2026 really starts with a bang - at 2:00 a.m. local time on January 3, explosions are heard in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, thick clouds of smoke rise, and planes fly in the sky.
Air strikes hit military bases and communication facilities, after which American special forces storm the presidential palace, capture Venezuelan head of state Nicolas Maduro and his wife, and take them to American territory, where they will be tried for narcoterrorism.
All this happens within a few hours and looks like a real "special military operation" (write it down, Vladimir Vladimirovich).
In theory, the US actions are a violation of international law. In practice, international law applies only to those who cannot afford to violate it (and this has been known for a long time).
Yes, the Americans invaded a sovereign state and arrested its president (whether Maduro was legally elected is a separate issue). So what? Can anyone sanction them for this "freedom"?
The world's reactions are, in general, predictable, and very often depend on the positioning of the respective country on the geopolitical terrain.
The half-hearted reaction of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaia Kallas is interesting - something that is, however, natural, since Trump has put the European Union in a truly lopsided position on the issue.
On the one hand, Brussels is obliged to refer to "international law", because otherwise it would also legitimize Russian aggression against Ukraine (for the US it can, but for Russia - no, it is a pure example of double standards). On the other hand, the European Union has no reason to feel sorry for the Maduro regime - both because of the lack of democracy in Venezuela, but also because the regime is quite close to countries such as Russia, China and Iran.
The action in Venezuela is reminiscent of another American military intervention 36 years ago - in Panama, where the local leader Manuel Noriega was arrested on similar charges.
Only then the operation lasted more than a month and included real combat actions between the two countries.
While now everything is over in hours. Did the Venezuelan army not give "royal road to 10"? Maybe the military there is tired of Maduro's nonsense... And let's not forget that in this part of the world, officers are traditionally right-wing and don't stand on ceremony with left-wing rulers - especially when they know they have Washington's support behind them (the military, not the rulers).
There are already voices saying that the American intervention in Venezuela is motivated not so much by narco-terrorism (although that is also a problem for the United States) as by seizing Venezuelan oil.
However, the task asks why, since the oil was theirs, Venezuelans have lived like cattle until now? And isn't the January 3 attack a kind of humanitarian mission?
The truth is that for a quarter of a century, first Hugo Chavez and then Nicolas Maduro have turned Venezuela into a cesspool.
According to an article by Juan Pablo Spinetto for Bloomberg a little over a month ago, "there is simply no contemporary parallel to Venezuela's collapse". For years, its economy was comparable to that of Colombia, and today it is less than a fifth of Colombia's, having shrunk by 78% in dollar terms, according to IMF estimates.
"The extreme mismanagement of the economy under Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez's socialist experiment - which led to hyperinflation and forced some eight million Venezuelans to emigrate - has destroyed the country's business and manufacturing base," the article also states.
Logically, economic collapse breeds discontent, and the regime hardens to survive. The 2024 presidential elections were so brutally rigged that most of the world (including a number of South American countries) did not recognize them at all, protests against the rigging were crushed at the cost of dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries and arrests, and the opposition candidate (and likely election winner) Edmundo González was granted political asylum in Spain.
And here we come to the next point: who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2025? María Corina Machado, leader of the Venezuelan opposition.
Which speaks volumes about the international "prestige" of the Venezuelan regime.
Of course, Donald Trump's actions regarding Venezuela are dictated primarily by American interests, rather than by concern for the well-being of the Venezuelan people. But nothing prevents Venezuelans from benefiting from the situation. It is no coincidence that the first news coming out of Venezuela after the action is of people rejoicing in the streets of Caracas.
Trump has already announced that the United States is taking over the government of Venezuela until a "safe, orderly, and reasonable transition" is achieved. A striking display of force that the world, whether it likes it or not, must reckon with.
But while a patch of blue sky is being laid bare over Venezuela, the clouds are thickening over the world. "International law" is being thrown into the trash can at the expense of the right of might. And in this world, it is high time Europe realized that its only chance is to be strong. Otherwise, it will ultimately become an object of geopolitics, and not the leading power it has been for centuries.
And Bulgaria? Cases like the one with Venezuela should be viewed primarily through the prism of Bulgarian national interest.
In this case: will oil prices rise? If not, that is good for Bulgaria. The rest is fan bias...