuz he’s a populist like Trump and they do bad things like topple Narco State dictators.

The U.S. raid-and-capture operation in Venezuela that ended the rule of Nicolás Maduro and upended power politics in the Western Hemisphere was unusually complicated. The motivations behind it were perhaps even more complex – and so are the lessons that the Delta Force blitz provide for Americans and for governments across the globe.

Here are some of the important political currents running beneath the surface of the astonishing episode, which has provided a template for evaluating the early 21st-century Trump Corollary to the early 19th-century Monroe Doctrine – two policies that have no legal basis but still establish distinct American spheres of influence and behaviour and enforce them …

It seems clear that there was great excitement in the Poilievre household on Saturday morning, as news of the surgical strike by U.S. special forces in Venezuela filtered through.

Pierre Poilievre’s wife, Anaida, is Venezuelan, and like many of her fellow citizens, she likely rejoiced in the arrest and deportation of the illegitimate president Nicolás Maduro.

By 9:36 a.m. the Conservative leader had posted on social media his congratulations to American President Donald Trump for arresting the “narco-terrorist and socialist dictator.”

Summary: Trump bad, Poilievre bad.

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is warning the federal government that the possible end of American sanctions on Venezuelan oil could displace Canadian exports to the U.S. — and is urging the Liberals to “immediately approve a pipeline to the Pacific Coast.”

In a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney posted on social media Tuesday, Poilievre said the action taken by the United States over the weekend has “altered the global energy landscape.”

U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a military raid on the Venezuelan capital, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and bringing him to New York to face charges. Trump also has openly said that he plans to take control of the country’s oil industry and encourage American companies to revitalize the sector.

Change in oil-rich Venezuela means Canada must race to approve a pipeline to the Pacific Coast and move millions of barrels of Canadian oil per day overseas to break our dependence on one customer.

Read my plan in a letter to the Prime Minister. pic.twitter.com/MF4MNmJ2H4

— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) January 6, 2026

The reaction to the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro roughly falls into two camps: those who celebrate the downfall of a corrupt narco-terrorist and those who condemn it as a suspected breach of international law.

Prime Minister Mark Carney chose a third option, a wishy-washy, bland statement that neither praised the detention on moral grounds nor criticized it on the basis it might be illegal.