Readers Write: Military action in Venezuela, fraud

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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The Jan. 6 Readers Write section presents us with many letters opining that the arrest of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is “an act of war” (“If this isn’t an act of war, what is?”). President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Republicans in general are blamed for this “transgression.” So let me offer a contrary opinion, that of retired Navy Admiral James Stavridis, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, who also commanded America’s Southern Command that was responsible for operations in South and Central America. Stavridis is also chair emeritus of the U.S. Naval Institute Board and senior military analyst for CNN.

Stavridis has expressed the opinion that the capture and taking into custody of Maduro, a wanted criminal charged with violating U.S. drug and weapons laws, was a lawful, precise mission aimed at bringing a criminal suspect into the U.S. justice system. It was, in his opinion, a law enforcement action, not an act of war.

Something as important as this operation deserves to have both sides of the issue presented.

Ronald Haskvitz, Minnetonka

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This invasion by our government of Venezuela must alarm every American. Such action without congressional approval is illegal. There was no inciting incident necessitating such an invasion and capture of a foreign leader. It is rich to hear that we will be running Venezuela when this entire administration is incapable of running our country.

It is long overdue for Congress to rein in this wayward president, who promised to act for Americans first. Military action brings on debt and takes money from domestic needs — education, health care, housing. Every Minnesotan should contact members of Congress to oppose this administration’s actions.

Mary Kemen, Chanhassen

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The entire chorus of voices (count ‘em — eight!) in the Jan. 6 Readers Write section excoriated the recent action to arrest Maduro and his wife to face U.S. justice. May I remind all of them just who established the $25 million bounty on Maduro — and did nothing to enforce it? President Joe Biden.

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What irks me the most about Trump’s decision to invade Venezuela and kidnap Maduro is the permission it tacitly gives Russia and China to do the same thing. America now has no moral high ground upon which to stand if Russia goes after Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy or if China bombs Taiwan. Try as he may to rationalize “Operation Absolute Resolve,” Trump has demonstrated that he, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are cut from the same cloth. For these three playground bullies, national sovereignty means nothing, and the ends always justify the means. Shame on each of them!

Alan Bray, St. Peter, Minn.

The Trump administration has systematically canceled loans for small businesses and funding for subsidized child care across the board in Minnesota under the specter of fraud. There have been multiple fraud prosecutions and convictions in Minnesota stemming from the Feeding Our Future scheme that the Star Tribune has attributed to a taxpayer loss of $250 million. This, in addition to fraud investigations in other social service programs, has given Minnesota an uncomfortable spotlight. The state GOP, sensing political benefit, has engaged conservative social media influencers to intensify and expand that attention.

If we take a break from instant outrage, however, we can see the political play unfolding on the sensationalized premise of fraud even as the real numbers tell a different story. Human service programs are complex sets of laws, rules and person-to-person interactions. Numbers without clear context actually tell us very little. So let’s look at the claims and their actual contexts.

Childcare Aware MN publishes the costs of child care in Minnesota and has listed the cost of weekly care for center-based care in the metro for a toddler at about $400 a week. A full-time placement for an infant can amount to the $22,000 average annual cost of child care in the state, per a report by Nina Moini on MPR from March 2025. For a center licensed to care for up to 100 children, one can easily see how care could add up to annual billing of well over a million dollars. A complicated child care funding formula is based on center and staff qualifications, time of children in care and any specific or special needs of those children.

So for an uninformed individual to make claims about such a complicated and rule-bound activity like child care, which is one of the most regulated and evaluated services in the state, just doesn’t give us confidence in the credibility of their claims. The collective punishment for tens of thousands of Minnesota families based on unproven claims, canceling funding for the child care they depend on to be able to work, will have a deep impact on the state’s economy. And one has to wonder under this administration if that is not the actual target.

Anita Newhouse, Minneapolis

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Our founding fathers recognized that their new and revolutionary form of government was dependent upon its citizens being honest and trustworthy. They said that if this was not the case, a large enforcement contingent of police and military presence would be needed in order to maintain law and order. And now, as our society has become more secular, less honest and less trustworthy, we can only assume that there will be more and more fraud and dishonesty. That said, I can’t help but wonder how large an enforcement contingency will be required to ensure that the new Minnesota paid family leave is free of abuse and fraud. Who will ensure that an employee is actually caring for an elderly parent or a sick young child? Who will ensure that a man’s wife has even recently given birth?

I for one am becoming more and more skeptical and less likely to believe that the greater majority of citizens will “do the right thing.” I anticipate that we will be standing by watching our taxes and the cost of living continue to rise as the result of this anticipated lack of honesty and integrity.