No one need shed a single tear for Nicolás Maduro, a ruthless dictator who extinguished Venezuela’s democracy and set its economy into a death spiral.

His sins are many: stolen elections, numerous alleged crimes against humanity, and more than a decade of exploitation of what once was and should still be a prosperous country. And of course, the Trump administration alleges that Mr. Maduro is a narco-terrorist in league with drug cartels.

Mr. Maduro clung to power illegally. Canada and many other nations refused to recognize him as a legitimate head of state. It might be tempting, then, to welcome Saturday’s military action by the United States to seize Mr. Maduro, and his wife, as a justifiable means to the end of a despicable dictatorship.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores (right), on May 24, 2018. Maduro, a dictator who extinguished Venezuela’s democracy, is accused of numerous alleged crimes against humanity.Marco Bello/Reuters

That temptation should be cast aside. U.S. President Donald Trump has no interest in restoring Venezuelan democracy, or in helping the people who have suffered the rule of Mr. Maduro and his predecessors from Hugo Chávez onward for much of the last three decades.

Mr. Trump’s intentions are always murky, clouded by bursts of bombast. But he said Saturday that he aims to “run” the country at least temporarily, with Venezuela’s oil revenues paying for the costs. The path will be cleared for American oil producers to return to the country, nearly two decades after their assets were confiscated. There will be reimbursement, Mr. Trump vowed. Plunder is the only word for it.

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So, this is not a military action for democracy, or international order or human rights, or any of the rationales (sometimes thin, admittedly) that the United States has marshalled in past interventions.

The motivation is simple, and ancient: empire. Saturday marked the formal debut of an imperial America, led by a president who........

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