“How Christian Nationalist Zealots Are Pushing America into War with Venezuela While Calling It Drug Enforcement” - 19 October 2025

Tēnā koutou katoa. Kia ora.

Here is what you need to know, straight up, no sugar coating. The United States government, led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who belongs to a church that believes women should not vote, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio who has called for “waging war” on those opposing US interests, has killed at least 27 people in unprovoked military strikes, authorized the CIA to conduct lethal covert operations inside Venezuela, deployed B-52 strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons, and positioned more than 10,000 troops for a potential invasion of a sovereign nation. They claim this is about drugs and immigration. That is a lie. This is a Christian nationalist crusade for oil and ideological conquest, dressed up in the language of law enforcement, and it follows the exact same playbook the US used to devastate Iraq, Libya, Chile, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.

Timeline of US Military Escalation Against Venezuela: From First Strike to CIA Authorization (September-October 2025)

While Kiwis slept, Trump confirmed on October 15 that he had authorized CIA covert operations in Venezuela, the same day The New York Times revealed the secret authorization that allows agents to “recruit assets, gather intelligence on the Venezuelan government, and potentially lay the groundwork for operations to undermine or remove President Nicolás Maduro.” One day later, B-52 bombers flew near Venezuelan airspace while Trump bragged that Maduro “doesn’t want to fuck around with us.” This is not diplomacy. This is not drug enforcement. This is regime change at gunpoint, and the people pushing it believe God himself has ordained them to do it.

Background: How We Got to the Brink of War

To understand this crisis, you need to know two things. First, Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves on Earth, bigger than Saudi Arabia. Second, the Trump administration is packed with Christian nationalists who believe they have a divine mandate to reshape the world, crush socialism, and secure American dominance through military force if necessary.

The military escalation happened with shocking speed. On September 2, 2025, the US military conducted its first airstrike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs, killing 11 people. Trump called them “narco-terrorists” but provided zero evidence. By mid-September, three more boats had been destroyed in strikes, killing additional people. On October 1, Trump formally declared to Congress that the US was in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, using the same legal framework deployed after September 11 to justify the war on terror. On October 15, Trump authorized the CIA to conduct lethal covert operations inside Venezuela. On October 16, B-52 bombers flew near Venezuelan airspace while Venezuela mobilized troops and militias in response.

The hardware tells you everything. At least eight Navy warships, an attack submarine, F-35B fighter jets, P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft, MQ-9 Reaper drones, special operations forces, and strategic bombers. The Economist noted this deployment “makes the most sense if the principal intent is to rattle Mr Maduro, give succour to Venezuela’s opposition or even stir an uprising within the Venezuelan armed forces.” That is polite language for regime change.

The justifications are lies. Trump claims Venezuela deliberately emptied prisons and sent criminals to the US border. He has provided no evidence. He claims Venezuelan boats are flooding America with drugs, but experts know fentanyl, the drug causing most American deaths, is synthesized in Mexico and trafficked overland, not shipped from Venezuela. The “Caribbean route” for cocaine that the administration claims to have shut down represented only a fraction of drug traffic. This is theater. This is propaganda. This is manufacturing consent for war.

The Christian Nationalist Crusaders Driving This War

Pete Hegseth: The Theocrat with Nuclear Codes

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not just another conservative Christian. He is a proud member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a church network led by Doug Wilson, who has written extensively advocating for Christian theocracy in America. Wilson has argued that women should not vote, that democracy is a leftist demand, that homosexuality should be recriminalized, and that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and must return to those roots. Hegseth has publicly stated he “very much appreciates many of Mr Wilson’s writings and teachings.”

This is the man controlling the most powerful military in human history. His worldview is not personal faith. It is ideological warfare. Hegseth wrote a book titled “American Crusade” in which he describes victory as achieving “the end of globalism, socialism, secularism, environmentalism, Islamism, genderism, and leftism.” He characterizes progressives and Democrats as “enemies of freedom” who must be defeated. When he says crusade, he means it in the historical sense: a holy war to subjugate those deemed enemies of the faith.

