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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Julian Borger Senior international correspondent

The ‘Putinization’ of US foreign policy has arrived in Venezuela

Donald Trump
Trump has been driving convoys of bulldozers through international law since taking office nearly a year ago, and now it is mostly wreckage. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Hardly anyone expected 2026 to be a year of peace, and it was barely two days old when the worst fears were confirmed.

The overnight strikes on Venezuela, the abduction of its leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, and Donald Trump’s declaration that the US would “run” the country and sell its oil, have driven another truck through international law and global norms. But that is not even the most concerning thing about it.

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