Panama’s warning for a post-Maduro Venezuela |
Protesters hold signs during a demonstration against U.S. military action in Venezuela in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6. gettyimagesbank-TNS
The facts, familiar though they may be, deserve repeating: On Saturday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured and removed from the country following a large-scale U.S. military operation involving elite forces and months of planning.
They appeared Monday in a New York court, facing charges including narcoterrorism, drug trafficking and weapons offenses, and both pleaded not guilty. Maduro declared he was still the legitimate president of Venezuela and called himself a “prisoner of war.” The hearing ended amid tense exchanges in the courtroom and protests outside, with the next court date set for March 17.Jan. 3 resonated beyond Venezuela. Thirty-six years earlier, on the same date, Manuel Noriega — Panama’s dictator — was taken into U.S. custody after surrendering at the Vatican’s diplomatic mission, formally ending the country’s military regime.
The coincidence has invited an avalanche of historical analogies. Two authoritarian leaders accused in U.S. courts of narcotics trafficking and organized crime. Two governments subjected to prolonged diplomatic isolation and sanctions. Two interventions framed by Washington as necessary acts in defense of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Even U.S. lawmakers have leaned into the symbolism, circulating images that place Noriega and Maduro side by side, reinforcing the idea that history is repeating itself — down to the calendar date.Yet this focus on the moment of capture risks obscuring the more consequential lesson. The meaningful........