As the world knows, on 3 January 2026, in an operation involving over 150 aircraft, US Special Forces raided Caracas, seized President Maduro and his wife, and took them to New York to be charged and tried as criminals, and the US President announced that the USA would now run Venezuela for a time. This use of force breached the United Nations Charter and rightly set off alarm bells and alert sirens all round the world. A future seems to loom before us in which the strong do what they can, and the weak do what they must. Why did it happen and what comes next?