Bloody hell! I woke up and read a US SpecOp has captured Maduro and flown him out of the country 😀
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Venezuela gets TrumpedJanuary 3rd, 2026 |
 29 comments to Venezuela gets TrumpedLeave a Reply |
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Always a little bit torn about such events. On the one hand Maduro is grade A1 sh*t, on the other the Monroe doctrine has always struck me as a little too imperial for a country which constantly disclaims Imperial ambitions and sanctioned Britain significantly for her Imperial past (I’m thinking post WW2 and Suez in particular).
On the whole, I suspect this is a very good thing, but if Trump pulled something similar with Greenland I would be appalled (but not entirely surprised).
I await commentary from people with more expertise than me.
Now do Starmer.
It is a bit like watching a chess game end with checkmate in 1, it simply isn’t within the scope of the game. Well Mr Maduro will have been read his Miranda Rights and may avail himself of counsel for his defence. From my limited knowledge, I would venture that the US government thinking is that with the Maduro regime not being recognised, Venezuela is a legal black hole from which has emanated harm to the US and as with Noriega in Panama, US law permits the executive to act to detain a fugitive.
Now the rest of the Venezuelan regime have the uncomfortable prospect of dealing with the US knowing that they may be indicted and removed to face trial and they also look stupid and powerless to their own people. Perhaps they are thinking of negotiating a transition.
And I share Clovis’ concerns that this might be replicated in Greenland, but I think that unlikely.
Of course, it would be far-fetched to think that the EU’s attacks on US social media might result in similar consequences for the EU Commission, but it would not hurt for them to wonder.
And for the US Delta Force, the spectre of the Iranian hostage rescue can be laid to rest, and tyrants may tremble.
Edit: Roué: As per the EU, but perhaps for 2029 if a General Election is postponed, for President Vance.
A most unkind comment on Breitbart just now:
Crikey. I can’t wait for the movie about this!
This is the first time that i get BBC-News-worthy news from Samizdata. Usually, here and on Instapundit i get news that the BBC “covers with a pillow”, to paraphrase Iowahawk.
Mr Ed:
In one of his State of the Union speeches, Trump 45 had the leader of the Venezuelan opposition as a guest, and claimed that the Venezuelan election was stolen. If so, it follows that Maduro is an illegitimate ruler.
Let that be a warning to Lula — as well as Merz, Macron, and Starmer. Not for the previous elections, but for the next.
Greenland would require an occupation force, not just a special operation.
Besides, it can hardly be claimed that Danish elections are rigged!
There’s at least some “where you stand depends on where you sit” here. I remember the attempts to put Pinochet on trial, and I can easily imagine wild cheers from the Left if the US or some European nation had sent in a military team to Chile, captured Pinochet, and flew him out of the country.
With Maduro there is at least a “he committed crimes against Americans in the US” hook, but I’m uncertain about the sturdiness of that hook.
Perhaps the best way to look at it is that the US and Venezuela were in an undeclared war, with the ugliness that wars – particularly undeclared ones – entail, and that the modern fashion of trying to pretty them up with legalisms is a mistake.
Learning point to other countries is surely just get nuclear weapons.
Does this mean Trump really is a genius? It turns out Maduro was all piss and wind, and will spend the rest of his worthless life wearing orange. Next stop Cuba.
Deep Lurker:
A weak analogy, for several reasons:
* Pinochet seized power during a constitutional crisis, a time when no one held legitimate power in Chile;
(It seems also that the coup was not his own idea: when his fellow chiefs of staff asked him to lead the coup, he went along.)
* Pinochet did not claim legitimacy from an election; in fact, when his legitimacy was invalidated by an election, he gave up power;
* Pinochet never was a threat to anybody outside Chile;
* Not sure this is relevant, but when Pinochet was arrested in Britain, he did not constitute a threat even to people in Chile.
To all those who have qualms about this:
Take the win.
Another point to consider:
* Pinochet left Chile in better shape than he found it.
Chavez and Maduro left Venezuela in MUCH worse shape than they found it.
What a shame it had to happen on a day when it would be overshadowed by more important news.
i’m joking about it being more important
I thought we elected Trump so that we stopped doing this kind of thing.
Beat your chest, if you will, in celebrating the deposing of a horrendous dictator, but your chest is going to be sore from all that beating when we are still in Venezuela twenty years from now, and it has added five trillion dollars to the national debt.
