Venezuela 2002=Chile 1973

I have a couple of friends from Venezuela, and suffice to say that their take over time is that Chavez apparently burned all his bridges readily on his own -- though doubtless some spook types knew how to use that to their advantage.

US govt officials accuse this president of being firends with both sadam hussein and fidel castro - two men of similar political views I''m sure, and venezuelan president was one of few leaders to say after sept 11 that US should consider what were the policies that led to it being under attack. Venezuela also controlling large chunk of non-arab oil, essential in US govt's plans to not be held hostage by iran/iraq/saudi oil embargo.

http://pilger.carlton.com/print/98841

He is just a bit too too concerned to demonstrate that his analysis of what's wrong been with the world since the 60s is thus confirmed in toto as per usual. Suppose someone was turning over the following worry in their mind: "But look at Chile now. Democracy is returned and the dictators are toppled: Pinochet's respectability is crumbling , and lawyers are preparing to bring Kissinger to book... Yes yes what happened in 1973 was horrible, but who's to say that it won't prove in the long run a better route to the humbling (and communal policing) of US misbehaviour in Latin America?" They would be baffled at best (certainly not speedily persuaded) by Pilger's automatic assumptions about outcomes.

On another note, Chavez is no Allende much less a Castro and more akin to the Christian-dem wing of the Sandanistas.

On another note -- anyone who asked yr. posed question about Chile would bea FUCKING IDIOT as there is no way that even the middle-of-road mainstream of the U.S. has claimed Chile wasn't that bad all-in-all. Many people dead, institution of dictatorship, and economic ruin ANYWAY = bad things. Restitution, as you well know, especially in more limited "bring the perps to justice" sense, does not perform resurrection.

since venezuela now is NOT chile 30 years ago, why on earth hook the story on the similarity? my point is that the neophyte will tend to look at chile NOW not chile then and say, what's the point being made? i am not pretending my posed question is smart or deep, i am trying to imagine a naive poorly informed outsider such as has been created by pilger's idea of the monolithic us/uk media => who does pilger imagine he speaking to/writing for? (possibly i am over- imagining the degree of nondiscussion and soft-shoeing round chile in the us media, which i after all don't see that much of; if i am over-reaching in my assumption that such a neophyte, informed only by the us mainstream, would have a rather too rosy view of the disaster of latin america under US hegemony, i think i know who i wd blame my assumptions on

erm i don't think anything achieves resurrection

At any rate, I'd love to be the fly on the wall at the next OPEC meeting, when Chavez hobnobs with the various sheikhs and whatnot.

The main problem is rilly more that ppl. who know about Chile *at all* are a limited audience for an article like this.

(geoff this report was 1.oo gmt)

the presedential address was done from within the palace, and then all the national tv has been showing is a repeat of his address and the celebrations...it's a bit bloody weird

Chavez won a landslide victory in a democratic election.

King George seized power in a coup after losing an election.

PM - Monday, April 15, 2002 6:45

To the oil-rich South American nation of Venezuela, and its on-again, off-again coup.

Rumours in the capital Caracas say it is on again because President Hugo Chavez has not been seen or heard of since his triumphant return to his official residence early yesterday morning.

He was to address the nation in the evening but failed to appear, and the country remains in chaos.

Not helping matters are the wild rumours that President Chavez has been kidnapped by dissident military officers.

the full audio story is: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/2002/04/15/20020415pm08.asx

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/16/international/americas/16DIPL.html

"human rights," we love em

"A member of the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s brutal secret police who’s been accused of murder taught for more than a decade at the Pentagon’s premier university, despite repeated complaints by his colleagues about his past.

Jaime Garcia Covarrubias is charged in criminal court in Santiago with being the mastermind in the execution-style slayings of seven people in 1973, according to court documents. McClatchy also interviewed an accuser who identified Garcia Covarrubias as the person who sexually tortured him.

Despite knowing of the allegations, State and Defense department officials allowed Garcia Covarrubias to retain his visa and continue working at a school affiliated with the National Defense University until last year.

Human rights groups also question the school’s selection of a second professor, Colombia’s former top military commander.

Some Latin America experts said the hirings by the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies reflected a continuing inclination by the U.S government to overlook human rights violations in Latin America, especially in countries where it funded efforts to quash leftists."

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/03/12/259553/chilean-accused-of-murder-torture.html

[Thread] There is a coup d'etat attempt underway here in Venezuela 🇻🇪, fueled by tons of fake news.

In this thread, I'll debunk some of the most egregious and viral fake stories circulating.

Add your own in the replies.

— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) July 29, 2024

You can tell a lot about a movement's values from what they destroy. When the Right riots (anywhere) they burn institutions that serve the people, religious buildings that aren't their own, union halls and community centers where worker power and real democracy are nurtured. https://t.co/wOKrZnQEYv

— Tovarisch (@nwbtcw) July 30, 2024

This is a much better thread:

Since the international "left" is so convinced Venezuela is not a dictatorship and the voice of the people is being heard with these elections, here's a thread:

✨poor/indigenous/racialized people protesting/voting against the Maduro government in the last 48 hours✨

— Andrea Paola Hernández (@andreapaolahg_) July 30, 2024

Maduro has lost Chavista strongholds. It’s not the upper middle class on the streets.

The Venezuelans I know who've moved in the last five to six years are former Chavistas pretty embittered and fed up with Maduro -- a sense of having lost their patience.

100%

Massive expansion in the gaps between rich and poor, trickle-down economics, huge disparities caused by Dollarisarion, crackdowns on the left, erosion of workers’ rights, etc, even before you get to the theft of the election.

Miami's full of Venezuelans and their stories vary. You've got the middle-class ones who fled in the early/mid '00s to an increasingly proletarian base in the last decade. I'd shudder to put them in the same room.

i love mcleod's consistent refusal to identify the source of anything

Thanks SV, I wanted other views on what has been going on.

https://x.com/GMomurder who I think is a Chinese Venezuelan communist, has been posting / retweeting a bunch of useful stuff recently.

Grand, have given it a follow.

Pretty good piece and thread.

