Trump’s words shook the world.

In a late-night address from Mar-a-Lago, he celebrated the secret capture of

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and declared the United States would now “run” Venezuela and its oil.

No prior warning to Congress. Talk of Cuba “next.” Boots already on the ground.

Trump’s announcement marked a stunning rupture with decades of U.S. policy.

In one operation, American forces decapitated a foreign government, seized its sitting president and

first lady, and began openly speaking of managing another nation’s oil and political transition.

Trump framed the mission as bloodless and triumphant, insisting not a single

U.S. service member was lost and vowing “peace, liberty and justice” for Venezuelans, even as airstrikes hit military bases, ports and communications sites.

Behind the victory rhetoric, deeper questions now hang over Washington and Caracas alike.

Venezuelans are being promised a “real country” by the same power accused of seeking their resources. Congress was sidelined.

Cuba is being floated as a possible next target.

For families under the flight paths of those strikes, and for a hemisphere watching nervously,

the capture of Nicolás Maduro is less an ending than the start of an unpredictable new chapter.