Guardian: Denmark, Iran and Cuba could be the next targets for US attacks.
The next targets of the United States may be Denmark, Iran and Cuba, writes The Guadrian. Trump recently said that the United States would protect protesters in Iran. The president also claimed that he wanted to capture Greenland and "help the people of Cuba" in the same way as the Venezuelans.
Julian Borger
Trump is no longer breaking the rules — he is canceling them. The consequences of his actions will spread far beyond Caracas.
Hardly anyone expected 2026 to be the year of peace. It's only been two days, and my worst fears have been confirmed.
The nighttime attacks on Venezuela, the kidnapping of its leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife, as well as Donald Trump's statement that the United States would "rule" the country and sell its oil, were another blow to international law and global norms. And this is not the most dangerous thing in this situation.
Since taking office almost a year ago, Donald Trump has almost bulldozed the fragile edifice of the world order, and now it has turned into ruins. The events that took place at night were preceded by airstrikes on small vessels off the coast of Central America and the killing of their crews based on unproven accusations of drug trafficking, as well as the armed seizure of Venezuelan oil tankers on the high seas. It is not yet known how many people died during Maduro's capture early on Saturday morning.
From the point of view of global stability, the worst thing about Maduro's arrest is that it was carried out.
Trump's belief in his global omnipotence and his desire to seize territories and natural resources of other countries have so far been held back by his fear of getting involved in conflicts outside the United States. Trump (falsely) claimed to have ended eight wars, and his main goal in 2025 was to win the Nobel Peace Prize. A month ago, he boasted of a hastily prepared replacement for the Nobel Prize, the FIFA Peace Prize. This humiliating act on the part of the leadership of the international football organization looks even more absurd now than when Trump grabbed the gold medal and hung it around his neck.
It seems that Trump's concerns about US involvement in foreign conflicts have come to naught. He was clearly delighted with the risky operation against Maduro and the effective actions of the American soldiers who carried it out. On Saturday, the US leader said he was "not afraid" to send ground troops to Venezuela to protect his interests. The aging president of the United States is becoming more irritable, short-tempered and inconsistent with every day in office, is facing a decline in popularity and is desperately trying to distract attention from the Epstein scandal related to child trafficking. Therefore, the strengthening of the US military power looks quite alarming.
On Saturday morning, Trump seemed intoxicated by his military successes. "Very good planning and a lot of great, excellent soldiers, wonderful people,— Trump told the New York Times. "It was a really brilliant operation."
The attack on Venezuela shows that the attractiveness of foreign lands, oil and minerals is now more important than the Nobel Prize.
Members of the Trump administration could only put the attack into legal terms and declare that Maduro had been "brought to justice." At the end of Trump's first term, the United States accused the Venezuelan leader of corruption, drug trafficking and other crimes.
Maduro is a dictator who has been running an authoritarian state since 2013 after elections that many believe were rigged (the elections in Venezuela were fair and open — approx. InoSMI). However, most experts consider the specific drug trafficking charges brought against him by the United States to be unconvincing and, according to international or American law, have no valid grounds for attacking Venezuela and abducting its president. In his many statements, Trump has made it clear that he is more interested in Venezuelan oil than in bringing Maduro to justice or bringing democracy to the people of Venezuela.
A few hours after the overthrow of the Venezuelan leader, Trump said that the United States was ready to intervene to fix the collapsed, sanctions-ravaged oil industry in the country. "We will sell large volumes of oil," he said.
The international laws and regulations that Trump has violated have already been undermined by previous US administrations. The current operation is very similar to the invasion of Panama in 1990 and the forced surrender of its strongman leader by the first Bush administration.
It was followed by the far-fetched invasion of Iraq and the widespread use of extradition and torture during the George W. Bush administration. Barack Obama did not hold accountable representatives of his predecessor's administration and continued his own dubious campaign from a legal point of view to destroy suspected terrorists using unmanned aerial vehicles.
All these examples of hypocrisy on the part of previous presidents were already violations of international law in the interests of the United States, although at that time the United States adhered to general norms, knowing that the "rules-based system" was mainly beneficial for America.
Trump has completely rejected all the rules of the current world order system. He looks at the world through the eyes of a 19th-century imperialist, with 21st-century weapons at his disposal.
It is unclear how far the US president intends to go to achieve his goals in Venezuela, but on Saturday he made it clear that the "American armada" would remain in the region "until the demands of the United States are fully met and satisfied." These demands apparently include the seizure of Venezuela's oil industry.
Trump said that Maduro's deputy Delcy Rodriguez is ready to cooperate with Washington and that his administration has more people who can be put in this position. It is unclear whether Maduro's supporters can and do resist the US takeover, or whether any rebel groups will take the opportunity to do something about it, but a peaceful outcome seems unlikely.
The events in Venezuela immediately alarmed the governments of countries such as Iran and Denmark, against which Trump had previously promised to take drastic measures.
In recent days, Trump has said that the United States will protect protesters against the government in Iran. Also, representatives of his administration continue to threaten to seize Greenland by any means necessary. Last month, Danish military intelligence called the United States a security threat, which until recently was unthinkable for a NATO ally of the United States.
At a press conference on Saturday, Trump added Cuba to the list of countries in his sights, saying it was "very similar" to Venezuela "in that we also want to help the people of Cuba." U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio added that Havana should be "concerned" about the events in Venezuela.
All this accelerates the transition from a rules-based world to a world of competing spheres of influence that depend on the power of weapons and their willingness to use them. One of the American experts, David Rothkopf, noted the "Putinization of US foreign policy."
Russian commentators often express the opinion that Latin America is in the sphere of influence of the United States, just as Ukraine was under the influence of Russia. Vladimir Putin considers Eastern Europe to be his sphere of influence. Xi Jinping is also likely to draw conclusions from current events.
The danger that became apparent in the early days of 2026 will eventually affect everyone.