I wrote about Venezuela’s election for @NewLeftReview Sidecar. Brief 🧵with the main takeaway:

“A careful consideration of the evidence suggests the election results are not just difficult but impossible to believe.”https://t.co/nGfLhd93AL 1/

— Gabriel Hetland (@GabrielHetland) August 21, 2024

Not too surprising given the world we live in but its still worthy of note how this pardon is being given for a political figure convicted of drug trafficking, while another is facing invasion because of alledged drug trafficking.

https://apnews.com/article/honduras-trump-hernandez-pardon-drugs-e858428426bcae1df8eef3341e2fcd20

Yeah but one is cocaine which fuels his sons and members of the administration, a good white collar drug

It appears the bombing of Caracas has begun

https://www.reddit.com/r/vzla/comments/1q2na6z/megathread_bombardeo_en_fuerte_tiuna/

Reported by the times now

Wouldn’t take one reddit post as evidence of anything at all but this has been confirmed by actual credible sources (of which the NYT is clearly not one either).

https://bsky.app/profile/justinling.ca/post/3mbishvct622c

https://f24.my/BeIV

(Can’t really comment on the credibility of France 24 but at least it’s not American.)

CBS the first major to acknowledge it's a US attack

Full thread on the Polymarket user who bet big on Venezuela regime change before Jan 31
https://bsky.app/profile/bluser12.bsky.social/post/3mbiwc7s2yk2k

So sick. Hope they lose big on betting on Maduro out by the end of the month (not that I love him either).

The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow. There will be a News Conference today at 11 A.M., at Mar-a-Lago. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Truth social post apparently

Just so disgusting

So are they gonna put that lady who just won tne Nobel peace prize in power? Hettimg Myanmar vibes from this

Jesus fucking Christ the international community needs to get it together and wipe this rogue state off the face of the earth

ugh! just absolutely sickening. I hope the regime can still repel these scum.

good luck usa

Some saying Maduro negotiated his leaving Venezuela, in which case Trump is talking out his arse... again.

South America rapidly going fash anyway, so I don't suppose we'll be hearing too many complaints from other regional leaders.

idk what the plan is if Padrino López and Cabello are still in position. Maduro wasn’t the most powerful or important person in government and there was talk as recently as yesterday about him leaving.

USO delenda est

in Miami few people, much less Venezuelans, will blink. Maduro is bad, therefore he must go.

I think that’s probably going to be a fairly common sentiment across the region but idk what happens if Delcy just takes his place and nothing much changes.

someone posted that there are reports the interior minister (Cabello?) has been assassinated. But it sounds like, albeit just from posts and speculation there was no military resistance and it was a done deal.

like Trump has had the parliament building bombed just for show

Cabello is still there.

Venezuela 🇻🇪: Diosdado Cabello, minister of Interior and basically the regime's enforcer has appeared in public, showing reports of his death or capture were false.

As long as Diosdado remains in the picture we can't speak of an actual 'regime-change' in Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/182uXdIEOB

— Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) January 3, 2026

I think that’s probably going to be a fairly common sentiment across the region but idk what happens if Delcy just takes his place and nothing much changes.

LOL @ Sky presenter: "Tell me about Delcy Rodriguez, what kind of man is he?"

Oh dear.

The US🇺🇸 has reportedly even bombed the mausoleum of Hugo Chavez, the former leader of Venezuela’s🇻🇪 Bolivarian Revolution.

This is the most heinous representation of the US’ hatred for the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Not even the dead are safe from the US’… https://t.co/U9DrKmX34X pic.twitter.com/kVXD5c1GDw

— Afshin Rattansi (@afshinrattansi) January 3, 2026

Diosdado confirmed still in charge. If the report is true and the US are not planning further actions it means they’re actually leaving him, Padrino, and Delcy completely in charge, which is what Maduro offered months ago. https://t.co/nvIev5ONpH

— punished giorgio (@GMomurder) January 3, 2026

kier starmer: “we were not involved. we need to establish the facts. we always need to uphold international law. we’re working with the embassy to make sure the 500 british nationals in venezuela are safe”

do you condemn it? “we need to establish the facts”

international law is pretty clear, you can only attack another country in self defence or with UN security council approval so idk what he’s on about

lol apparently rubio says maduro will stand trial in the US on criminal charges?

in Miami few people, much less Venezuelans, will blink. Maduro is bad, therefore he must go.

― The Luda of Suburbia (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 3 January 2026 bookmarkflaglink

Those ppl may also want Trump permanently in power.

He has been facing charges since 2020, I think, hence the $25m bounty on his head, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they let him go into exile somewhere.

international law is pretty clear, you can only attack another country in self defence or with UN security council approval so idk what he’s on about

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, January 3, 2026 4:26 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

geopolitics hack: he’s a narcoterrorist at war with the US. now we can do whatever we want

This all seems bad.

Those ppl may also want Trump permanently in power.

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, January 3, 2026 7:30 AM

Correct.

i wonder how miamians will feel about prices at the pump over the next few weeks/months

Julia Carrie Wong

Whatever the reason is for this, it isn’t stopping the flow of drugs into the US.

well that's because this has got fuck all to do with drugs

Hard to see how ousting a president in Latin America can tarnish the standing of a country that’s done the same thing lots of times. “Maduro must go” has been the U.S. rhetorical stance for a decade-plus. Beyond the brazen thuggery of it, and yes the hypocrisy of having just pardoned the last South American leader we imprisoned on criminal charges, it hardly amounts to “regime change.” Still leaves the basic question of what the bigger plan is, if there even is one.

I’m sure Trump will make all of that clear in his news conference 🙄

Yup. For some perspective: I can't see how this unconstitutional move will be received by the Venezuelan community here in South Florida. as anything but a relief. Maduro has, like, no support even among younger left-leaning Venezuelan exile (I read recently in a UN document that 27% of Venezuelans have fled in the last 15 years). Moreover, "Maduro sucks" has long been our foreign policy even under Obama and Biden. My guess is we're going to fret over the constitutional and foreign policy implications for a few days while the American public, who outside political blogs and the South Florida bubble have no idea who Maduro is or where Venezuela is, will move on.

Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Nicolas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States.

boycott this rogue state

That will happen if we just leave the regime in place with different leaders. If the invasion continues and is a true regime change mission, it will ignite a major conflict and humanitarian crisis in our hemisphere that people will not be able to ignore.

Xp alfred

Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Nicolas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States.

lol

conspiracy to possess machine guns? he was the president of a country.

Yes, it’s stupid but iirc it’s an add-on to suggest ‘use of machine guns while trafficking drugs’, which is a more serious charge, rather than a separate alleged crime.

drug trafficking stuff just seems like a pretty flimsy pretext. they haven't spelled out a plausible rationale.

