Most reasonable voices advocating against a US invasion of Venezuela don’t think Maduro is great. They are simply against the invasion.

Trump must not invade Venezuela. There is a real danger of Venezuela becoming the next Iraq.

Venezuela boasts the largest oil reserves in the world, but the Trump administration would like us to believe that the US is fighting drug trafficking in the Caribbean. The real aim is to steal Venezuela's oil, which belongs to the Venezuelan people – not to greedy US companies seeking to profit from it.

At least 80 people have been killed in strikes since September this year – all under the pretense of the US fighting drug trafficking. The White House now calls it "narco-terrorism," a term meant to justify tougher measures and secure broader support.

That’s why what came on Tuesday was a complete surprise: President Trump pardoned the biggest drug criminal in the US and one of the world's most notorious drug traffickers. Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was convicted of drug trafficking last year in the US. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison, but served only a bit over a year. Hernández conspired to traffic 400 tons of cocaine into the US and was “at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world,” according to US officials. Hernández even said his goal was to “shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos,” according to a US prosecutor in 2024. Now Hernández is a free man, and we have only Trump to thank. This development calls into question the credibility of Trump’s war on drug trafficking.

Yesterday, the US Navy carried out a second strike on Venezuelan boats. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth authorized the strikes. Trump announced that the strikes would also be extended to land operations.

Also yesterday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stated that she stands with Venezuela against the Trump administration’s plans to invade the country. The rest of Latin America is also uneasy.

Venezuela's long-time allies, Russia and China, are “sitting out Venezuela's clash with Trump,” as argued by the Wall Street Journal. In the end, Maduro isn’t left with much support, following in the footsteps of Hugo Chavez, whose reign began Venezuela’s international isolation.

The international community must stand against Trump’s invasion of Venezuela - not in support of Maduro, but in support of the Venezuelan people, who will ultimately bear the cost of any conflict.

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Iveta Cherneva is an author and analyst specializing in foreign policy, security, and human rights. She has written several books. Her opinions and commentaries have appeared in Foreign Policy, New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Salon, National Interest, Euronews, The Guardian, and numerous academic journals. She has worked for the UN, the US Congress, and Oxford University.