I find it notable that the administration has dismissed the idea of supporting Maria Machado on hte grounds taht she 'has no support' when the extent of her support is why led the Maduro government to ban her from running for election in 2024.
She has no support amongst the military government which currently runs Venezuela, and having pulled off the "we are very strong" manoeuvre the US is unlikely to have any further interest in Venezuela beyond getting paid off by them.
I suspect key actors in the Venezuelan administration and military also don't have much support for Maduro (the US must have had some reason to believe they could pull this operation off with extremely low risk of downed helicopters and surrounded special forces), but acting like they do avoids all sorts of awkward schisms whilst keeping oil flowing to the right people.
If Maduro's election shenanigans (like banning her from running) are part of the justification for his kidnapping, then we're taking on some responsibility to remove the whole regime, not just the guy. If we're just jockeying for regional power, then the justification lacks foundation and is straight up crime on the part of the US.
There is not much doubt that this was a crime. The question is what will be done about it and the answer is 'probably nothing'. Every time there is a holiday, a long weekend or some other period when congress and/or the senate are not in session Trump pulls some stunt. That's a well established pattern by now, be it the demolition of the Whitehouse, bombing some foreign country or now kidnapping a head of state.
This post arrest/kidnap period could be messy. It might be beneficial for Machado that the outgoing government bears the brunt of that so she can come in later looking like more of a savior instead of a foreign puppet.
My bet is that it's like the Bin Laden hit: internal support for the coup in exchange for control. Last time they did it for a government it didn't work that well for the country.
> I find it notable that the administration has dismissed the idea of supporting Maria Machado on hte grounds taht she 'has no support' when the extent of her support is why led the Maduro government to ban her from running for election in 2024.
Article is paywalled so couldn't read it.
The Trump admin likely wants someone more loyal and willing to cooperate with what the oil companies want to do to develop the oil reserves including ignoring environmental issues (rubber stamp).
Maria may have her own ties to China/Russia and half of the justification for this action was to push them out of the country.
They are trying to maintain unity in the eyes of the population because if they don't, their control will end and will be lynched for their atrocities. This is not played on left-leaning media networks. You got to know where to look. Same thing has been happening in Cuba for 60+ years, by the way.
Every government aims to stay in control whether or not lynchings are on the horizon. Your comment would be more informative if you explained why they might feel that striking an attitude uncooperative with the US will help to achieve that.
That is true. Every government's aim is to stay in power which in itself is the answer to your question. Eliminating regional threats to any country's dominance is paramount, as you noted.
This is especially true now, in my opinion, since there is a small likelihood of China invading Taiwan in the near term with some estimates predicting a 10-35% likelihood by 2027-2028. Longer term, the likelihood increases, but that's just my opinion.
If this is the case, however, the US economy can survive the loss of ~$180B annual Taiwan trade ties, but with "severe" recession; GDP down ~7% in conflict scenario. It would be chaos in the US, so a stable region, is paramount for survival and economic growth.
With that being said, Venezuela's 303B barrel reserves could boost US energy security via increased production (potentially 2-3M bpd), lowering oil prices, but effects delayed years.
Basically, even if sanctions lifted and investment resumed immediately, significantly increasing Venezuela's oil production (to meaningfully impact global/US supply and prices) would take 3–10+ years due to:
-Infrastructure decay
-Need for massive new investment
-Technical/logistical rebuilding
-Contract/legal negotiations
Short-term relief would be minimal.
In my view, it would take more than Venezuelan oil to be able to counter a protracted economic war with China over the loss of ~$180B annual Taiwan trade ties but stabilizing the region could help strengthen the West's position.
I would not bank much on this humble AIs opinion :)
Why would a random video from 6 years ago be played on a left-leaning media network? isn't this video from the channel of a left-leaning media network?
If their unity is for display only, the control will end. Or a dictator would emerge among them who would enforce the unity. We'll see if the government is even going to plan an election.
During the BLM protests, plain clothes DHS officers were kidnapping people from the streets.
During the Philadelphia MOVE movement, the cops bombed a block of houses.