Oil. Hello?

They have, depending on how much weight you put on the word "plausible". Two weeks ago Rubio said

We have a regime that’s illegitimate that cooperates with Iran, that cooperates with Hezbollah, that cooperates with narco-trafficking and narco-terrorist organizations inclusive, not just protecting their shipments and allowing them to operate with impunity, but also allows some of them to control territory, the ELN and the FARC-D. They have open camps that they control territory inside of Venezuela. That is our national interest, and that is what this is focused on.

That’s what we have been focused on the entire time, because that is the threat to the national interest of the United States.

Do we consider Maduro legitimate? No. It’s not me. A grand jury in New York in the southern district of New York was presented evidence and came back with an indictment, not just against Maduro, by the way, but against a bunch of people in his government, for narco-trafficking.

xpost well yes. Around the same time S Miller said

“American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. ... Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.”

I think my response would probably be, well okay, make your case to the UN Security Council, because that's the avenue you signed up to for using force unilaterally against international lawbreakers

I’m reminded that the removal of Noriega was called Operation Just Cause, which could apply to this as well — just ‘cause we want to.

oh yeah they're lining up ready to just that xpost

have any other Dems than Debbie W-S (who basically said Trump didn't go far enough) given comment yet?

Trump didn't notify Jeffries about the attack apparently.

Gallego has condemned it.

From Miami:

A sea of Venezuelan flags and hundreds of people could be seen gathered outside of El Arepazo in Doral before the sun rose on Saturday morning. Many cheered, danced, cried and embraced each other as they celebrated the capturing of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro, something they say will bring long needed change and liberation for the country.

Jennifer Santillan, 48, now lives in Doral after she left Venezuela five years ago, leaving behind a career as a lawyer and her work for Foro Penal, a Venezuelan human rights organizations that serves political prisoners. Santillan said she feels unimaginable happiness that the Venezuelan people will “finally have freedom.”

“Our young people will know a different type of government,” she said adding that she wants to see “all the innocent people who are unjustly imprisoned” be freed.

Kirvin Suarez, 49, said she has been waiting for this day for years. Her brother, Yormi Suarez, was killed in 2004 while protesting the Chavez regime, she said. He was shot and killed by a sniper, according to Suarez. He was 22.

“They took a brother, a son, an uncle,” Suarez said. “They took everything from us.” Suarez described Venezuelans as fighters and hardworkers who want to return to their country. “I know that all Venezuelans are going to rebuild are country,” she said.

Maybe there’s a bridge we can sell these people

I wouldn’t write off the legitimacy of their hatred of Maduro, that seems well earned. Thinking this means “freedom” obviously is uh naive.

This is 2003 all over again. Opponents of the war were accused of being apologists for Saddam.

Trump now saying that “something is gonna have to be done about Mexico” in an interview about Maduro.

It helps that Maduro looks a bit like Saddam.

it is way too on the nose that archie bunker trump is celebrating the murder of meathead

I think it was Bannon who compared Trump to Archie Bunker. Maybe the difference between them is the difference between the cruel reality of bigotry and the folksy version of bac

Trump now saying that “something is gonna have to be done about Mexico” in an interview about Maduro.

Oh they’re going to kidnap Claudia Scheinbaun too? Then other world leaders can “look into it.”

Sorry i messed something up in zing

EU are such fucking peasants

Following very closely the situation in Venezuela. We stand by the people of Venezuela and support a peaceful and democratic transition. Any solution must respect international law and the UN Charter.

With HRVP @kajakallas and in coordination with EU Member States, we are…

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) January 3, 2026

My guess is we're going to fret over the constitutional and foreign policy implications for a few days while the American public, who outside political blogs and the South Florida bubble have no idea who Maduro is or where Venezuela is, will move on.

otm

EU are such fucking peasants

Would bet dollars to doughnuts NATO/EU are behind this. Hard to imagine that they haven't been slavering over Venezuelan oil this whole time as means to isolate Russia

The statement is obviously very weak but I don’t see it as any kind of endorsement.

France seems have broken with EU on this, albeit in a pathetic milquetoast fashion "oh noes I think they might be breaking international law here" no shit le sherlock

profiles in courage stuff next to Starmer's response.

My guess is we're going to fret over the constitutional and foreign policy implications for a few days while the American public, who outside political blogs and the South Florida bubble have no idea who Maduro is or where Venezuela is, will move on.

Maybe in the short term but I suspect that once this filters through to gas prices that this will end up having quite an impact on the average USian

has the regime collapsed yet? like is this a certainty to happen? What are the chances that it becomes an elongated *special military operation*. Genuinely asking here, have not got a clue what is going on, on the ground - as it were.

Will this affect gas prices much? Venezuelan reserves are huge, but their production is a relative trickle — like 1 percent of global supply.

from the NYT:

The United States captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores. But Mr. Maduro’s inner circle appeared on Saturday morning to have survived the U.S. strikes on the country, though it was not immediately clear who was in power.

Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who is next in the presidential line of succession, figured among the Venezuelan officials issuing pronouncements or making public appearances after U.S. strikes on targets in the country.

While reports circulated that Ms. Rodríguez was in Russia at the time of the attacks, Ms. Rodríguez is in Caracas, according to three people close to her. Russian state media also denied reports that she was in Moscow.

Other top Maduro allies who appeared to survive the attacks included Vladimir Padrino López, the defense minister and Venezuela’s top ranking military officer; and Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister and one of Mr. Maduro’s top enforcers.

The survival of these officials suggests that Venezuela’s government remains functioning, at least shakily, in the hours after Mr. Maduro and the first lady were seized and extracted from the country.

If Mr. Maduro’s inner circle does remain intact and at the helm of Venezuela’s institutions, that also raises questions as to what happens next.

A war game run during President Trump’s first term assessed what may follow if Mr. Maduro were ousted, forecasting chaotic power struggles as military units, rival political factions and guerrilla groups vie for control of the country.

It is unclear how the intervention will influence the Venezuelan opposition’s ambitions to exercise power. Edmundo González, a retired diplomat, is considered the legitimate winner, by a wide margin, of a presidential election in 2024.

Unable to take office after the vote, Mr. González fled to Spain, ceding the spotlight to María Corina Machado, the opposition leader who had been barred from running and who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr. Trump appeared hesitant to throw his support behind Ms. Machado.