Marco Rubio: The Regime Change Fanatic

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Catholic whose family fled Castro’s Cuba, has been one of the most vocal advocates for destroying the Venezuelan government. He nominated Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado for the Nobel Peace Prize, which she just won on October 10, and which she dedicated to Trump. Machado has coordinated with the Trump administration on plans for what happens after Maduro’s removal, according to The New York Times. Rubio has stated that Trump intends to “wage war” on those who oppose US interests in Latin America.

His anti-socialism is visceral, personal, and absolute. Any government in Latin America that redistributes wealth, nationalizes resources, or challenges US corporate dominance becomes his enemy. Venezuela under Chávez and Maduro has done all three. For Rubio, this is not just policy disagreement. It is ideological warfare that justifies military intervention.

JD Vance and the Spiritual Warriors

Vice President JD Vance, a recent Catholic convert, has framed the administration’s actions in explicitly religious terms. After conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated, Vance called him “a martyr for the Christian faith” at a memorial service that fused government power and evangelical devotion in ways observers called extraordinary and alarming. Vance said “Because of Mr Kirk, I have discussed Jesus Christ more in the past fortnight than during my entire tenure in public service.”

This matters because when leaders believe they are doing God’s work, they justify any level of violence. If God is on your side, those who oppose you must be on the devil’s side, and what you do to them becomes holy work. This is not metaphor. This is the ideology driving policy.

Christian Nationalist Influence on Venezuela Policy in Trump Administration

The Playbook: Comparing Venezuela 2025 to Past US Regime Change Operations

The tactics being deployed against Venezuela combine the worst elements of multiple previous US regime change operations. Like Iraq in 2003, there is a massive military buildup sold on false pretenses. Like Nicaragua in the 1980s, there are CIA covert operations and support for opposition forces. Like Chile in 1973, there is economic warfare designed to destabilize the government and encourage a military coup.

US Regime Change Playbook: Comparing Tactics Across Venezuela, Iraq, Nicaragua, and Chile

The comparison reveals a coordinated escalation across every domain. Economic sanctions against Venezuela are at maximum intensity, designed to starve the government of resources and make daily life so miserable that people rebel. The United States has seized billions in Venezuelan assets, blocked oil sales, and prevented the country from accessing international financial systems. Economist Francisco Rodríguez estimated these sanctions contributed to tens of thousands of deaths by restricting access to food and medicine.

The military deployment is massive and growing. The naval blockade aims to cut off maritime trade. The airstrikes have already killed 27 people without trial or evidence. The CIA covert operations, now officially authorized, can include recruitment of assets, sabotage, and assassination. The diplomatic isolation is total, with the US pressuring allies to cut ties with Maduro. And the propaganda campaign paints Venezuela as a narco-state threatening America, despite evidence showing most drugs enter the US through Mexico, not the Caribbean.

This is the imperial playbook, refined over decades. The US has orchestrated regime change across Latin America since the 1950s, always with noble-sounding justifications, always resulting in death and chaos.

The Historical Pattern: From Cold War to Christian Crusade

During the Cold War, the United States backed brutal military dictatorships throughout Latin America, training death squads at the School of the Americas and funneling weapons to paramilitaries, all while framing the conflict as defense of “Christian civilization” against “godless communism.”

In Guatemala in 1954, the CIA orchestrated a coup against democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz. The Catholic clergy mobilized believers by calling it a “reconquest,” explicitly invoking the language of Spanish colonial conquest. In Chile in 1973, the United States supported the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende’s democratic socialist government and installed Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. In El Salvador in the 1980s, Archbishop Óscar Romero was assassinated while saying Mass because he sided with the poor against the US-backed military regime.

Throughout this period, the United States promoted evangelical Protestantism as an alternative to liberation theology, the movement within Catholicism that read the Bible as a call to side with the oppressed. The CIA assembled dossiers on liberation theology priests. The Vatican, pressured by the United States, moved to crush the movement. In Bolivia, the slogan “be a patriot, kill a priest” was taken literally.

