Prosecutors have already admitted that the "Cartel of the Suns" – the drugs organization Maduro supposedly led – does not exist. Moreover, the supposed "key witness" in the investigation has a deeply shady history working with U.S. intelligence.

Maduro pled not guilty and asserted that he is a "prisoner of war". Yet Donald Trump has insisted that the U.S. is not at war with Venezuela. But how else to describe sending in Special Forces to kidnap the head of state of a foreign country?

Today, Mnar Adley is joined by MintPress News' Senior Staff Writer and Producer, Alan MacLeod, the author of the book, "Bad News From Venezuela, 20 Years of Fake News and Misreporting."

The corporate media have played their part in a decades-long campaign to undermine and attack Venezuela, refusing to describe Trump's blatantly illegal actions as "kidnapping" or illegal. The BBC has made it explicit, its news editor sending a memo to all journalists explicitly telling them to "avoid using" the word "kidnapped".

Western leaders have welcomed Trump's actions. Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, for instance, celebrated the end of what he called "Nicolás Maduro's brutally oppressive criminal regime," and "welcome[d] the opportunity for freedom, democracy, peace, and prosperity for the Venezuelan people." His reaction was quite different when, last year, Trump considered the possibility of invading and annexing Canada.

Yet, across the Global South, leaders have condemned the kidnapping of a sitting head of state. South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa summed up the mood, stating, "We reject utterly the actions that the United States has embarked upon, and stand with the people of Venezuela."