“Well, we have to look at it right now,” he said on Fox News on Saturday morning when asked if he would support her. “They have a vice president, as you know. I mean, I don’t know about what kind of an election that was, but, you know, the election of Maduro was a disgrace.”

Mr. Trump also suggested that his administration would continue to target Venezuelan government officials if they side with Mr. Maduro.

“If they stay loyal, the future is really bad, really bad for them,” he said.

Speaking by telephone on state television, Ms. Rodríguez, the vice president, invoked what she described as Mr. Maduro’s “instructions,” and called on the people and the armed forces to defend Venezuela.

Ms. Rodríguez also asked Mr. Trump to provide proof that Mr. Maduro is alive and condemned the U.S. intervention as an act of “military aggression” that violated the country’s sovereignty.

Nato/the EU

Regime hasn’t collapsed and isn’t likely to. Trump has suggested that the US is “still deciding” what happens next, which suggests that there is no clear plan. I don’t think anything short of a full invasion is likely to remove the government, but that might not be the goal if they can come to the kind of accommodation Trump was looking to make with Maduro last year.

The United States is going to be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry after the operation to capture Maduro, Trump told Fox News on Saturday. He said: “We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it.”

Already are!

I don’t think anything short of a full invasion is likely to remove the government, but that might not be the goal if they can come to the kind of accommodation Trump was looking to make with Maduro last year.

That pretty much is the Trump Doctrine, if you can call it that: The big shakedown. Just raw gangsterism, you make a deal with us or you get whacked. Which, yes, has been American foreign policy in various ways for a long time/forever, especially in Latin America. The Monroe Doctrine is almost as old as the country. But I think the difference with Trump is that his foreign policy like his domestic policy is not driven by some broader sense of "national self-interest" (which usually has meant corporate interests) but just literally by his self-interests, as he perceives them at any given time.

The statement is obviously very weak but I don’t see it as any kind of endorsement.

Lol it literally boils down to "out with the old, in with the new"

There is no new. PSUV are still in power.

You don’t say ‘any solution must respect international law and the UN charter’ if you think the current and potential actions follow international law and the UN charter.

It's called strategic distancing

France seems have broken with EU on this, albeit in a pathetic milquetoast fashion "oh noes I think they might be breaking international law here" no shit le sherlock

The French are the only Europeans with even a sliver of a backbone.

Talking about regime change like it's a foregone conclusion is pretty much admitting Trump gets to do whatever. Ofc you can throw in a scolding mention to international law and the UN charter, since everyone knows the US is exempt from both of those.

The EU’s position since the last election has been that Venezuela needed to have a peaceful transition to democratic government. I don’t think this is being positioned as that, both from the central statements and those from Spain, etc.

Italy seems pretty onboard, though.

https://i.imgur.com/eBig0BD.png

that content is not viewable in my region (UK)

The statement is obviously very weak but I don’t see it as any kind of endorsement.

― ShariVari, Saturday, 3 January 2026 bookmarkflaglink

In wanting to see a "Democratic transition" its a back handed endorsement of what has happened.

Potential for wider ramifications in Cuba. From Phillips O'Brien (the military analyst) : “Arguably the real military power behind the throne in Venezuela today is the tens of thousands of Cuban operatives in the country. These range from bodyguards protecting Maduro (a sign he cannot trust his own people) to intelligence operatives, to “sports advisers” to ground forces which are not called as such. Estimates of the total number of Cuban operatives range as high as 30,000.

One of the reasons Maduro has been unable to flee is that the Cubans, reportedly, were threatening to kill him if he did. Cuba needs Venezuelan oil to live, otherwise its regime could fail. The Cuban economy is a mess and the island has suffered regularly from power outages. Venezuelan fuel is keeping it going. The slow down already in oil deliveries because of the US attacks over the last few months has been felt seriously in Cuba.”

In wanting to see a "Democratic transition" its a back handed endorsement of what has happened.

They wanted to see a democratic transition before it happened! They don’t recognise the 2024 election results.

The real test is going to be how they respond to Trump arbitrarily deciding that the US will “run Venezuela” and the actions taken to make that possible. I fully expect them to be pathetic in response but I think it’s going to stop a way short of endorsing it.

xp I know! It sounds off to me because what has happened isn't a democratic transition. It feels like they just want to sound reasonable and not condemn this appalling action.

NYT ed board: "Trump’s Attack on Venezuela Is Illegal and Unwise"

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/opinion/venezuela-attack-trump-us.html

"We will hold out hope that the current crisis will end less badly than we expect. We fear that the result of Mr. Trump’s adventurism is increased suffering for Venezuelans, rising regional instability and lasting damage for America’s interests around the world. We know that Mr. Trump’s warmongering violates the law."

Unwise, eh

Xps

I read it more as ‘whatever happens next needs to be legitimate’ rather than ‘this was legitimate’ but idk what the plan is when the US ignores them, as they clearly will.

better than the washington post’s response…

OTMFM

Jan. 3, 2026, 12:29 p.m.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs White House reporter

Trump says Rubio and Hegseth will be a “team” working with the people of Venezuela to run Venezuela for this uncertain period of time. It’s unclear who those Venezuelans will be.

Oh well if Rubio and Hegseth are in charge, nothing to worry about.

Also, how are they going to "run" a country that the U.S. has not actually taken over?

is this going to be the start of a civil war?

Trump appears to be saying that Delcy will lead and work with the US.

“ She’s, I guess, the president”

This does kind of lend credence to the idea that the PSUV leadership basically gave Maduro ups part of a negotiation.

Maggie Haberman
Jan. 3, 2026, 12:31 p.m. ET5 minutes ago
Maggie HabermanWhite House reporter

Trump says that Rubio has spoken to the newly sworn-in Venezuelan president and she has said she would support what they are doing.

oh interesting lol

I kind of wonder whether PSUV think they can actually win an election without an unpopular Maduro dragging them down, which would be optimistic but…

So Delcy Rodriguez's brother is president of the National Assembly. I suppose if both of them agree to play ball with Trump they can stay in power? All seems pretty dicey!

pretty delcy

I think there would have to be some kind of commitment to fair elections, etc, but the US has never really been all that opposed to working with PSUV as long as they’re handing out the oil concessions, not grousing about taking refugees back, etc.

