The Guardian view on the US seizure of Maduro: Trump has turned the world’s superpower into a rogue state | Editorial

The illegal abduction of Venezuela's president, and threat to run' his country, is a dangerous act. Its repercussions will be felt far beyond the region

Amid the immense confusion surrounding the US strikes on Venezuela, the seizure of the president, Nicolas Maduro, and Donald Trump's announcement that the US will run" the country and take back the oil", one thing is clear - they set a truly chilling precedent. The US has a grim history of interference, invasion and occupation in the region, but the early hours of Saturday saw its first major military attack on South American land. American dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again," Mr Trump declared. The decision to unilaterally attack another country and abduct its leader - days after he publicly sought an off-ramp - has still wider repercussions. It should alarm us all.

Venezuelans have endured a repressive, kleptocratic and incompetent regime under Mr Maduro, widely believed to have stolen the last election. They now face profound uncertainty at best. Mr Trump has suggested that Mr Maduro's deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, would follow US instructions, and dismissed the rightwing opposition leader and Nobel prize-winner Maria Corina Machado as a plausible replacement. But Ms Rodriguez, now interim president, has so far struck a defiant tone - and other parts of the decapitated regime are more hardline.

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