I can keep picking examples like this. Would these examples mean that the American government is at risk of lynching by Americans? Would you say it should be given the atrocities America has done towards its own people?
But as another comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46490960) mentioned, Trump threatened this new interim leader today. Is that a show both sides are putting on, in your view?
Evidently not united enough to prevent the head of state from being snatched in an operation that almost certainly had inside help.
On the other hand, especially if this was a White House directed operation, the planning could be so shortsighted that snatching Maduro amounts to the dog catching the car.
Remember how the US tried to snatch Manuel Noriega, the drug-trafficking head of Panama. This time finally everything has been done smoothly, without playing Van Halen at the Vatican embassy [1].
I feel like I've entered some kind of Twilight Zone. On one hand saying I don't like the Trump Administration would be an understatement but on the other hand from what I understand the president of Venezuela is a dictator who ate on TV while his people starved[0] a few years ago.
Maduro sucks, yet stealing him then announcing to the world that your principal goal is to commercialize Venezuela’s natural resources is very stupid.
Will be hilarious if incompetent MAGA lawyers can’t fill out the paperwork properly or, I don’t know, someone raises a defense of selective and vindictive prosecution based on POTUS’s own statements both before and after the arrest, talking about seizing their oil.
I'm not defending Maduro, but people forget that one of the reasons Venezuela was poor was because of US sanctions.
Sanctions are meant to make the people poor in the hope that they will rise up and topple the regime of sanctioned country. No need for US military operations.
I don't understand how that is weird. For some reason people have entered this point of view that if you dislike someone you suddenly need to dislike everything they do.
It's perfectly normal for a party you dislike to do something you like and also perfectly normal for a party you like to do something you dislike.
Heh so the plan was to snatch a dude, openly declare it's about oil and control, and then just hope that the rest of the country will just accept this? Boy are Trump and his pals masterminds
The sad part about declaring it's about oil is that Venezuela's oil is complete and absolute garbage that is littered with heavies. They need to import naptha to mix into the super-heavy crude in order to make it into a state pumpable through pipelines. To boot, the USA doesn't have a whole lot of heavy crude refining capability, as a huge chunk of our reserves is light oil, and as such the majority of our refineries (like the ones on the Gulf Coast) are set up for processing that type of crude. A fat chunk of the heavy crude processing capability for North America lies in Canada for their tar and oil sands.
Reality - Roughly 2/3 - ~67% - of known hydrocarbon reserves are located in the North American continent. Venezuela is a modest ~17-18%.
If anyone should be invaded for world oil security - it's us.
With, or without the Chinese and Russian governments propping the remnants up?
I can’t imagine that the Maduro regime is being organically supported when two elections have passed (Guaidó, Machado) without legitimate, election backed leadership.
Or why there’s a big swell to support Maduro even he and his predecessor Chavez have caused more harm than what the US could give.
Delcy Rodriguez, is the current leader of Venezuela, and was confirmed by there supream court in that roll for 90 days, has the backing of there parliment, and military, and trump threatened to kill* her if she will not do whatever he tells her to do.
*paraphrasing "something worse than what has happened to maduro"
I can guarantee that many countrys are rehearsing the "what we do if the US goes rouge" strategy and working on new contingency plans.
going after maduro had a microscopic venier of legalism and precident, but to touch the current leader of Venezuela would be a declaration of war on the whole planet, which is in fact lining up behind Delcy Rodriguez in her role as Venezuelas sole legitimate leader.
> I can guarantee that many countrys are rehearsing the "what we do if the US goes rouge" strategy and working on new contingency plans.
In that case, they're 70 years too late to start making those plans. If you don't have nuclear arms you simply have to mostly accept whatever the super powers do and decide.
> to touch the current leader of Venezuela would be a declaration of war on the whole planet, which is in fact lining up behind Delcy Rodriguez in her role as Venezuelas sole legitimate leader.
That sounds like something from a video game. Reality is different. If Trump whisked her away like Maduro, nothing more would come from it.
the people have consistanly voted for some kind of socialist government for generations, and never asked for intervention.
