Imagine that you are quietly sitting at home with your spouse reading The Signal when suddenly your security cameras show teams of armed and masked gunmen surrounding your residence. Flash-bang grenades go off and moments later, and in all the smoke and confusion, you and your spouse are handcuffed and blindfolded. In a flurry you both are air-transported to a South Dakota jail.
Finally, before a South Dakota judge two days later, you have learned that, although never having stepped into South Dakota, you were driving your car on Interstate 5 when you exceeded the South Dakota speed limit. The charges read to you indicate that you violated South Dakota law and thus you were extradited by force to be held pending trial.
Even worse, you happen to be the governor of California (congratulations) and our state is now without its leader.
South Dakota in this scenario decided to extend its “sovereignty” beyond its borders and applied its speed limit to you while in another state.
Sounds crazy?
In early January this year the White House reports that U.S. special covert operations landed in Venezuela, presumably shot their way into a military complex at Fuerte Tiuna, Caracas, and took President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores at gunpoint. The pair were flown back to the U.S. to face federal criminal indictments. Since then they have been held in custody without bond.
During Donald Trump’s first term as president, in March of 2020, a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York indicted Maduro on charges including narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.
The Associated Press reported that the 2020 indictment alleges that Maduro and his wife “supported violent drug-trafficking organizations, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang” and “ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders.”
Despite the egregious charges from the 2020 grand jury indictment, the Trump administration took no action to capture Maduro. There seemed to be no public relations benefit at that time to bring Maduro to trial.
Late last year, a superseding indictment, “additional charges,” was rendered and was officially unsealed in January 2026 after U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife.
According to court records, Maduro faces in federal court one count each related to conspiracy to engage in narco-terrorism and conspiracy for the importation of cocaine, and two counts for possession of machine guns and destructive devices.
Maybe in fact Maduro is guilty of conspiracy crimes, but that last two charge throws me a fit — he is being charged under U.S. law for possessing weapons and destructive devices kept in Venezuela?
After the abductions, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X that Maduro and Flores “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
It is no secret that Venezuela has one of the richest oil fields in the world.
We went to war with Iran but 56 days later from when the raid was carried out, when our war plans were being finalized. There is compelling logic that Trump ordered the Maduro capture to use the news and press to address the predictable rise in gasoline prices once we started bombing Iran.
Last week Trump announced “a deal” was struck with Venezuela to take majority control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil.
Trump wrote on social media, “One of the things I am going to do with the Venezuelan Oil is fill up the Strategic National Reserves, saying “the ‘topping out’ process will begin very shortly, and is a gift from Venezuela to the people of the United States.”
“Topping out” the Strategic Reserve will require 450 million barrels, not just 65 million.
Experts point that the Venezuelan oil infrastructure requires investment of billions and may take five to seven years from being fully operational. Plus, Venezuelan crude is thick and tough to refine, delaying delivery even if Venezuelan refining capacity did exist right now.
Trump’s claims that new access to Venezuelan oil will ease the prices of gasoline is false. Prices are still high since virtually none of this oil will hit U.S. markets for possibly years.
It would seem the capture of the head of state of another country was contrived not just to procure oil rights as an offering to big oil, but as a public relations ploy. Trump could say he had replaced the loss of oil supply affected by the war with Iran, even though no replenishment will occur for years.
Shame, shame, shame.
Jonathan Kraut directs a private investigations agency, is the CEO of a private security firm, is the CFO of an accredited acting conservatory, is a former college professor and dean, is a published author, and is a Democratic Party activist. His column reflects his own views and not necessarily those of The Signal or of other organizations.
