President Donald Trump proved that the “extraction method” works. On Jan. 3, 2026, Operation Absolute Resolve lifted Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro from Caracas and delivered him to American courts. This surgical strike severed the South American node of the China-Russia-Iran axis. Overnight, Cuba lost Venezuelan crude, watched 32 of its bodyguards die in the raid, and realized its imperial reach had withered. With Maduro gone, forcing a collapse of the totalitarian Cuban regime requires Washington to confront the remaining hub of this hostile network: Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega.
American statutory law perfectly covers the case. Ortega abolished democracy on July 20, 2026, declaring that Nicaragua would hold no more elections. The subservient National Assembly then permanently barred political dissidents from public office. This political tyranny mirrors a criminal enterprise servicing Foreign Terrorist Organizations under Executive Order 14157. A rogue, murderous ruler who abolishes democratic elections while facilitating designated terrorist cartels meets the exact legal criteria that justified Maduro’s extraction.