Machado "not very popular" in Venezuela according to Trump, lol.

better than the washington post’s response…

― comrade jhøsh (k3vin k.), Saturday, January 3, 2026 11:23 AM (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

OTMFM

― vague facial gymnastics (sleeve)

yeah, sheesh

https://i.ibb.co/bg7r1D90/Screenshot-2026-01-03-at-11-36-07-AM.png

https://archive.ph/DNmmg

this is like a parody of 2003.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Jan. 3, 2026, 12:34 p.m. ET1 hour ago
Zolan Kanno-YoungsWhite House reporter

Trump has made various comments during this news conference showing that this military operation was at least in part about gaining more access to oil in Venezuela.

not even a fig leaf

“Trump’s Refreshing Candor”
“Yes War For Oil!”
“Other Commodities Worth Invading For”

Just getting ahead of tomorrow’s op-eds.

i am confused if they are going to let delcy rodriguez act as president or force in a whole different regime

So are they

this is like a parody of 2003.

something tragedy something farce

Guardian: Delcy Rodriguez, a staunch loyalist of Maduro, has appeared on state television and across radio stations in there, saying that Maduro “is Venezuela’s only president”.

She described Maduro’ as having been kidnapped and called for him and his wife to be freed.

Macron seems to be backing the idea that Edmundo Gonzalez takes over immediately and leads some kind of transitional authority but that would still presumably need the cooperation of the army and PSUV.

sounds realistic for sure

Latin America's left survived the US-puppet dictatorships of the 1970s, when our parents and grandparents were being murdered, tortured and disappeared.

The left rebuilt, won power and pulled hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Venezuela will resist, no final defeat.

— Ollie Vargas (@Ollie_Vargas_) January 3, 2026

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G9w4v98WkAAMVvP?format=jpg&name=medium

no ambiguity from Kieth. he's never seen a moral void that he hasn't jumped into headlong.

You know who opposed and tried to destroy the orderly of transition of power in USA? Get fucked ks.

The indictments have been published.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1422326/dl

@ICE : Maduro and his wife are in the US illegally, you need to deport them

you literally just pardoned a coke drug lord. what, so he must pay you better donnie? youre a mafia boss donnie. fuck you inside out.

A fine time to revisit Fiona Hill's testimony to the House in the first Trump impeachment probe in 2019.

"The Russians at this particular juncture were signaling very strongly that they wanted to somehow make some very strange swap arrangement between Venezuela and Ukraine.

In other words, if we were going to exert some semblance of the Monroe Doctrine of, you know, Russia keeping out of our backyard, because this is after the Russians had sent in these hundred operatives essentially to, you know, basically secure the Venezuelan Government and, you know, to preempt what they were obviously taking to be some kind of U.S. military action, they were basically signaling: You know, you have your Monroe Doctrine. You want us out of your backyard. Well, you know, we have our own version of this. You're in our backyard in Ukraine. And we were getting that sent to us, you know, kind of informally through channels. It was in the Russian press, various commentators."

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/read-the-transcript-of-fiona-hills-full-testimony-in-the-impeachment-probe

wow i’ve totally been saying that vzuela is a simple ukraine swap job without remembering where i musta swiped it from.

Trump and his supporters appear quite comfortable with dismantling every vestige of international law that the USA has legally committed itself to through the Senate's ratification of various international treaties and conventions dating back to the end of WWII. Almost all of these were created at the instigation of the US government in the interests of a stable global order.

Trump's latest policy moves are a reversion to the purest form of power politics from the nineteenth century, as opposed to the more clandestine, veiled and somewhat less violent power politics that marked the pre-Crimea invasion era. Putin is just as thrilled over this turn of events as Trump's MAGA brain trust seems to be. China otoh seems prepared to play the global power game any way it develops and keeps quietly piling up strategic wins.

there is no “international law” if the most powerful countries in the world decides not to adhere to it, and there are no consequences. also if our courts rubber stamp these prosecutions, which they will

1826 is gonna be great

Well, so long as we have Old Hickory as president

arguably a hub of international law is, uh, the united nations, which i’ve heard is in the same place as where they’re gonna try maduro and his wife for machine gun ownership

honestly just dissolve the UN and start up version 2.0 somewhere else, this one is cooked

ha about the only defensible thing about genocidaire old hickory was that he did sorta get jobbed in 24 election. AJ was the in-tribute name of a g g g grandfather of mine in -where else?- kentucky.

2002 - 25 years = 1973

2002 + 25 years = 2027

2026 - 2003 iraq invasion, 23 years

the lesson? we’re fukken dumb

wait, no

29 years
no, wait, 2031

goddammit

arguably a hub of international law is, uh, the united nations, which i’ve heard is in the same place as where they’re gonna try maduro and his wife for machine gun ownership

― z_tbd, Saturday, January 3, 2026 8:46 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

they’re trying them in US federal court. where there is already precedent for trying someone like this (noriega)

oh, i meant nyc.

honestly it’s saturday night, i’ve had a beer (I LIKE BEER, ugh). i just meant to highlight the farce of trying him in nyc (a place maduro has never been?) a couple miles away from the united nations, which, even if they throw a fit, will be completely unable to stop what’s happening in the same city

There was discussion of Guy Maddin's Rumours on the 2024 film countdown, it feels very apropos. The specific target of its satire is the postwar order, the G-7, the whole world of multilateral organizations and treaties and statements of agreement. All of which are useless in the face of rampaging disaster.

Yep. Seems to be the consensus even among the most hardcore oppositionists. pic.twitter.com/QjpipmJ7wL

— punished giorgio (@GMomurder) January 4, 2026

We will probably hear more about transition plans at some point but, as it stands, PSUV seems to have basically rebranded as MSV and the same people running the country last week are running it now, minus Maduro. I can imagine the opposition are worried that the US has no interest whatsoever in democratising the country and will happily support Delcy staying in power as long as there’s a shift away from China, she starts saying nice things about the US, etc.

... and gives America back their oil.

tbh, the biggest barrier to more extensive US involvement in the Venezuelan oil sector has been the US, rather than Maduro. There are still sticking points, like the failure to compensate US companies for Chavez-era expropriations, but Maduro would have been handing out drilling licenses like sweets if the US sanctions hadn’t made it a massive pain for anyone other than Chevron to work there.

it sounds like Trump hasn't got any plans to install the nobel prize winning quisling who apparently has been telling her associate quislings to prepare for power. Maybe prepare for disappointment you utter ghoul.

I don’t think that was ever really on the cards - as Trump said yesterday, she’s not popular or respected in Venezuela and (I think) increasingly unpopular within the international opposition, partly for being such a suck-up.