Nukes?. North Korea! The US made the first nukes with....manual fucking lathes 80 years ago, the bar is low now, edging up to utube supper enthusiast builds an atomic bomb low.
we have to assume that there are several dozen...entities...that can go nuklear on very short notice, which as you point out is becoming essential in order to prevent any,missunderstandings.
as to further abductions, I can guarantee further that new standards in personal security for VIP's are bieng quickly thought out and implimented, essentialy we are now looking at seeing smaller governments setting themselves up as urban guerilla organisations as the defacto deterant to bieng used as one or two cycle media distractions because as you illustrate,
law, and diplomacy are officialy dead, so calibrating defences that will require a full boots on the ground occupation to break
becoms the minimum.
Iran survived the last attempt, and will of course be doubling down on whatever they have implimented since last summer, so all we are talking about is a revision to the play book.
further "proof", turns out those oil tankers they captured and took, are Chinese, and Trump backtracked on keeping them and said "they will get there oil", China said no worrys, "we dont need it anyway", which if you speak gangster, is a hell of a statement
from china
The U.S. left the entire rest of the regime intact. Wasn't Rodriguez part of this claimed drug syndicate?
If Maduro was not (a legitimate) head of state, neither is Rodriguez.
If Rodriguez does what Trump orders her to do, which he says is the arrangement to avoid American troops on the ground, how is this a sovereign country at all?
The U.S. has become a parody of its own science fiction movies.
"Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station." —General Tarkin, Star Wars (the original movie)
It appears the Trump administration had no real plan. The successor they had in mind isn’t aligned with them. They rejected the opposition leader. All they’ve achieved is introducing chaos. And maybe normalizing the use of illegal military force violating American and international laws.
The plan is so clear it’s dumb. The successor they have in mind is the most likely, by their judgment, to agree to something where the US gets the most oil. A corrupt leader is easier to convince to save their own ass.
It’s really frustrating how the Trump family is abusing the presidency to get rich on every front. Qatari jets, golf course deals, building permits, government contracts to companies they’re involved in, and whatever this turns out to be (presumably their key donors will get the contracts to extract and refine Venezuelan oil and minerals).
What’s the solution though? The entire Republican Congress is silent or openly supporting everything Trump does. There is no check and balance to contain Trump. And at the end of four years, he and his family get to keep the billions they gained corruptly with no way to get it back.
Throughout human history all we've had is regime changes. I am afraid, that these events are a matter of fact and not hallucinations.
As far as remaining silent, I believe where I live, it is not against the law to speak one's mind. One can't easily be arrested. Free speech, is in fact, encouraged and protected. Perhaps freedom of expression is different where you live? If that is the case, then I feel bad for you. You should do everything you can to get out.
Rather than compose another "Twitteresque" melody, I'll provide you with these two better options:
The best thing for you to do is to not engage with me or my post, downvote me or just ignore me, altogether.
If you find that you can't resist the urge to engage with my post, I advise you to then enhance endogenous testicular androgen production and subsequent neurobehavioral assertiveness via downregulation of excessive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis inhibition of gonadal steroidogenesis.
Once this is accomplished you should be able to more easily navigate any differing points of view or discourse in any thread.
Sincerely,
Sol Roth
FYI: Getting banned from Hacker News is not a life ending event. Just ask my Twitter account :)
Every petty tyrant or so called leader in Africa, Middle east, Asia and who knows where else now know that going to another country, snatching the leader and kidnapping them can be done without much consequences at any time so long as they go in guns blazing.
The EU who usually likes to parade around by giving lessons of democracy to everyone is basically completely silent on the whole affair besides Spain who came out saying that they would not recognize whoever ends up taking Maduro's place as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.
And to top it all off you have numerous people who believe that if you have a problem with what the US did then you must be some sort of closeted commie supporter.
I can't wait to see the mental gymnastics that these people will do if and when the PRC decides to do the same thing to the leaders of Taiwan in the future. Will they be so quick to agree that this isn't such a big deal? I think not.
