Welp, it didn’t take long for 2026 to 2026.

When you look at the long, sordid history between the United States and its southern neighbors, the abduction of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife isn’t unusual. From the moment the Spanish and Portuguese fled this hemisphere, the United States replaced them as the imperial power. We took our neighbors’ lands, plundered their resources, drove their people into poverty and dependency, and backed corrupt leaders. And when the people dared to rise up and install a government that would serve their own needs, we overthrew them or sent in our own troops to install a more compliant regime.

While you can point to all the horrible things Maduro did to his own people, they are no worse than what Pinochet, Somoza, Trujillo, and all our other handpicked and School of the Americas trained dictators have done. When it comes to Latin America, we measure “freedom” in terms of obedience.

But what happened overnight on January 2–3 was different. The country Trump wanted to seize control of isn’t Venezuela; it’s the United States.

He attacked Venezuela without consulting Congress, let alone get Congressional approval. And as news channels and social media fill up with reports from Venezuela, what little coverage there was of the Epstein Files and Jack Smith’s testimony about the President’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election got squeezed out. Any one of these things—in a country with a functioning legislature and judiciary—would cause him to get tossed out of office and thrown in prison. The problem is, we know he won’t.

He will get away with it again, just like he has with everything else in his depraved and dishonest life. You may hear of Congressional members calling for impeachment, conviction, and removal. Analysts can give all the predictions of a Democratic sweep in the midterms. What we’ll get is a bunch of “dank memes” and some strongly worded condemnations (along with a request to chip in $5 for the campaign fund).

Unfortunately for us as Americans, the only way things will change is if we suffer severe consequences for our government’s actions. And these actions will affect all of us. To the suffering Venezuelans, it doesn’t matter who we voted for in 2024, how many protests we went to, and how much we rage on social media. In their eyes—and the eyes of the world—all of us are the baddies.

Boycott our products. Make companies shut down their production, like Jim Beam had to do. Cancel your vacation plans. It’s getting increasingly difficult and dangerous to visit here, anyway. Withdraw from the World Baseball Classic and the World Cup. Pressure the IOC to restrict US athletes from the 2026 Winter Games and move the 2028 Summer Olympics. And don’t feel bad about what it’s doing to us concerned and compassionate Americans. The pain you’re causing helps us shake toothless and complacent politicians to take action against a lawless president and his enablers.

Because if this situation is allowed to continue, the consequences for us and the world will be so much worse.

If there’s a country that has a corrupt, criminal tyrant that needs to be removed, it is ours. While it is up to us to bring about the changes we need, global pressure will help. But we must also recognize the harm we’ve done at home and abroad. It’s not enough to claim we’re the champions of freedom when our track record proves otherwise. We must commit ourselves to substantial change. Until we do, we’ll always be seen as the baddies.

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