Maybe I’m wrong. There is a very pro western opposition leader in Machado waiting in the wings, and Venezuela has a lot of oil to pay or stuff. But what happened to Trump that he suddenly became more interested in foreign policy and Nobel peace prizes and completely forgot to make America great again? Americans DO NOT care about foreign policy. They care about the crappy economy, the skyrocketing price of housing and the abominable cost of healthcare. It seems the President has nothing to say on these matters.
I’ll shed no tears for Maduro, though I’m not sure what they can possibly do with him. But I will shed tears for Gen Z who can’t get a job, and even if they could, couldn’t buy a house, while somehow they are forced to subsidize their rich grandparents healthcare. Trump has completely lost his MAGA focus.
@Irish Otter
Yeah, I guess you’re right. I can hear the high-pitched whine of thousands of human rights lawyyers winding themselves up though. Maybe our glorious PM will lapse into incoherent rage.That would be an added benefit.
I’m one of the malcontents. It’s probably true as far as it goes that Maduro stole the last election, but that doesn’t mean the US has the right and the responsibility to depose him. The Iranian leaders watching this are a hell of a lot less likely to say “we better start toeing the line” than “we better step up our efforts to acquire nukes”.
Just a few months ago the world establishment and media were creaming themselves about Maria Corina Machado being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. How much this was down to genuine admiration as opposed to childish delight at Orange Man being thwarted is highly questionable.
All very nice and feelgoody for the elites but hardly likely to help the people of Venezuela or Ms Machado to attain her allegedly rightful position. However, as a wise man once said, events dear boy, events. And then along came Trump.
The sound of heads whirring as they desperately try to decide the “right” spin to place on the event will soon be deafening.
TTK’s rapid but predictably non-committal remarks come as no surprise but there are many other statesmen whose countries still take them seriously.
So if regime change promotes the Nobel Prize Winner into power is it a good or bad thing irrespective of the world establishment’s bete noire being solely responsible?
Can someone tell me the difference between Putin and Trumps actions?
Regarding Machado, Trump has just said:
So if Maduro is apparently illegitimate and Machado is being ruled out due to lack of ‘respect’, who exactly is legitimate?
Wouldn’t be first time US have ran a relatively skilled operation to depose a foreign leader but make a complete shit show in what happens next. We will see.
This, Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Kosovo, Libya etc all just seem to point towards that to truly stay independent of superpowers and deter their aggression, you need your own nukes.
On perhaps almost every metric North Korea is a lot worse than Venezuela, yet there’s a reason North Korea is the only state part of the original GW Bush ‘axis of evil’ that hasn’t been attacked by America since then. Had Ukraine listened to John Mearshimer in 1993 rather than the US and British governments and retained its Soviet era nukes, there would never have been a Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
True colors are shining through on this comment thread. Very refreshing. And clarifying.
Re that doesn’t mean the US has the right and the responsibility to depose him.
Oh, please. This is 2026, and the world is broken.
Re: Maybe I’m wrong.
Yes, I believe you are. Comprehensively.
A daring move and, so far, an excellent result.
President Donald J. Trump is not President George Walker Bush – he has captured the enemy leader, in the first move.
Venezuela is not an Islamic power, although there is strong Iranian regime presence there, so there will be no jihad. There are more Cubans than Iranians in Venezuela – and, of course, both Secretary of State Rubio and Senator Cruz (full disclosure I gave a tiny amount of help to his campaign in 2016 – but I was not paid, so I have no financial interest) have special reasons for wishing the Cuban dictatorship terminated.
As for other “Social Justice” gangs.
There are two different opinions.
The late Marine General S. Butler was very much on the side of “Social Justice” forces against “the capitalists”.
And the late Marine General “Chesty” Puller was against the “Social Justice” forces, which put him on the side of “the capitalists”.
General Butler, Medal of Honor winner, is revered by many in the United States – and he was indeed a good killer – a good soldier, but he was also a shameless LIAR – who, for example, invented a “Fascist plot” against President Franklin Roosevelt, although why there would be a Fascist plot AGAINST “FDR” whose “New Deal” policies were based on those of Mussolini in Fascist Italy, General Butler did not explain.
Nor did General Butler explain why he, a person well known to be under the influence of the Communist Party, would be asked by “big businessmen” to lead this plot against President Roosevelt – why would “capitalists” want a military dictator who was under the influence of the Communist Party?