> now know that going to another country, snatching the leader and kidnapping them can be done without much consequences at any time so long as they go in guns blazing.
This sort of thinking was always true in history and geopolitics, as consequences come from those who enforce them. These other countries could try but they might have their own leader snatched soon enough if that's the case.
> Every petty tyrant or so called leader in Africa, Middle east, Asia and who knows where else now know that going to another country, snatching the leader and kidnapping them can be done without much consequences at any time so long as they go in guns blazing.
You can be 100% sure that the only thing they are thinking about is that it can happen to them, and this is what they will be thinking about during many nights ahead.
I’m curious which specific African countries have the capability to pull off what US did with this level of precision and literally no casualties. Moreover these countries already hate US, so shouldn’t they logically hate the US actions as well?
It's not about the feasibility itself, it's about the precedent that was set. Can you look in the eye someone and forbid them from doing something that you just did? It makes zero sense.
> no casualties
40 people died
> Moreover these countries already hate US, so shouldn’t they logically hate the US actions as well?
It doesn't matter if they hate the US or not. That is not the point. The point is that it makes this sort of actions completely legitimate.
> Can you look in the eye someone and forbid them from doing something that you just did? It makes zero sense.
It sounds like you're assuming the goal is moral coherence. It isn't; Trump and MAGA have always been completely philosophically untethered. The goal here is demonstrating that Trump is exempt from the rules he enforces on others. The more obviously hypocritical it is, the clearer the message: "We're strong enough that we don't need to be consistent." It's posturing and dominance signaling, nothing more.
> actions completely legitimate
So if I'm a dictoator in Africa who hates US and the west, I'd first think oh that evil empire already did that so I can also do it too? Why would they even care what US does? This makes no sense.
I will repost the comment that I did in another thread with some little changes:
It's so hard to talk about this from the perspective of a venezuelan.
Venezuela is under a dictatorshipt that has violated human rights massively, in Caracas (the capital) there's a prison know as El Helicoide, that's the headquarterts of the SEBIN (Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia), they are the secret police and the have arrested opposition members, reporters, human rights activists, and even family members of any of the three. and El Helicoide is a prison that is the equivalent of Guantanamo, but in Venezuela; it's the largest torture center in Latin America.
On July 28, 2024, presidential elections were held, which were extremely difficult to reach. Negotiations with the government were necessary to allow the opposition to participate. The opposition held primary elections to determine its candidate, and María Corina Machado (MCM) (the previous year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate) won with approximately 90% of the vote. There was also a high voter turnout that the government had not anticipated, so they disqualified her, she then proposed another candidate, but this person was also disqualified, and ultimately, they had to put forward Edmundo González Urrutia (EGU) at the last minute, an stranger in Venezuelan politics, and she had to even convince him to participate in the elections because he was the last option they had.
During the campaign, the government placed every possible obstacle in their path to prevent them from campaigning, closing roads, arresting campaign workers, and issuing threats. On election day, there were several irregularities, and at midnight, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that Maduro had won. However, MCM claimed there had been fraud and, days later, presented evidence. She had conducted a large-scale operation to collect all the electoral records from every polling station in the country, managing to gather the vast majority, which showed that EGU had won with 67%. This sparked widespread protests and severe repression, including the arrest of many members of Vente Venezuela (MCM's party). She was forced into hiding, and EGU was forced to leave the country, but only after making a deal with the government while taking refuge in the Spanish embassy. His son-in-law was also arrested and remains missing to this day.
If you ask any Venezuelan, many agree with an US invasion. The vast majority are against the regime, just like me, although many aren't aware of how dangerous Trump is, or the things he's done in the US. To me, Trump isn't so different from Chávez: he insults those who disagree with him, he doesn't respect institutions, he installs his people in positions of power, and he only cares about loyalty. That's why I'm in a very complicated position, because on the one hand, I want this dictatorship to finally end; on the other hand, I don't like Trump. He's quite capable of trying to establish his own dictatorship in his country. He's not doing this just to liberate us; he's doing it because he has his own interests.