She has a Nobel Prize, he doesn't -- that's all it is for him.

France have changed their tune from what their foreign minister said yesterday and Macron has gone into full Starmer licking dogshit off Trump's boot mode on the illegal invasion/kidnapping. Le Pen is attacking Trump "The sovereignty of states is never negotiable.." hmm she might have some double standard issues with that one, but unsurprisingly the biggest cunt of the day here is the centrist.

I have read take after take and nobody explains (or even tries to beyond some broad gestures) how the US can claim to be “running” a country it has neither invaded nor occupied, or even on whose behalf it would be. (The “Venezuelan people” are curiously absent from the discussion.)

I think the short answer is that they’re not running the country but fully expect the people who are to say ‘how high?’ when they say ‘jump’. Trump’s rambling is probably a better indicator of what he’s being told by his handlers than what’s being discussed between Rubio and the Venezuelan government.

Yup.

there is a lot of supposition going on that the state is going to collapse or kiss the boot of the war monger, like it is a forgone conclusion. All they have managed to do is nab Maduro, probably with the help of some Judas. But the state is not showing signs of collapsing. It might be a lot more difficult to nab another acting president.

Trump has said he's not afraid of boots on the ground, but he'd be absolutely cooked if he got the US bogged down in a slow war against a country with a large amount of armed militias and terrain that favours defensive combat. Even to such an addled lunatic as Trump, this has to be a concern.

this is from October

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article312516272.html

A group of senior Venezuelan government officials, led by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and her brother Jorge, who is president of the National Assembly, have quietly promoted a series of initiatives in recent months aimed at presenting themselves to Washington as a “more acceptable” alternative to Nicolás Maduro’s regime, according to people with direct knowledge of the talks. The proposals, funneled through intermediaries in Qatar, sought to persuade sectors of the U.S. government that a “Madurismo without Maduro” could enable a peaceful transition in Venezuela—preserving political stability without dismantling the ruling apparatus.

According to the sources, Qatari mediators presented to the U.S. two formal proposals this year, one in April and another in September. Both outlined potential governing mechanisms without Maduro in power. In those scenarios, Delcy Rodríguez would serve as the institutional continuity figure, while retired Gen. Miguel Rodríguez Torres, who is currently in exile and is not related to the Rodriguez siblings, would head a transitional government.

"[...] his plan appears to be for Venezuela to remain under the day-to-day rule of a senior chavista, with its democratically elected leaders excluded and its wealth controlled by American corporations."

Functionally leaving in place a government that everyone and especially the U.S. has called illegitimate because of stolen elections and corruption, but hey.

The lack of even a pretext of this “solution” addressing the stated concerns is pretty insulting tbh

that's our Trump!

this will be a disaster for Cuba (already suffering a major energy and fuel crisis) as well, which will no doubt please Rubio.

https://www.semafor.com/article/01/03/2026/new-york-times-washington-post-held-off-on-reporting-venezuela-raid

The New York Times and Washington Post learned of a secret US raid on Venezuela soon before it was scheduled to begin Friday night — but held off publishing what they knew to avoid endangering US troops, two people familiar with the communications between the administration and the news organizations said.

The decisions in the New York and Washington newsrooms to maintain official secrecy is in keeping with longstanding American journalistic traditions — even at a moment of unprecedented mutual hostility between the American president and a legacy media that continues to dominate national security reporting.

Multiple images seems to show a big screen where they've searched "venezuela" on X. pic.twitter.com/JDeXaisg1U

— Evan Hill (@evanhill) January 3, 2026

Once again great job white men

cringe imperialism

they certainly won't be interested in how many Venezuelan civilians they have just killed.

looks like there is a large anti-US demonstration going on in Caracas rn.

NYT piece on how the US seems to have settled on Delcy as a viable partner.

https://archive.ph/2026.01.04-143105/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/04/world/americas/trump-venezuela-leader-rodriguez-machado.html

Notes that she has already basically overseen a massive transition to corrupt laissez-faire capitalism.

If they have settled on her, then I can only conclude that she is fucking appalling and there is a civil war on the way.

None of these people have any real principles.

It does raise a massive risk of conflict if there is no prospect of transition to a legitimate, democratic government outlined (which is, I think, why the EU have been so insistent on Gonzalez being involved, emphasised the democratic process, etc). What happens the next time there are massive strikes and protests against PSUV? Pro-democracy activists shot by the army with the US’ blessing?

ha sharivari a bit ago i had typed and never posted this— but yeah no principles is more accurate than no policy

“expecting trumpista policy ideas to have any “consistency” over any time at all is amusing, because there are none aside from: enrichment of friends, expressions of “strength”, and the humiliation/death of enemies.

policy and fictions created in support will be VERY consistent in relation to those however. it’s is the trumpista way.”

xpost

Trump has said he's not afraid of boots on the ground, but he'd be absolutely cooked if he got the US bogged down in a slow war against a country with a large amount of armed militias and terrain that favours defensive combat. Even to such an addled lunatic as Trump, this has to be a concern.

― calzino, Sunday, 4 January 2026 15:06

Otm. Especially at the start of a midterm year — I don’t think even Trump and his team are that stupid but I could well be off the mark.

Meanwhile in Russia

mmmm leopards, faces, etc.

https://archive.ph/T2qVb

Venezuelan Buttigieg

Delcy sure has come a long way since Smashing Pumpkins

The Venezuelan security forces are unlikely to… Disarm

Cuba next.

No doubt that Rubio's endgame here is Cuba. Venezuela was a trial balloon to test Trump's use of military force, invasion, extraordinary rendition, and other CIA/military action, without Congressional approval or popular support in the US. There's no stopping them from going…

— Eva Golinger (@evagolinger) January 5, 2026

this is from October

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article312516272.html

A group of senior Venezuelan government officials, led by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and her brother Jorge, who is president of the National Assembly, have quietly promoted a series of initiatives in recent months aimed at presenting themselves to Washington as a “more acceptable” alternative to Nicolás Maduro’s regime, according to people with direct knowledge of the talks. The proposals, funneled through intermediaries in Qatar, sought to persuade sectors of the U.S. government that a “Madurismo without Maduro” could enable a peaceful transition in Venezuela—preserving political stability without dismantling the ruling apparatus.