Scholar Vijay Prashad documents how “Protestant sects, particularly those with US roots, preached the Gospel of individual enterprise, not social justice.” This was intentional. Evangelical Christianity that told people to accept suffering as God’s will was useful to US interests. Liberation theology that told people to organize for justice was dangerous.

Now that same fusion of Christian nationalism and imperial violence has returned, more explicit and more powerful than ever. Pete Hegseth does not hide his Christian nationalist beliefs. Marco Rubio does not hide his desire for regime change. JD Vance does not hide his framing of politics as spiritual warfare. They are telling us exactly who they are and what they intend to do.

Dominion Theology and the Mandate to Conquer

The theological framework driving Christian nationalist foreign policy is called Dominion theology, which teaches that Christians must take control of governments and institutions to prepare for Christ’s return. This is distinct from traditional conservative Christianity. It is explicitly political, explicitly authoritarian, and explicitly willing to use state power to enforce Christian values.

Scholars have documented how Dominion theology spread from the United States throughout Latin America, often with support from US foreign policy apparatus. The goal is not salvation but control. When Pete Hegseth writes about “American Crusade,” he is not speaking metaphorically. He means crusade in the historical sense: holy war.

Research shows this ideology has influenced US foreign policy for decades, providing religious justification for interventions that serve material interests. In the 1980s, Christian Right organizations supported the Contra war in Nicaragua, framing it as defense of Christian civilization. Ronald Reagan called the Contras “the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers” while they raped, tortured, and murdered civilians.

Today, that same ideology shapes Venezuela policy. The socialist government represents everything Christian nationalists oppose: wealth redistribution, secular governance, empowerment of the poor and marginalized, challenge to white elite dominance. Destroying it becomes holy work.

The Resource Extraction Lie

Let us be absolutely clear about the material interests at stake. Venezuela has 303 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, the largest in the world. For decades, these reserves were controlled by US and European oil companies who extracted wealth while Venezuelans lived in poverty. When Hugo Chávez was elected in 1999 and began nationalizing the oil industry, using revenues for social programs, he became an enemy of US corporate interests.

When Trump casually mentioned that Maduro has offered “everything” including “the country’s precious oil reserves,” he revealed the true stakes. This is not about drugs. It is about who controls the wealth beneath Venezuelan soil. Every administration since Chávez—Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden, and now Trump again—has worked to overthrow the Venezuelan government and restore corporate control.

The sanctions alone have been catastrophic. A 2019 report by economists Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot found that US sanctions increased mortality rates and worsened the humanitarian crisis, contributing to an estimated 40,000 deaths from 2017 to 2018 alone. Yet the sanctions continued and intensified. Now military strikes have been added to the arsenal.

This follows the exact pattern of Iraq, where claims about weapons of mass destruction provided cover for a war whose actual purpose was controlling oil. It follows the pattern of Libya, where humanitarian intervention rhetoric masked a NATO bombing campaign that destroyed the country and secured access to oil fields. In each case, the United States claimed moral authority while pursuing material interests. In each case, hundreds of thousands died.

Why This Matters to Māori and All Indigenous Peoples

This matters to us because we know this playbook intimately. We have lived it. The rhetoric of “civilization” versus “savagery.” The claim of divine mandate to seize land and resources. The deployment of overwhelming force against those who resist. The partnership between church and state to justify atrocity.

Our own colonization was justified through Christian mission. The doctrine of discovery, the legal fiction that Christian nations had the right to seize “heathen” lands, provided the framework for theft of whenua. Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed in 1840, the same year Britain formalized colonization because international recognition of Māori sovereignty had complicated their claims. The church was complicit then. Factions of the church are complicit now.

We understand the resource extraction motive viscerally. Venezuela’s oil is like our water, our forests, our fisheries—resources that powerful nations and corporations covet, resources they will use violence to control if permitted. When Indigenous peoples stand in the way of extraction, we are demonized, criminalized, and removed. The methods vary. The pattern does not.

