I grew up in the shadow of the Cuban regime, in Miami-Dade County, Florida, where around half of the population is Cuban American, myself included. My family members are refugees who were forced to flee after the 1959 communist revolution and the persecution, oppression and starvation that followed. This situation is not unique for someone from South Florida.
So, when I woke up on the morning of Jan. 3, 2026, and saw the news that U.S. forces had captured Nicólas Maduro, I was ecstatic, knowing that the twin regime of the dictatorship that murdered my family was getting its due and knowing that Cuba will soon get the same. In a Forum article I wrote back in October, I directly advocated for American intervention to overthrow Maduro, and now, it has occurred. Yet my joy was nothing compared to that of my Venezuelan friends. Likewise, when I saw on Feb. 28 that we had killed Ayatollah Khamenei, I was overjoyed that we had finally eliminated the world’s biggest terrorist, responsible for unleashing terror throughout the world and the deaths of countless innocent civilians, including many Americans. But, yet again, my joy was nothing compared to that of my Persian friends.
The operations in Venezuela and Iran represent tremendous military and moral successes. Objections that cite international law ring hollow — the so-called leaders of these countries were terrorists and thugs with illegitimate and dictatorial claims to leadership. In fact, Maduro hasn’t even been recognized as the legitimate President of Venezuela since 2019. Through these actions, the United States has given the Venezuelan and Iranian peoples something that they haven’t had in a long time: hope. Now, there is hope that tomorrow might hold a brighter future, that there is more to life than misery. That must be celebrated and replicated in every other nation ruled by enemies of freedom. Among those, of course, is Cuba, the country my family had to flee more than half a century ago, whose people yearn for the same freedom and hope we are blessed to enjoy today here in the United States.
Doral, the heart of the Venezuelan-American community in Miami, was overjoyed at the news of Maduro’s capture. Venezuela was once the richest country in South America and one of the richest in the world, but 25 years of economic mismanagement on the part of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro have resulted in 8 million people — a third of all Venezuelans — fleeing the country and causing the largest refugee crisis in the world. Unlike almost any other refugee crisis, there is no war that has caused this. It is a crisis caused and exacerbated solely by the government. What the United States has done is dethrone a tyrant responsible for the destruction of his country and the death of countless people through starvation and political oppression. Anyone with reservations or opposition to American actions should bother to see what actual Venezuelans think. I promise you, very few are upset with us.
In Iran, the Islamic Republic has also terrorized its citizens for 47 years. The assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei — as well as many other high-ranking government and military officials — signifies a bold and dramatic shift in American policy towards the regime, one that is necessary and long overdue. The demonstrations that erupted throughout the country and have consumed it over the last two months represent the largest wave of protests against the rule of the mullahs since the birth of the Islamic Republic half a century ago. With American support, Iranians have been given the opportunity to take back their country.
In addition to bringing an end to horrific tyranny, the deposition of the Shi’ite clerics ruling Iran would also do immense good beyond the borders of Iran. The Axis of Resistance — the name the Islamic regime uses to refer to itself and its proxies throughout the Middle East — has caused immense human suffering in the region. Groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, to name the most notable members, have killed scores of innocent civilians and bear much of the responsibility for the endless conflict in the Middle East in recent years. While cutting the head off the snake would not immediately lead to peace, it would, in the long run, save the lives of many people and allow for a real future for the region.
If one genuinely believes in the words of Dr. King that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” then the assassination of Khamenei and the deposition of the Islamic theocracy is one of the most morally good and necessary actions in recent memory.
All signs seem to indicate that Cuba, a country very near and dear to my heart, is the next domino to fall. The perception of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara as liberators is a fiction. The truth regarding these men, along with Raúl Castro, Miguel Díaz-Canel and the rest of the regime, must be stated plainly: They were murderers, terrorists and thugs. I have family members who were murdered and executed at their hands, family members that I never got to know. 30 years ago, on Feb. 24, 1996, my great-uncle, Armando Alejandre, Jr. — an American citizen who voluntarily joined the Marines at the age of 18 and fought in Vietnam — was murdered, along with 3 others, on the explicit and premeditated orders of Raúl Castro. The unarmed civilian aircraft they were flying were shot down outside of Cuban airspace. Their killers — the leaders of the communist regime — have not been brought to justice.
Today, the Cuban regime is at its weakest. Thus far, the Trump administration has rightfully acted to cut off energy to the island. It must be noted that the actual citizens of Cuba do not have electricity, regardless of what the United States does. All Trump has done is rob the tyrants of their own electricity and let them taste what they have wrought upon their people. Condemnations on the part of the United Nations are the words of men who are, at best, feckless cowards. Regime change must be the goal. The Cuban regime that lies just 90 miles off our shores is an affront to who we are as Americans. It is an affront to the universal principles upon which our nation is founded that governments derive their “just powers from the consent of the governed.” So long as communists remain in charge of Cuba, she has no future but despair, starvation and poverty.
This year marks the first year of my life where I can genuinely say that I believe I will be able to go to the country where my mother was born. As long as I can remember, an end to the dictatorship has always felt like a far-off dream. That changed on Jan. 3, 2026. The day of Maduro’s arrest should mark a sustained end to a policy of tolerating tyrants, birthing a new trend of intolerance for tyranny abroad. Just as Maduro was removed from power, just as Khamenei was reduced to a pile of ashes, so must Díaz-Canel and every other tyrant. The Axis of Evil centered in Moscow and Beijing has to be brought down. Every dictator should feel threatened. If one has the power to do good, one must. We have the power to liberate people from tyranny, and that is what we must do, within the realm of realism and prudence.
What happened to Maduro and Khamenei should send a message to the despots of the world: The United States of America will do everything in its power to remove them from power. Opposing tyranny is not enough if you do not actively seek to destroy it. Anything less is an act of moral cowardice.
Gabriel Khuly CM ’28 is a dual major in Government and Classical Studies who loves America because he knows how precious it is.
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