According to the sources, Qatari mediators presented to the U.S. two formal proposals this year, one in April and another in September. Both outlined potential governing mechanisms without Maduro in power. In those scenarios, Delcy Rodríguez would serve as the institutional continuity figure, while retired Gen. Miguel Rodríguez Torres, who is currently in exile and is not related to the Rodriguez siblings, would head a transitional government.

― Number None, dimanche 4 janvier 2026 15:10 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

That's rather... enlightening. Meaning that such a spectacular operation was possibly facilitated from the inside by people who had an interest in using Maduro as a "bargaining chip". I'm sure the US had no trouble gathering detailed intelligence in VEN, but abducting a sitting president in his capital is next level / bonkers, so I wouldn't rule the above out. Presumably you don't fly such an operation without informing Congress if you don't think you have solid chances of success. I'd be interested to see the media look into that.

Also looks like a large majority of the people killed in the raid (thought to be around 40 total) were Cubans in Maduro’s personal security detail rather than Venezuelan military / government officials. Doesn’t really look like the Venezuelans attempted any kind of resistance - potentially suggesting they knew it wasn’t an ‘invasion’, per se.

Important new story: Cuba has declared that 32 of its citizens (a mix of intelligence and military officials) have died in Sunday's attack against Venezuela, that resulted in Maduro's kidnapping and exfiltration. Cuba declares two days of official mourning for its dead. pic.twitter.com/D3hcD4XyWI

— Andrés Pertierra (@ASPertierra) January 5, 2026

That would fit with a Venezuela-Cuba / Ukraine "swap" story where Russia agrees to leave Venezuela and Cuba dangling in the wind if the US agrees to soft-pedal support for Ukraine

Remember that time in the 1580s when Philip II of Spain (speaking of overstretched empires) was so distracted by trying to simultaneously invade Britain while protecting the flow of treasure from the Americas (all of it stained with indigenous blood)? Yeah that's why he let the Netherlands get independence.

Dunno what the lesson is there but don't be like him

xpost

Trump has said he's not afraid of boots on the ground, but he'd be absolutely cooked if he got the US bogged down in a slow war against a country with a large amount of armed militias and terrain that favours defensive combat. Even to such an addled lunatic as Trump, this has to be a concern.

― calzino, Sunday, 4 January 2026 15:06

Otm. Especially at the start of a midterm year — I don’t think even Trump and his team are that stupid but I could well be off the mark.

Not saying this will happen, but they are certainly stupid enough to get into a situation like this.

Stop me if you've heard the one where it's just surgical special forces and drone strikes plus political pressure.

Tip of the spear - just the tip, as they say.

Yes siree, we've learned our lesson from the quagmire of the past, just stay in an advisory capacity during the transition to a freely elected democratic government. Some aid with infrastructure.

I think the next part is where we have military advisors train the new government's forces in how to do counterinsurgency.

That would fit with a Venezuela-Cuba / Ukraine "swap" story where Russia agrees to leave Venezuela and Cuba dangling in the wind if the US agrees to soft-pedal support for Ukraine
― Tracer Hand, lundi 5 janvier 2026 11:58 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

And Trump can play his mercantilist dream a little longer, continue receiving support from business-minded whisperers, and detract from talking about the looming shadows at home.

It isn’t clear to me that he won’t invade Cuba and Greenland too. He is an absolutely lawless maniac.

I actually hope he does invade Greenland, the shit would really hit the fan then.

I think their fantasy is that they can achieve all of these things without "invasions" per se. Which I don't think they can. (I'm not sure they can achieve them with invasions either, but I do think there's some leeriness about actually sending tens of thousands of troops anywhere.)

the reuters headline on my phone reads "Venezuela's Maduro at US court, substitute leader softens stance"

"substitute leader"

She's a substitute for another guy
She looks pretty tall but her heels are high
The simple things you see are all complicated
Democracy is overrated

People are talking about Palestine accelerating all this but idk I see this as a 'headline TV' action akin to the bombing of Iran last year (which ofc has come about from Palestine so a link). Can see 'swift' actions in Mexico, and from there confidence will be built as the violence (already turned on Americans via ICE) can potentially build to a small/swift invasion of Cuba. From there you can see the piss weak response of European leaders to all this ao far meaning the invasion of Greenland becomes a reality.

What could accelerate things is a rapidly deteriorating picture economically, or a run on the stock market due to AI tanking. Republicans will lose more elections too so..

as with all the Project 2025 bullshit, they're running on a 'move quickly & break things' ethos, and as shown with the DOGE operations this shit doesn't always go to plan

I saw the Danish prime minister saying that if there's an invasion of Greenland, this would signal the end of NATO... and I think there's a bunch of people in the Maga world that would like nothing better (as would Putin)

side note, but i still think the doge operations were a success, from their perspective - they came in, destroyed everything, took a bunch of confidential information, fired a bunch of people, and left federal employees, programs, and the people who depend on them more demoralized than ever before

the only thing they didn't succeed at was the stuff they were lying about from the beginning, like running things more efficiently

build to a small/swift invasion of Cuba.

second time’s the charm!

I think Mexico would be a lot tougher, not least if the Mexican government objected to military action. That was supposedly Trump’s first plan but the US really needs to keep Mexico onside, at least to some extent, to stem the flow of migrants and accept deportees. A lot of the deterrence, capture and detention of US-bound migrants takes place in Mexico. Lose that cooperation and it’s a lot more difficult. The economic impact would also be substantial.

Cuba would be much more difficult than the Maduro incursion - as I can’t see them being satisfied with removing Diaz-Canel and leaving everything else in place. The Cuban army has been prepping for guerrilla warfare for decades. I can imagine Rubio understanding that his window of opportunity is closing and pushing for it anyway, though. Might be more of a hard sell for Trump.

Mexico would be a few more bombings, but yeah all this is ofc speculative riffing online, but I am not sure that many ppl foresaw the actions of the last week

(I also forgot the Nigerian bombings)

in recent months Sheinbaum had a 70% approval rating and maybe they can get away with killing Cubans in Venezuela but if they start bombing Mexico there is a good chance they will be killing US citizens.

I know it's dumb to assume anything is off the table with these guys, but I've assumed that if they did anything in Mexico it would "targeted hits" against alleged cartel honchos, that kind of thing. Not, like, overthrowing the government.

I think they’d need to do a deal with Sheinbaum and that seems unlikely, though a lot of unlikely things have happened this week.

idk how much point there would be in blowing up a few random drug labs (vs coordinating with Mexico to raid them) but there probably wasn’t much point in blowing up some fields in Nigeria and that didn’t stop them.

it's all about showing absolute impunity like some insecure playground bully

also - the tractor trailer that has some coke-filled melons beneath the avocados... I mean, we still need the avocados, right?