In short General Butler was lying, on oath before Congress, about the United States, and, I believe, he was lying about Latin America as well.
General “Chesty” Puller was closer to the truth – and he regarded the “Social Justice” forces in Latin American as bandits, which they were – and are.
Chavez and Maduro were-and-are in that tradition – thieves and murderers, who should be hanged by the neck till they are dead.
Or in 2014.
@IrishOtter49
True colors are shining through on this comment thread. Very refreshing. And clarifying.
Indeed. The United States invades and takes over a foreign country like some 19th century colonial power, without a mandate of any kind from the Venezuelan people. And he plans to “temporarily” take control of the country, exclude its most prominent opposition leader and do so certainly in part to get access to the oil reserves of that country. The last few places we “temporarily” took control of, we did so for decades and left with our tails between our legs.
Like I say, it sounds an awful lot like a 19th century colonial power.
As you said earlier:
To all those who have qualms about this: Take the win.
Which is to say you think the means justifies the ends, which I do not think AT ALL. Any bad act often has some secondary good consequences, and the removal of that horrendous tyrant Maduro is one benefit for sure. But my God, the United States, without any justification or mandate from the people, just took over a huge foreign country by military force.
@Paul Marks
Chavez and Maduro were-and-are in that tradition – thieves and murderers, who should be hanged by the neck till they are dead.
Perhaps, but not while under US jurisdiction. They may well deserve such a grizzly fate but that is a matter for the Venezuelan or Cuban people to decide.
Don’t be blinded by Trump Adoration Syndrome any more than others are blinded by Trump Derangement Syndrome. This is the opposite of the mandate on which he was elected while neglecting the thing, that is to say the economy, on which he was elected. I thought we MAGA folks hated that neo-con wing of the Republican Party. Bill Kristol is no doubt drinking a toast the President Trump tonight.
The Iranian leaders did not need to watch “this” to come to that conclusion. They have already watched Libya in 2011, and Ukraine in 2014.
That is why Trump had to send in the B-2s: at this point, that is the only language that Iranian leaders understand.
Snorri Godhi – Mr Putin also made a very severe blunder in 2014.
He patted himself on the back for taking Crimea and a connecting land bridge to it – even though the same Mr Putin, a few years before, had CORRECTLY said that these areas, including Crimea, were worthless to the Russian people (they are worthless to the Russian people).
But, at that time the Ukrainian armed forces were weak and full of pro Russian officers, so Mr Putin could have marched into Kiev – and reversed the change of government that had occurred.
But he did not – and by the time he attacked in 2022 the Ukrainian armed forces were much armed and much better trained.
Due, in large part, to the person who was President of the United States from January 20th 2017 to January 20th 2021.
Fraser Orr – the Cuban and Venezuelan people are in no position to do what you suggest.
“It is for them to decide” – are you trying to be funny? Or do you not know what a dictatorship is?
As for the Islamic Republic of Iran regime – they do not care what Westerners do or do not do, they want Westerners dead or enslaved.
Remember when they came to power – 1979, with the approval of President James Earl Carter, who stabbed an American ally in the back in Iran (just as he did in Nicaragua – and in Rhodesia), there was no one more passive than President Carter – they were not fighting American aggression.
When dealing with the Islamic Republic of Iran, those servants of the hidden Imam, they kill you – or you kill them. There is no third alternative – and their arm reaches out, all the way to Argentina (where they killed many people), and all the way to New York City.
And there is no “let the Iranian people decide” – because when they try to “decide” they get SHOT.
Do you understand now Sir.
If people try to “decide” under a dictatorship, they get killed.
They get killed Sir.
So please stop saying “it is for them to decide”.
Americans do not want nation-building on the other side of the world.
From public reaction, I’d say that Americans do want quick surgical strikes in very close spots – a skip and a short hop right past Cuba, well within the supposed Monroe Doctrine area that comprises our backyard – that removes a cartel from power, denies a landing point for large enemies, and then retreats to allow the Venezuelans to retake and repair their own country.
If we stay on and try to regime-build, then I’ll agree with you.
Putin tried to take a country, and bogged down. Trump went after a bad guy, and got him. Not much similarity.
I’m told that the crowds in the eastern areas of Colombia – the refugee areas from Venezuela – are already starting to wander back home.
Colombia will be one of the biggest winners from this move.