We also understand how Christianity can be weaponized. Many of our tūpuna embraced Christianity as a path to salvation and community. But the Christianity they received was often the colonizer’s Christianity, which taught submission to authority, acceptance of suffering, and gratitude for being “civilized.” Liberation theology and Indigenous expressions of Christian faith exist and thrive, reading the Bible as a call to justice. But they are always in tension with the Christianity of empire, which baptizes nationalism, blesses weapons, and calls conquest holy.

When we see Pete Hegseth’s church teaching that women should not vote, we recognize patriarchy cloaked in scripture. When we see Marco Rubio pushing for military intervention while claiming Christian values, we recognize the same hypocrisy that blessed muskets aimed at our tūpuna. When we see JD Vance calling political violence spiritual martyrdom, we recognize the conflation of faith and power that has justified genocide for centuries.

The Legal and Moral Catastrophe

The legal framework for these military actions is nonsense, and dangerous nonsense at that. The claim that drug cartels constitute a “non-state armed group” engaged in “armed conflict” with the United States stretches international law beyond recognition. Armed conflict has specific legal meanings under the Geneva Conventions. It requires organized armed violence, territorial control, and command structure. Drug trafficking organizations, however violent, do not meet this threshold.

More fundamentally, even accepting the armed conflict framework does not authorize military action in another nation’s territorial waters or airspace without consent or UN Security Council authorization. The United States has neither. Venezuela has not invited intervention. The UN has not authorized it. The strikes are illegal under international law.

The moral catastrophe is even worse. At least 27 people are dead. Were they all involved in drug trafficking? We do not know. There has been no transparent evidence, no independent investigation, no due process. Trump declares them “narco-terrorists” and the bombs fall. When the October 15 strike left survivors who were taken into US custody, it created a legal nightmare: Are they prisoners of war? Criminal defendants entitled to lawyers and trials? Or some new category of permanent legal limbo like Guantanamo Bay?

UN-appointed human rights experts condemned the strikes as “extrajudicial executions.” That is the correct term. These are not law enforcement actions. They are assassinations without trial.

For an administration led by self-proclaimed Christians, this is damning beyond words. Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers” and “Love your enemies.” He said “Let the one without sin cast the first stone.” The entire thrust of the Gospel is toward mercy, reconciliation, and care for the vulnerable. Yet this administration wages war, condemns without trial, and shows no mercy.

Hidden Connections: The Christian Nationalist Network

The connections between people, places, events, and ideologies reveal a coordinated effort spanning decades. Pete Hegseth’s Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches is led by Doug Wilson, who has trained thousands of young men in Christian nationalist ideology at his Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. Marco Rubio nominated María Corina Machado for the Nobel Peace Prize. She won on October 10. She dedicated it to Trump. She has coordinated with the administration on post-Maduro plans. JD Vance spoke at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service on September 21, calling him a Christian martyr. Stephen Miller, senior advisor known for brutal immigration policies, spoke of spiritual awakening.

These are not coincidences. They are nodes in a network. Organizations like Turning Point USA, founded by Charlie Kirk, trained young conservatives in Christian nationalist ideology. Elite networks like the Council for National Policy brought together wealthy donors, religious leaders, and politicians. Media outlets like Fox News, where Hegseth worked before becoming Defense Secretary, promoted the worldview to millions.

In Latin America, US evangelical organizations have worked for decades to counter progressive movements. During the Cold War, the CIA funded evangelical churches as alternatives to liberation theology. Today, evangelical Christians wield significant political power in countries like Brazil, where they helped elect far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro. The connection between US Christian nationalism and Latin American evangelical politics is transnational, coordinated, and explicit.

The oil industry connection is equally clear. Christian nationalist politicians consistently align with fossil fuel interests. They oppose environmentalism as part of the secular leftist agenda they seek to defeat. Venezuela’s nationalized oil industry represents both an economic target and an ideological one: a socialist government controlling resources that “the market” should allocate. Regime change would open those fields to US corporate control while striking a blow against socialism.

The intersections of race, class, and gender are fundamental. Christian nationalism is about preserving a particular vision of social order: white, patriarchal, capitalist, and Christian. Hegseth’s church teaches women should not vote or hold military leadership. The broader movement opposes LGBTQ rights, racial justice, and economic redistribution. Venezuela under Chávez and Maduro, whatever its failures, elevated the poor and marginalized, empowered Indigenous and Afro-Venezuelan communities, and challenged white elite dominance. That is why Christian nationalists viscerally oppose it.

