The Noriega Indictment: President George H. W. Bush’s Invasion of Panama. Attorney General William Barr’s Indictment. Is Venezuela Next?
By Dave DeCamp and Prof Michel Chossudovsky
[This text by Dave DeCamp with introduction by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky was also published by Global Research. You can read it here.]
Introduction
The bombing and capture of President Maduro and his wife on January 3, 2026 is a “U.S. Act of War” against a sovereign nation-state. It’s a criminal undertaking on behalf of President Trump, largely targeting civilians, in blatant violation of the Laws of Armed Conflict (LOAC).
Bear in mind: The “narco-terrorism” narrative as well as the indictment directed against President Nicolas Maduro is deja vu.
What are the antecedents of this carefully formulated U.S. military-intelligence operation, casually accusing Maduro of supporting the Latin American drug trade? The unspoken objective is to “capture” the world’s number one petroleum economy.
An indictment envisaged almost six years ago consisted in accusations directed against President Maduro –as well Venezuela’s Chief Supreme Court Justice and the Minister of Defense, among others (see image below)– of allegedly supporting the trade in narcotics conducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
“As you will hear the Department of Justice is announcing [March 2020] the unsealing of a superseding indictment filed in the Southern District of New York against four defendants including Nicolas Maduro as well as the current head of Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly the former director of military intelligence and a former high-ranking general for their involvement in narco-terrorism further the Southern District of Florida.” (See video below)
Who Are the Narco-Terrorists?
Double Standards. Deux Poids, Deux Mesures.
President Trump declares war on Venezuela, “capturing” the President of a sovereign nation-state, accusing him without evidence of conducting illegal narcotics transactions.
In contrast, amply documented: Trump’s Taj Mahal Atlantic City Casino was known as a convenient “vehicle for money laundering, with a significant amount of the illicit funds tied to narcotics trafficking.”
Just months before his bid for the presidency in 2015, “federal regulators announced they were slapping one of his longtime Atlantic City casinos with a record-setting $10 million fine for lack of controls around money laundering” a large share of which is linked to narcotics.
Renowned analyst David DeCamp reported in March 2020 on the conduct of a U.S. Justice Department indictment (on behalf of President Trump) directed against Nicolas Maduro, “reminiscent of the 1988 indictment of former CIA asset and Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega.”
DeCamp’s incisive and carefully documented article entitled “William Barr Greenlit Bush’s Invasion of Panama, Is Venezuela Next?” is linked below.
A legal procedure contemplated under Trump’s (first) presidency was initiated by Attorney General William Barr, who was legal advisor and Attorney General to the late President George H.W. Bush.
William Barr was appointed Attorney General by Donald Trump in February 2019.
According to David DeCamp (see below):
The move was reminiscent of the 1988 indictment of former CIA asset and Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega. The Noriega indictment resulted in a US invasion of Panama that left hundreds – possibly thousands – of dead civilians in its wake.
Attorney General William Barr took to the podium to announce Maduro’s indictment. Barr happens to be the same person who gave the first Bush administration [G.H. W. Bush] the legal justification to invade Panama just over 30 years ago”[1988].
The accusations by Attorney General William Barr directed against President Maduro announced in March 2020 at the height of the COVID lockdown are on file. They were not carried out.
Will the remnants of this 2020 indictment (including DOJ documents) on charges of trade in narcotics be applied in 2026?
Will William Barr play a role in the 2026 procedure? Highly unlikely.
In Barr’s book entitled One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General, he cautiously urged “his fellow Republicans to pick someone else as the party’s nominee for the 2024 election, calling the prospect of another presidential run by Mr. Trump “dismaying.””
Captured head of state of another nation in their own homeland is so egregiously wrong. Total aggression. This is act of war. Shameful.
There is no doubt in my mind that Madura is a bad actor, and has committed many crimes, some against his own people, some against the U.S. Same might be said for Saddam Hussein. However, I agree with you that this does not warrant a blatant act of aggression against a sovereign nation. Trump makes himself as much a dictator as Madura ever was by this naked act of aggression. The people of Venezuela may celebrate now, but what happens when their new dictator, the one installed by the Trump regime, beholden to the U.S. begins to oppress them. Who will rescue them then?