MIKE PENCE: Venezuela has a chance for freedom, thanks to Trump and our armed forces

For years, the radical of Venezuela person endured a nightmare imposed by socialist tyranny. Under President Nicolás Maduro, a once-prosperous federation was reduced to deprivation, unit and despair. Families went hungry. Hospitals ran retired of medicine. Millions fled their homes. Venezuela became a lawsuit survey successful however socialism destroys everything it touches. 

That acheronian section has travel to an end. 

I person ever believed that Maduro indispensable go, and volition ever beryllium arrogant of the Trump-Pence administration’s enactment connected Venezuela. Together, we led the complaint against Maduro, gathering an unprecedented conjugation of implicit 60 nations and forging bipartisan statement successful Congress to admit the illegitimacy of the dictator’s power.  

We froze authorities assets truthful they could not usage the funds to empower their quality rights abuses, portion providing astir $1 cardinal successful assistance for the Venezuelan people. For the archetypal clip since Sept. 11, 2001, we invoked the Western Hemisphere’s mentation of a communal defence pact to amusement our committedness to Venezuelan information and freedom.

HE FLED THE ‘HUNGER GAMES’ OF CUBA ONLY TO WATCH FREE AMERICANS CHEER COMMUNISM

Venezuelans observe successful Santiago, Chile, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, aft President Donald Trump announced that President Nicolas Maduro had been captured and flown retired of Venezuela. (Esteban Felix/AP Photo)

While we yet fell abbreviated of our extremity to escaped the radical of Venezuela, I was heartened erstwhile the president ordered the subject raid that captured Maduro and brought him to look justness successful the United States. 

Thanks to the enactment of President Donald Trump and the professionalism of the United States equipped forces, Maduro is gone. His grip connected Venezuela has been broken, and a long-suffering radical present person a historical accidental to reclaim their state and rebuild their nation. 

For years, the United States rightly recognized that Maduro was a dictator with nary morganatic assertion to rule. He stole elections, jailed governmental opponents, silenced the escaped property and turned the machinery of authorities into a transgression enterprise. Trump deserves the gratitude of each who cherish state for taking bold and historical enactment to extremity this socialist catastrophe.

JAMES CARVILLE SAYS US WOULD BE 'RIPE FOR INVASION' IF TARGETING 'CORRUPT' REGIMES WAS LEGITIMATE

No escaped radical knowingly trades prosperity for poverty. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, forced that determination connected Venezuela — replacing escaped markets with centralized control, seizing the lipid industry, commandeering energy and telecommunications, and crushing backstage enterprise. The results were arsenic predictable arsenic they were devastating: nutrient shortages, rolling blackouts, monolithic ostentation and the illness of civilian society. 

I witnessed the toll of this tyranny firsthand during a sojourn to the Venezuelan borderline successful 2019. I met displaced families who had fled with thing but the apparel connected their backs. Their heartbreaking stories near nary uncertainty that Maduro’s authorities was not simply incompetent, but profoundly cruel. 

That cruelty spilled crossed Venezuela’s borders and dispersed misery passim the Western Hemisphere. Millions fled the country, triggering 1 of the largest exile crises successful modern history. Many yet made their mode to the United States, immoderate illegally and others by exploiting a breached asylum system.

MADURO ARREST SENDS 'CLEAR MESSAGE' TO DRUG CARTELS, ALLIES AND US RIVALS, RETIRED ADMIRAL SAYS

At the aforesaid time, Maduro’s authorities became profoundly entangled successful planetary cause trafficking, flooding American communities with poison and destroying countless lives. Even the Biden medication acknowledged the transgression quality of Maduro’s rule, placing a multimillion-dollar bounty connected his seizure for narco-terrorism and corruption. 

Maduro besides invited America’s adversaries into our ain hemisphere. Russia, Iran, Cuba and communist China expanded their power nether his protection, turning Venezuela into a level for hostile powers operating dangerously adjacent to our shores — a wide and contiguous nationalist information menace to the United States.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

Trump deserves the gratitude of each who cherish state for taking bold and historical enactment to extremity this socialist catastrophe.

The progressive near and immoderate connected the populist close person criticized Trump’s determination to determination guardant with implicit resoluteness successful bringing Maduro to justice. The Constitution, however, vests the president with wide authorization arsenic commander-in-chief to instrumentality constricted but decisive enactment to support our nation, and helium has an work to faithfully execute our nation’s laws, including the transgression laws that Maduro stands accused of breaking. Presidents of some parties person exercised these authorities for generations. To contradict them present would dangerously weaken aboriginal presidents and spot America astatine greater risk. 

Nicolás Maduro indispensable reply for his crimes. He indispensable reply for the corruption that hollowed retired a nation, for the unit that muzzled dissent, and for the cause commercialized that took the lives of countless American citizens. Justice agelong delayed volition yet beryllium served.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The Venezuelan radical present basal astatine the threshold of a singular opportunity. They merit a rebirth of state — a caller Venezuela governed by Venezuelans, rooted successful the designation of God-given liberties, committed to escaped markets and sustained by escaped and just elections. They merit a aboriginal defined not by fear, but by hope. 

Today, acknowledgment to President Trump and the brave men and women of our equipped forces, that aboriginal is wrong reach. Libertad tin yet beryllium restored. And arsenic state takes basal again successful Venezuela, it volition fortify information and prosperity crossed our full hemisphere — conscionable arsenic America has ever stood acceptable to do. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM MIKE PENCE