Maduro, Militarization, and a New World Order? 

On January 3, 2026, U.S. military forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas and brought him to New York to face drug trafficking charges; he remains imprisoned in Brooklyn. The operation followed months of extralegal U.S. military attacks on shipping vessels throughout the Caribbean that left dozens dead.  While U.S. military involvement in Latin American and the Caribbean has a long history, these events may signal something new in U.S. foreign policy driven by securitization, controlling energy sources, and the indiscriminate use of militarized force to achieve policy goals. Please join us for a teach-in where faculty draw on their expertise and offer insight to understand these events and broader processes of militarization both globally and at home.

Ana Díaz Burgos, Hispanic Studies 

Sebastiaan Faber, Hispanic Studies

Meredith Gadsby, Africana Studies

Kristina Mani, Politics

Baron Pineda, Anthropology

Steven Volk, History (emeritus)

Amanda Zadorian, Politics

Gina Pérez, Comparative American Studies, moderator

Organized by the Department of Comparative American Studies