There's this word floating around: affordability

One of the conspiracy theories I've seen floating around that sounds ridiculous on first blush but that I wouldn't necessarily put past this administration is that Maduro will get a deal for charges to be dropped for admitting to a role in stealing the 2020 election.

funny, I did see a bunch of armed, bearded men in fatigues at my polling spot that year, didn't think much of it at the time

I've assumed that if they did anything in Mexico it would "targeted hits" against alleged cartel honchos, that kind of thing

Cartel hit squad vs. Trump's security team. Who ya got?

also - the tractor trailer that has some coke-filled melons beneath the avocados... I mean, we still need the avocados, right?

Millennials are already spending half a mortgage payment on avocado toast, they can't take any more of this.

No war for guacamole

Someone was posting Delcy didn't betray Maduro and the only suggestions she did are coming from CIA or Trump sources so it's divide and diminish psyop nonsense. Apparently she's a Bolivarian Revolution stalwart during which her dad was killed and Maduro's son was at her swearing in ceremony. There is so much bullshit flying about whenever the US goes rogue that it's hard to believe anything at times.

Also apparently Machado is offering her nobel prize to Trump, lool

she's fucked off a lot of opposition ppl from the business community in Venezuela by pushing for sanctions all the time and is such a grasping desperado, can't imagine anyone really likes her

well somebody betrayed Maduro because his Cuban bodyguards were apparently left to twist in the wind with nobody backing them up.

It is kind of grimly hilarious that Machado seemed so clearly to be hand-crafted to take the reins and then Trump just kicked her to the curb "like a dog"

I can't stop thinking about what kind of operation kills 20-30 bodyguards. Must have been a fuckin bloodbath!

yeah I think someone from his inner circle got very rich this week

Delcy is absolutely not a revolutionary stalwart. Her father was - though as one of the opposition guys being called Stalin Gonzalez shows, it doesn’t always get passed down through the generations.

The most charitable reading of her is ‘pragmatic economic reformer who has liberalised the Venezuelan economy’. The less charitable reading is ‘kleptocrat’. Part of Machado’s problem is that the government has basically already privatised a lot of the stuff she was claiming she could offer the US.

almost amusing when grasping grifters get…
¡OUTGRIFTED!

jk i dont know her deal

I think one of Machado's friends was on newsnight last night (sat across from Corbyn) and saying Maduro was a fugitive from justice, and where was he a fugitive from justice? "in the US"

Hilarious shit.

Hannity: Did you at any point offered to give him the Nobel peace prize?

Machado: It hasn’t happened yet. We want to give it to him. Share it with him. pic.twitter.com/fIGSbnjshc

— Acyn (@Acyn) January 6, 2026

Great work, Nobel Prize Committee.

the ignoble prize is a non-transferable asset and you cannot barter it with rogue states, lol

don't know if this has been posted: https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-423-some-topical-material?

“TV cosplay resource imperialism”. everything these guys do is fake

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Venezuela’s rulers have deployed armed militias to patrol streets, operate checkpoints and check people’s phones in a crackdown to consolidate authority after the US attack on Caracas.

Paramilitary groups known as colectivos criss-crossed the capital with motorbikes and assault rifles on Tuesday in a show of force to stifle any dissent or perception of a power vacuum.

To be fair, if Trump WERE running the country he would be fine with all of that.

The best motorbikes

he wishes he could do it here!

Dream job pic.twitter.com/LmhO8INoa2

— Groo the Blunderer (@Dystopiantics) January 6, 2026

love to see it kind of repression

it's wild how there are no more boats to being blown up, I guess the drug war is over and solved

Maduro was a one-man cartel

Those are our drugs now

my fave conspiracy theory on the US raid was that there was no internal betrayal within the inner court of Maduro or even a firefight. Maduro was threatened into giving himself up and did so with some fake pyrotechnics from the Delta Force *invaders* to make it look good. All the reports about the Cuban bodyguards remains getting sent in home in small boxes is the Cubans playing along with this op after getting similar threats and coercion from the US towards them and it makes the risk averse US military look badass on the world stage when all they've just literally done is a bit of Sunday larping.

not sure what be Cubans would play along, they’re used to 60 years of threats from us

“that the”

hmm maybe, but they are they are weaker than they've ever been right now because of the energy and food crisis. They've never dealt with the senile boy-king factor before, well of course Biden was a senile cunt as well, but he just slept and dribbled over himself mostly.

apparently on the morning of the raid there a was a US press release stating that Delcy had fled to Moscow and worded like they were expecting a regime collapse, but was then rapidly forgotten about as events unfolded.

in Venezuela the army and militias have thousands of the Russian shoulder held MANPADS (lol!!) which apparently would make a US helicopter invasion without suffering massive casualties an absolute impossibility, because helicopters are piss easy to shoot down. Which adds weight to the idea that this was some theatre

yeah, no doubt there is some element of wrestling kayfabe or turning an unexpected outcome into an “actually, we meant to do that”

Pressure is building in Venezuela.

Unlike China, the USA cannot fully supply Venezuela with the goods it needs. America lacks the production capacity and the supply networks required to support the entire country.

The key issue is thay even with American sanctions in place, Venezuela under Maduro was still able to trade with China.

They exchanged oil for products, medicines, and other essential goods on a barter basis. After relations with China broke down, inflation exploded. It reached 649.5 percent by March 2026. The International Monetary Fund expects it to go above 682 percent by the end of the year.
Right now Venezuelas oil money is being sent to a special account controlled by the US Treasury.

Remember that the United States has also essentially seized Venezuelas gold reserves. These moves are speeding up the collapse of the national currency. The situation is spiraling out of control.

what source xyzz? horrifying

It's commentary on twitter. Its from an account that usually reposts stuff that's fine, but I wanted to verify if this is right. Not seen any other reporting on the current situation in Venezuela..

thx yeah i def don’t have basis to know. those types of things seem very foreseeable. i cannot imagine any of trump’s thirsty goons have an ounce of foresight, or the most basic local knowledge, or neurons and synapses to put any of it together.

I feel I’m going crazy that VZN’s oil money is in a slush fund in the UAE that the Trump regime controls

it's a pretty radical de-nationalization, wild shit