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The arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro is expected to have a lasting impact on his home country, but experts tell Digital it could also reshape how the U.S. and other neighbors get along going forward, especially with increased cooperation battling a plague of drug trafficking.
U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a raid on the presidential palace in Caracas over the weekend. The two pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism and other charges in a Manhattan courtroom Monday.
“I see a realignment and reemphasis on cartels,” said retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Robert Harward, a former SEAL and member of former President George W. Bush’s National Security Council.
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Nicolas Maduro is seen in handcuffs after landing at a Manhattan helipad, escorted by heavily armed federal agents as they make their way into an armored car en route to a federal courthouse in Manhattan on Jan. 5, 2026 in New York City. (XNY/Star Max/GC Images via Getty Images)
The Trump administration’s decisive takedown of a suspected narco-terrorist and illegitimate leader shows a marked change in U.S. foreign policy posture years after former President Barack Obama’s ineffectual “red lines” in Syria, he told Digital.
“We said a red line three times, if you do chemicals, we’re going to do this,” he said. “Every time they raced past those red lines and we followed through with no actions.”
Now, he said, President Donald Trump has shown he’s willing to act in order to enforce his priorities.
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Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are seen in handcuffs after landing at a Manhattan helipad, en route to a federal courthouse in Manhattan on Jan. 5, 2026 in New York City. (XNY/Star Max/GC Images)
“If you’re going to come here and mess in our backyards, we’re going to address that,” Harward said. “That’s probably one of the most critical components of this Venezuelan operation. He set the policy, he reinforced it with his words, and then they acted.”
The message isn’t just to governments in the region, it’s also to drug cartels and other traffickers, Harward said.
“Don’t forget this started out taking out the drug boats, going after the supply side of drugs, not just for the damage it had to our people in our country, but also for the control they’ve had in these countries,” Harward told Digital.
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Video shows a kinetic strike on a narco-terror vessel in international waters from Wednesday, Dec. 31. (U.S. Southern Command via X)
He predicted that other countries may increase their cooperation with U.S. efforts to capture drug smugglers before they arrive on American soil.
“We’ve been in interdicting drugs coming not just out of Venezuela, but the rest of South America at sea for years, maybe there’s gonna be closer interdiction monitoring inside those countries, cooperation where we’re watching the ports,” Harward said.
Trump’s crackdown on narcotics trafficking has also coincided with a renewed focus on border security, something that was notably lax during most of former President Joe Biden’s single term.
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Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro gestures next to his wife Cilia Flores as they leave the Capitolio, home of the National Assembly, after taking the oath during the presidential inauguration in Caracas on Jan. 10, 2025. (Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images)
Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that drug overdose deaths spiked under the Biden administration before dropping toward levels seen during Trump’s first term.
“The fall begins at the end of the Biden administration, but the question is, was it in anticipation of a tough on crime president coming in?” said Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct criminal justice professor at Penn State Lehigh Valley. “Securing the borders has a lot to do with the drop as well, less chance for drug dealers and their mules to bring drugs into the country.”
Military strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean may also serve as a deterrent, he added.
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Homeless people amid struggles with fentanyl problems in San Francisco, California, United States on May 16, 2024. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Deterrence matters in criminal justice policy,” Giacalone said.
Trump invoked the Monroe Doctrine, a 19th-century policy of American influence over the Western Hemisphere, as part of his administration’s renewed focus on regional neighbors, even calling it the “Don-roe” doctrine in recent remarks.
Outside the drug trade, the Venezuela operation has greater global ramifications, Harward added, especially for countries allied with U.S. rivals Russia, China and Iran or countries trying to play both sides.
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Amid reports of unrest and instability in Iran and Trump’s vocal backing of anti-government protesters, the theocracy could fall at some point this year, Harward said.
“We [would] really have altered the world order, not just for those regions, but for those proxies for Russia and China — the few allies they had in the world are being decimated,” he said. “And at the same time, it sends a clear message to those countries that are on the fence, trying to keep a foot in both camps.”
