For my family, President Donald Trump’s decisive action against Venezuela’s criminal regime was not an abstract foreign policy debate. My mother has many Venezuelan family members who lived under the fear, hunger, and brutality of Nicolás Maduro’s narco-regime.
For them, and for millions of Venezuelans inside and outside the country, President Trump’s leadership sent a long-overdue message of hope, justice, and liberation.
Peace does not come from hesitation or hollow warnings. It comes from strength backed by action. I know this because I served, and I understand how deterrence works when it is real. President Trump has put the world on notice that the United States military remains unmatched and that those who terrorize their own people, poison our communities, and destabilize our hemisphere will face consequences.
I do not speak about American military power as a theorist or a television commentator. I speak as someone who served alongside men and women trained to operate with discipline, precision, and overwhelming force. The United States military is unmatched not because of rhetoric, but because of decades of investment in training, intelligence, technology, and command. When America decides to act, no criminal regime or hostile power can rival our reach or capability.
President Trump’s actions were not about politics. They were about dignity and accountability. Nicolás Maduro was never a legitimate leader. He hijacked a nation through fraud, brutality, and fear, crushed democratic opposition, jailed dissidents, starved his people, and turned Venezuela into a hub for narcotics trafficking and transnational crime. This was not governance. It was organized crime backed by violence and corruption.
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For years, the international community issued statements and held meaningless press conferences while conditions deteriorated. Regimes like Maduro’s mistook American restraint for weakness. They believed the United States had lost the will to act, even as chaos spread across our southern border and hostile foreign powers expanded their influence in our backyard.
President Trump shattered that illusion this past weekend.
This was not reckless adventurism or symbolic posturing. It was a calculated, intelligence-driven operation demonstrating America’s ability to act decisively, lawfully, and precisely when national security and human freedom are at stake. It sent a clear signal that criminal leaders are not untouchable.
As someone who has served, I know what goes into operations of this magnitude. They are not improvised or emotional. They are built on intelligence, planning, and clear command authority. The men and women who carry them out are the most professional fighting force the world has ever known. When they move, it is because the President has determined that American interests and innocent lives demand action.
This is peace through strength in practice.
It is also about protecting American communities. Venezuelan narcotics networks help drive the flow of deadly drugs that have killed tens of thousands of Americans. Fentanyl does not move itself. It flows through criminal systems protected by corrupt regimes. Holding those regimes accountable is not foreign policy theater. It is homeland security.
America First does not mean America alone. It means America is strong enough to defend freedom in our hemisphere, protect families at home, and prevent our region from becoming a playground for cartels, hostile powers, and criminal states exporting chaos northward.
The United States military remains the most powerful force ever assembled. What determines history is whether our leaders have the courage to use that power wisely, decisively, and without apology. President Trump has shown that he does.
When America leads with strength, clarity, and resolve, peace follows. When we act, we win. And when the United States puts the world on notice, the world listens.
Congressman Abe J. Hamadeh represents Arizona’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives
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