Venezuela: From Monroe to Operation Absolute Resolve

This comprehensive historical analysis examines the hypothetical 2026 American military intervention in Venezuela, tracing two centuries of United States involvement in Latin America from the Monroe Doctrine through Operation Absolute Resolve. The book meticulously documents how economic sanctions, covert operations, and diplomatic pressure escalated into direct military action, as special operations forces captured President Nicolás Maduro and established American administrative control over Venezuelan petroleum resources. Through detailed examination of intelligence operations, military planning, cyber warfare, and the subsequent occupation, the work reveals how the Trump administration's explicit rejection of democracy promotion in favor of resource nationalism marked a fundamental rupture with post-Cold War liberal interventionism. The narrative explores international reactions ranging from Russian and Chinese condemnation to European ambivalence and Latin American fragmentation, while analyzing the legal implications of abducting a head of state and the collapse of distinctions between warfare and law enforcement. The book concludes by assessing whether Venezuela represents a new template for twenty-first century imperialism or an aberration, examining the limits of military power against insurgent resistance, and questioning whether the post-1945 international order based on sovereign equality has definitively collapsed into explicit hierarchy where powerful states claim special rights over weaker neighbors' strategic resources.