The detention of Nicolás Maduro in a Brooklyn federal cell is being hailed by Washington as a triumph of “law enforcement.” However, if we pull back the curtain on the events of the last eighteen months—stretching from the streets of Dhaka and Kathmandu to the compounds of Caracas—a much more calculated and imperial pattern emerges.
While the White House frames the arrest as a unique criminal matter, it is actually the final, violent evolution of a singular strategy: the systemic dismantling of sovereign governments by the United States.
The Strategy of “Soft” Subversion: Bangladesh and Nepal
To understand what just happened in Venezuela, we must first look at the “Year of the Protest” in South Asia. In Bangladesh and Nepal, the U.S. successfully executed what analysts call “hybrid regime change.”
Critics of these shifts point to a sophisticated infrastructure of influence. In both Dhaka and Kathmandu, the U.S. didn’t need to fire a shot because they had spent years cultivating the “ground game” through agencies like USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Bangladesh’s “Monsoon Revolution”: Before Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee in August 2024, USAID had funneled millions into “civil society” and “digital resilience” programs. While framed as humanitarian, these funds built the networked army of Gen-Z activists that eventually paralyzed the state. Hasina herself has since accused Washington of orchestrating her ouster as retaliation for her refusal to cede strategic territory like Saint Martin’s Island.
Nepal’s “Yuva Netritwa” Blueprint: In Nepal, the 2025 “Gen Z” uprising that toppled Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli was preceded by the “Yuva Netritwa: Paradarshi Niti” (Youth Leadership: Transparent Policy) program. Leaked documents revealed that the NED and the International Republican Institute (IRI) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars specifically training Nepali youth in “protest organization” and “digital mobilization.” When the government banned social media in September 2025, this pre-trained cadre was ready to turn a digital grievance into a street-level coup.
In these cases, the U.S. used the people as its primary engine—providing the training and the spark, then standing back to claim they were merely “supporting democracy.”
Venezuela: When the Mask Slips
The tragedy of Venezuela is that the U.S. grew tired of waiting for a “soft” revolution to take hold. After years of sanctions and failed internal uprisings, Washington abandoned the pretense of popular revolt and moved to the most honest form of imperialism: raw, kinetic violence.
Operation Absolute Resolve represents the U.S. admitting that its “training” programs in Venezuela had failed to move the needle. Unlike in Bangladesh or Nepal, where the U.S. hid behind the shield of student protesters, in Caracas, they sent Delta Force.
The goal remains the same—regime change—but the methodology has shifted from “soft power” to “hard steel.” By physically abducting a head of state, the U.S. has signaled that if its “color revolution” playbook fails, it is perfectly willing to resort to the methods of 19th-century gunboat diplomacy.
One Empire, Two Methods
Whether it is the “invisible hand” of U.S.-trained activists in Nepal or the very visible boots of U.S. soldiers in Venezuela, the result is the same: the erasure of national sovereignty.
In South Asia, the U.S. achieved its goals through internal subversion, using the local population as a proxy.
In South America, the U.S. achieved its goals through external abduction, using its military as a global sheriff.
The danger of this “Global Extraction Doctrine” cannot be overstated. By treating the world as a jurisdiction for New York courts and the Pentagon, Washington is telling every nation that their borders only exist at the pleasure of the United States. Today it is a “narco-terrorist” in Venezuela; yesterday it was a “repressive leader” in Bangladesh. Tomorrow, it could be anyone who stands in the way of Washington’s geopolitical interests.
Chaha Thapa currently lives in Britain.
