Wrath, Justice, and Maduro

Nicolas Maduro isn't a particularly decent human being.  He's a despot and an authoritarian, without question, for whom elections and press freedoms have little meaning.  He's ignored or misrepresented voting results, insisting on power despite the will of the people.  Venezuela has not thrived under his rule.

And now the United States has him, and we're intent on trying him for his crimes.  Specifically, the crime of narcoterrorism, for which the Trump administration has secured an indictment.  Meaning, distributing cocaine, conspiring to distribute cocaine, and violating gun laws by owning automatic weapons.  The indictment, in full, can be found at this link.

We are told, by our current attorney general, that Maduro is to face the wrath of American justice.

What, precisely, does the "wrath of American justice" mean?

It means a fair trial, the right to a legal defense, and the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven.  The sword is applied only after the balances are weighed, blindly and without prejudice.  Or it should.

Reading through the 25 page indictment, which I encourage you to do, it's not a slam dunk case.  

Remember when this whole thing was all about boats filled with deadly fentanyl?  The ones we were sinking, daily, because fentanyl and opiates are a plague in America?  Nowhere in the indictment is fentanyl even mentioned.  Instead, every last one of the charges are about cocaine and firearm possession.

The indictment is a laundry list of claims, most of which involve the actions of alleged co-conspirators and not Maduro himself.  While Maduro is a leftist brute, Venezuela is not a significant producer of cocaine.  That would be, instead, Columbia, Bolivia, and Peru.  It does pass through Venezuela, and is distributed there, but that's true of Mexico, too...and also true of the United States.  That part of the indictment, for all of its legalese and hyperbole, seems a significant overreach.

And the firearm charges seem to neglect a significant jurisdictional detail. Where were those firearms used and possessed?  In Venezuela.  Do the firearms regulations of the United States apply in Venezuela? 

Is there a significant doubt about Maduro's despotic rule?  There is not.  But he isn't being charged for being a tyrant.  

Might there be a significant doubt about these charges?  There might.  Presuming, of course, that American justice still exists.

Which, if it is simply an implement to facilitate our brute force seizure of the world's largest oil reserves, it does not.