Last week, the United States abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, during a raid in Caracas, killing more than 100 people in the process. Maduro was then brought to the US where he faces charges related to narco-terrorism, cocaine distribution, and machine gun possession. 

Despite the formal charges, the flimsy drug trafficking story has largely fallen by the wayside as President Trump makes his real motivation clear: Venezuela’s oil. And he has declared his intention to take similar actions in other resource-rich countries, finally assuming his ultimate political form as an old-school, resource-plundering imperialist.