Open Dialogue Research Journal
In a scene that captured global attention, former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro appeared before a federal court in Manhattan on Monday, pleading not guilty to multiple criminal charges filed by the United States. The charges include narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import large quantities of cocaine – a dramatic culmination of […]
On the surface, abducting a Head of State is a piratical act eschewed by States. A Head of State enjoys absolute immunity from foreign criminal jurisdiction, known as ratione personae, at least till the term of office concludes. The International Court of Justice was clear enough about this principle in […]
Venezuela is a good prize for Washington, but this may be just the first step. After the unprecedented US operation against Venezuela and its president, new facts have become known. Some of them were published in the US media, and some were told by the US president at a press […]
It has been an accusation long levelled at certain US politicians that their brains might have been softened by a lengthy diet of television, Westerns, and the heroic triumphalism of the prattling cowboy. There was never going to be a break with this tradition regarding President Donald Trump, except the […]
For much of the 20th and early 21st centuries, US presidents rarely stated openly that Latin America was Washington’s strategic backyard. Instead, they relied on diplomatic language about cooperation, democracy and partnership. That era appears to be over. The Trump administration’s newly released National Security Strategy makes explicit what had […]
Pete Hegseth, the soap opera styled US Secretary of Defense, sports a questionable sanity. His behaviour before generals is the stuff of low comedy. His mania about sending narco-traffickers making passage on the sea from Venezuela to a watery grave has a millenarian zeal. But psychological coarseness and imperfection have […]
The killing of Mehdi Kessaci, the younger brother of anti-narcotics activist Amine Kessaci, has shaken Marseille and reignited debates about the city’s violent drug trade. The 20-year-old, who dreamed of becoming a police officer and had no connection to organized crime, was shot dead in broad daylight on November 13, […]
Part I A U.S. military strike – whether a limited set of precision airstrikes or a broader campaign – would have profound consequences. Inside Venezuela, such strikes would likely strengthen nationalist sentiment, especially if civilians are harmed. The Venezuelan military has the capability to retaliate against U.S. forces and cause […]
In 2025, tensions between the United States and Venezuela reached their highest level in years, driven by a combination of geopolitical ambition, domestic political calculations, and regional instability. What began as a U.S. rhetorical “crusade” against Latin American drug trafficking rapidly evolved into something that resembles preparations for a military […]
On November 3rd, the neoconservative Columbia University political ‘scientist’ Elizabeth N. Saunders, who is also the Director of Columbia’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, headlined “Trump may strike Venezuela. His team makes that very risky. Take a close look at who is advising the president on U.S. policy.” She argued that Trump’s […]
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