FROM ECONOMIC BLOCKADE TO PRESIDENTIAL ABDUCTION: POLITICAL UNILATERALISM, THE EROSION OF MULTILATERALISM, AND THE VIOLATION OF VENEZUELAN SOVEREIGNTY IN CONTEMPORARY U.S. IMPERIALISM

Abstract

The research examines the invasion of Venezuelan territory on 3 January 2026 and the abduction of the head of State as events that reveal the combined operation of economic coercion, legal flexibility and direct military force in the contemporary reshaping of imperial practices. The study identifies how sanctions, financial blockades and armed actions generate systematic erosion of Venezuelan sovereignty by altering institutional capacities, constraining governance and producing social environments marked by instability that affects everyday relations and collective survival. The core objective is to understand how these mechanisms interact to transform the country into a testing ground for hegemonic strategies that employ economic instruments and extraterritorial operations to impose rearrangements that intensify State vulnerability. The methodology, grounded in bibliographical research and document analysis, maps dynamics linking structural dependence, geopolitical pressure and selective reinterpretations of international law used to justify interventions that weaken normative boundaries. The preliminary conclusion indicates that the invasion and the presidential abduction are not isolated episodes but stages of an ongoing process that expands global coercive practices, produces risks for other regions and signals the enlargement of disputes involving strategic territories after 2026, underscoring the need for renewed scrutiny of international mechanisms designed to safeguard sovereignty.