Trump, Venezuela, the Media, and the Abduction of Maduro w/ Nolan Higdon

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On this edition of Parallax Views, critical media literacy scholar Nolan Higdon of The Gaslight Gazette joins the show to unpack what is unfolding right now in Venezuela following the U.S. military’s seizure of President Nicolás Maduro. Drawing on his recent analysis, Higdon examines how familiar narratives — “narco-terrorism,” the war on drugs, and energy security — are being rapidly mobilized to normalize what amounts to an extraordinary act of regime change.

Higdon breaks down how the charge of “narcoterrorism” functions less as a factual claim than as a flexible legal and media framework, one that allows U.S. policymakers to recast military intervention as law enforcement while sidestepping serious questions about international law, sovereignty, and constitutional authority. He situates this rhetoric within a longer history of U.S. interventions where criminalization replaces diplomacy and invasion is reframed as necessity.

The conversation also interrogates claims that Venezuelan oil is central to U.S. energy security, with Higdon noting how negotiations and existing arrangements were previously rejected — suggesting that control, leverage, and geopolitical signaling matter more than resource access itself. From naval blockades to information management, he outlines how pressure campaigns escalate into open force while media coverage often lags behind the reality on the ground.

Links:

Oil, Narcoterrorism, and Regime Change by Nolan Higdon - The Gaslight Gazette