Fernando Horta: "The world of laws and treaties ended the day Trump kidnapped Maduro."

247 - The kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by US forces has exposed, according to historian Fernando Horta, a new geopolitical reality that puts Brazil directly at risk. In an interview with the program Brasil Agora, on TV 247, Horta stated that the action of the government of Donald Trump, the current president of the United States, broke with two centuries of diplomatic cooperation.

“Donald Trump threw this whole world in the trash on the 4th,” he declared. Horta explained that what was broken is not only the post-war legal framework, but the entire logic that has organized relations between countries since the 18th century.

"It's not just a violation of international law. It's a violation of all the precepts of diplomacy that we've known since the 18th and 19th centuries," he said.

According to him, the idea that there were common rules to avoid wars and aggression was discarded by the United States.

"From the 18th century onwards, people were convinced that there were laws, treaties, courts, and standards of conduct that guaranteed everyone's safety. Meanwhile, the United States was producing aircraft carriers, fighter jets, and gaining control over satellites," he stated.

And he added: "Now they've laid it all out on the table. Anyone who believed all that was a fool."

According to him, from a technological standpoint, Brazil is even more vulnerable than Venezuela to US surveillance and intervention. 

"If they were able to carry out this operation against Maduro the way they did, I would ask them to warn Alexandre de Moraes, Lula, and everyone else that, from now on, nobody is safe anymore," he declared.

The comment was made after the United States Department of Justice, under the administration of Donald Trump, the country's current president, backtracked on the accusation that Maduro headed the so-called Cartel de los Soles, abandoning the thesis of a structured criminal organization and instead treating him merely as someone who "operates within these structures."

For Horta, the change confirms that the arrest had no real legal basis. "That narrative of narcoterrorism was meant to convince the world that the actions were legitimate. Now they don't need to convince anyone of anything anymore," he said.

According to the historian, the operation against Maduro was only possible because the United States controls global information flows.
"They have disabled all essential communications via the digital world within Venezuela," he stated.

Horta explained that the Venezuelan president's location was determined through the analysis of data from connected devices. "Nowadays, air conditioners are smart, refrigerators are smart, vacuum cleaners are smart. All these devices produce a massive amount of information."

He pointed out that authoritarian regimes already used rudimentary methods of surveillance. "In '64, the Brazilian military regime monitored bakeries to see where bread sales increased. The United States does the same thing today with energy and data flow," he highlighted.

Brazil even more exposed
Horta issued a warning about Brazil's position. "Venezuela had a lower rate of integration into international networks than Brazil. Brazil is much more vulnerable to this than Venezuela," he said. He added, "There is no tank, no plane, no missile, nothing that cannot be digitally disabled."

2026 elections at risk
For Horta, the offensive against Venezuela inaugurates a new phase of international interference.
"The 2026 elections are now necessarily taking on an international component," he stated. And he concluded: "They've shown they can locate any leader. If they want to, they know where Lula is."