By: Clayton Wood, Contributing Writer
In the last twenty four hours, the United States removed Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela. That is a good thing.
It will be fashionable in certain circles to declare this illegal, immoral, or indistinguishable from Putin trying to eliminate Zelensky. These are the same voices that insisted stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon would spark World War Three. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now.
To understand why this matters, you have to understand who Maduro is and what Venezuela has become under his rule.
Maduro is the handpicked successor of Hugo Chavez, the man who ended the rule of law in Venezuela while promising utopia through socialism. Chavez dismantled independent institutions, politicized the courts, crushed private industry, and nationalized the oil sector while purging competent professionals and replacing them with loyalists.
When Chavez died, Nicolas Maduro inherited a country already on the brink and finished the job. He imprisoned political opponents, rigged elections, censored the press, and ruled by force rather than consent. Even then, he still managed to lose elections he refused to honor.
The results speak for themselves.
Twenty five years ago, Venezuela had one of the strongest economies in Latin America. Today its GDP has collapsed by more than eighty percent. Hyperinflation destroyed savings so completely that money became nearly meaningless. Imagine your dollar being worth less than a penny and still not grasping how bad it was.
Eight million people have fled the country out of a population of roughly twenty eight million. That is not migration. That is national evacuation.
This collapse is especially grotesque because Venezuela is not poor. It is one of the most resource rich nations on Earth.
Venezuela sits atop the largest proven oil reserves in the world.
As of 2025, the top countries by oil reserves are as follows.
Venezuela with approximately 303 billion barrels
Saudi Arabia with 267 billion barrels
Iran with 209 billion barrels
Canada with 168 billion barrels
Iraq with 145 billion barrels
United Arab Emirates with 113 billion barrels
Kuwait with 101.5 billion barrels
Russia with 80 billion barrels
United States with 68.8 billion barrels
This is where the lazy accusation always appears. The claim that the United States intervenes to steal oil.
It is nonsense.
The United States did not steal oil in the Middle East. After trillions spent, we still allowed countries like Saudi Arabia, which would not exist without American protection, to dictate terms to our troops including restrictions on open worship. The United States is not comically bad at imperial dominance. We are a nation that does not engage in it.
What the United States does do, imperfectly and inconsistently, is act when a regime becomes lawless, destabilizing, and predatory to its own people while exporting chaos abroad. It was United States property and investment that was illegally stolen by both Chavez and Maduro. It was the United States that ended up with the worst Venezuelan criminals who were released by the Maduro regime and sent north.
Maduro was not simply an authoritarian. He was a criminal ruler whose regime became entangled with narcotics trafficking, corruption, and foreign adversaries including Cuba, Iran, Russia, and China. He believed he was untouchable. He believed warnings were empty.
They were not.
This action matters because it restores something Venezuela has not had in decades. Consequences for rulers who abandon the rule of law.
For the Venezuelan people, this is not about American power. It is about the end of a man who kept himself rich while his country starved.
It is also not about the United States choosing Venezuela’s next leader.
That choice has already been made.
Maria Corina Machado won the election. She survived assassination attempts, imprisonment threats, and exile. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her commitment to democratic reform and nonviolent resistance. She is alive. She is legitimate. She will lead the rebuilding of her country.
This is not regime change imposed by Washington. It is the removal of an obstacle so a nation can govern itself again.
Will the transition be messy. Of course it will. Every post authoritarian transition is. But the alternative was perpetual collapse, permanent exile, and generational poverty in one of the most resource rich nations on Earth.
Today is not a day for chest thumping. It is a day for cautious optimism.
For people living under dictators who abolish elections and erase the rule of law, today sends a message that matters.
Warnings were given. The warnings were ignored. The consequences arrived.
That is how law works. And for Venezuela, that reality brings hope for the first time in a generation.
Pray for Machado. Pray for Venezuela. Celebrate the first victory in a long series that is needed to see a once great country return!
Clayton Wood is a Knoxville lawyer and pastor and contributing writer for TriStarDaily.com.
