This is Pastor Tim’s article which appeared in the Evening Leader on Tuesday, Jan 13.
Like many of you, I have been following the arrest of Nicolas Maduro. I realize I should begin this article by telling you who Maduro is, but I am struggling to do that. He was acting as the president of Venezuela after being elected a third time in the summer of 2024. There were a lot of shenanigans in that election, including his main opposition, María Corina Machado, being disqualified from running for political office for 15 years. She was charged and convicted of a plot to assassinate Maduro even though no evidence of a plot was ever uncovered. Even with the conviction, her only sentence was being banned from holding elected office for 15 years. Does that sound like a normal sentence for this kind of conviction?
With Maduro’s main rival no longer eligible to run, Edmundo González ran in the election. At one point, González had double the votes of Maduro, but Maduro ended up being declared the winner with 51% of the vote. No numbers on votes cast have ever been reported. Maduro was sworn in for his third term as president.
Under Maduro’s presidency, the quality of life of the Venezuelan people has deteriorated dramatically. The economy of Venezuela is only ⅕ of its size since he took office. That means that what used to cost a dollar ten years ago now costs five dollars. The future for the people of Venezuela is bleak with fewer and fewer opportunities available.
Instead of exporting oil, the chief export has been drugs, which have been coming to the United States for many years. President Trump issued several warnings to get the flow of drugs to stop before starting to blow up boats shipping drugs into our country. It was then realized the only way to stop drugs from flowing in was to take off the head of the viper.
Maduro was arrested for what is referred to as narco-terrorism against the United States. That is a new word to me but it means that he was convinced of using the flow of drugs and the loss of life that creates as an act of terrorism against the people of our country. Maduro was placed under arrest and will be put in trial for drug trafficking later this year.
For starters, I want to say thank God for the soldiers in our Military who pulled off this impossible feat. After weeks of training, the whole operation from start to finish lasted about an hour and a half. With all of the coordination between branches of the service and all of the brave soldiers on the ground, the Cuban and Russian forces who were guarding Maduro did not stand a chance. Thank God there were no American soldiers killed in this operation. We are forever in the debt of these soldiers who were simply following orders.
The drugs flowing across our border and killing our young people presented a clear and present danger that had to be stopped. I know that there has to be opposition to what happened here for the sake of Trump did something so it must be evil. But can we all agree that less available drugs is a good thing? To allow this poison to flow into our communities is irresponsible and anything that can be done to stop it is a move we should all support.
Maduro is a thug. He abused his people, exploited his power, and thumbed his nose at the United States. The fact that he was arrested the night before he was scheduled to meet with Russian and Chinese leaders who were already present in Venezuela when he was arrested, sends quite a message to the rest of the world. Since the United Nations was either unwilling or unable to deal with petty tyrants who are leeches on the human race, someone had to. Civilization can not allow people to exploit the whole world to enrich themselves.
Go online and watch the Venezuelan people celebrate Maduro’s arrest and you will understand that when good guys have power the world is a better place.