What Happens Next: The Catastrophic Scenarios

If the United States invades Venezuela or succeeds in overthrowing Maduro through covert action, the results will be catastrophic. Iraq and Libya show us what US regime change produces: hundreds of thousands dead, millions displaced, countries fractured by sectarian violence, infrastructure destroyed, and no functioning democracy emerging.

For Venezuela, it would mean immediate bloodshed. The Venezuelan military numbers about 125,000 active personnel plus 1.6 million militia members. A US invasion would face urban warfare in cities like Caracas with millions of inhabitants. Civilian casualties would be massive. Refugees would flood neighboring Colombia and Brazil, destabilizing the region.

For Latin America, it would signal that US military force trumps sovereignty, international law, and regional autonomy. The “Monroe Doctrine” mentality that treats the hemisphere as a US sphere of influence would be reasserted with brutal clarity. Any government that defies US corporate interests would understand it could be next.

For international law, the precedent would be disastrous. If the United States can declare “armed conflict” with cartels to justify strikes in other countries’ waters and territory, the UN Charter prohibition on use of force means nothing. Any powerful country could use the same logic.

For Christian witness, the damage is already done but would compound. When people wielding bombs and authorizing assassinations claim to follow Jesus Christ, they make Christianity synonymous with empire, violence, and oppression. This drives people from the faith and distorts it for those who remain, teaching them that loving your enemy means killing them if they resist.

What New Zealand Must Do

New Zealand has a proud history of independent foreign policy. We refused nuclear weapons when it cost us our ANZUS alliance. We opposed the Iraq War when our traditional allies demanded support. We have consistently advocated for international law, human rights, and peaceful resolution of conflicts.

Now we must speak clearly. Our government must condemn US military aggression against Venezuela. We must call for respect for Venezuelan sovereignty. We must demand that any intervention have UN Security Council authorization, which this does not and will not. We must offer humanitarian support to Venezuelan people without taking sides in their internal political disputes.

We must also educate ourselves and each other. Most Kiwis have no idea this is happening. The media coverage has been minimal and often uncritical of US claims. We need to share information, have conversations, and build public pressure for our government to act.

As individuals, we can support Venezuelan civil society organizations working for human rights and democracy without supporting US military intervention. We can donate to humanitarian relief. We can amplify Venezuelan voices calling for peaceful solutions. We can challenge the narrative that this is about drugs or democracy when it is clearly about oil and ideology.

The Crusade Must Be Named and Stopped

This is a crusade. Not metaphorically. Not symbolically. Literally. Christian nationalist zealots who believe God has ordained them to crush socialism, seize oil resources, and reshape Latin America through military force are pushing the United States toward war with Venezuela. They are lying about the justifications. They are violating international law. They are killing people without trial. And they are doing it in the name of Jesus Christ, whose teachings they betray with every bomb dropped and every life taken.

The Māori Green Lantern Fighting Misinformation And Disinformation From The Far Right

For Māori and all Indigenous peoples, this is our fight too. The same ideologies that colonized us are colonizing them. The same Christianity that blessed the theft of our lands is blessing the theft of their oil. The same empire that claimed to civilize us through violence is claiming to liberate them through war.

We must name this clearly: Christian nationalism is a heresy that worships power instead of the Prince of Peace. It is the religion of empire, not the Gospel of liberation. It must be opposed by all people of conscience, Christian and non-Christian alike, because the alternative is more death, more destruction, and more decades of suffering for people whose only crime was sitting on resources that powerful men covet.

The Venezuelan people deserve to determine their own future, free from US bombs and CIA operatives. International law exists to prevent exactly this kind of aggression. If we allow it to be shredded when convenient for powerful nations, we are all less safe.

Speak up. Organize. Pressure our government. Share this information. Do not let this war happen in silence.

Ka kite anō.

Ko te aroha me te whakapono, e tu tonu.

The Māori Green Lantern

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