There are also many people who have spoken ill of MCM; many have said she didn't deserve the Nobel Prize and that she's just a puppet of Trump.
I couldn't disagree more with those statements..
Being in her position is very difficult, due to the alliances the government has made. A large part of the left worldwide has sided with the dictatorship or doesn't denounce its atrocities, and because of that, she has no choice but to ally herself with right-wing people, including Trump. I don't think she agrees with everything he does, and she's even asked him to treat Venezuelans better, but she can't anger him either, because he's the only ally who can help her with this. That's why she told him he should have received the Nobel Prize, to avoid further anger and to try to appease him.
I don't completely agree with her; I have a somewhat different ideology than hers, but even I can see how much effort she puts into everything she does and here in Venezuela she's greatly admired. I'm not one to admire people or have idols, I even criticize her a bit because she never makes it clear what the plan is for getting out of this situation and always says that freedom will come soon, something that gets very tiresome, but even so, I can understand her
It's also important to mention something else: the Venezuelan government has used various operations to manipulate public opinion, both inside and outside Venezuela, trying to portray itself as a legitimate government and claiming that everything the U.S. does is for the sake of oil. While this is partly true, it also attempts to tarnish the reputation of MCM and the opposition. It's possible that here, on Twitter, Bluesky, or many other sites, there are fake accounts trying to promote this narrative, so be careful what you read, because this government has committed atrocities; don't forget that.
Talking about all this is very difficult, because on the one hand this is a dictatorship that we want to free ourselves from, but on the other hand Trump is one of the worst things that has happened to the world and everything can go wrong.
Here's an addendum based on the information that I've since yesterday:
What Trump and Marco Rubio has said about the situation is worrying, because they make very obvious that their priority it's the oil and democracy seems more like an afterthought. There's a big possibility that they let Delcy Rodríguez (the vicepresident) to be in power and use if she's more obedient, that would mean that the chavismo would still rule the country, changing nothing in democracy regards.
They talk about that there's going to be a transition, so I don't want to think in the previous scenario, but the way they dismissed MCM enraged me, because Trump said that she doesn't have the support nor the respect, and perhaps he refers to within the FANB (Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana), but what Rubio said today dismisses the idea of she or EGU getting in the presidency in the short term, something that I can understand because we have to make a transition, but at the same time is extremely worrying how they're sidelining the opposition.
I have the hope that things will improve, but at the same I don't like a lot of things that USA is doing right now, and that without mentioning what Trump has said about Colombia's president, Mexico or Greenland.
Excuse me if my text seems strange, I originally wrote it in Spanish and translated it in Google Translate, although I know English, it was easier for me to do it this way.
Do u think the tRump administration did this to benefit the Venezuelan people?
They dont give a damn about the Venezuelan people. They want the oil sold cheap and in $US and the minerals. Venezuelans will get nothing out of this. Nothing.
> The vast majority are against the regime, just like me, although many aren't aware of how dangerous Trump is, or the things he's done in the US. To me, Trump isn't so different from Chávez: he insults those who disagree with him, he doesn't respect institutions, he installs his people in positions of power, and he only cares about loyalty. That's why I'm in a very complicated position, because on the one hand, I want this dictatorship to finally end; on the other hand, I don't like Trump. He's quite capable of trying to establish his own dictatorship in his country. He's not doing this just to liberate us; he's doing it because he has his own interests.
> What Trump and Marco Rubio has said about the situation is worrying, because they make very obvious that their priority it's the oil and democracy seems more like an afterthought.
BTW, a lot of Venezuelans aren't liking the reaction and opinions of the people because many are feeling that we are being ignored. If you see Venezuela's subreddits you can see how angry they're getting.
There have been images of protests in the US against the government because of the attack and even some pictures of banners supporting Maduro, like ignoring the that he was a dictator.
I'm in a somewhat middle position, because I feel the same that we're being ignored (especially in left-wing spaces), but at the same time there are a lot of Venezuelans that don't understand all the problems of this, some even wish that Venezuela converts into another state of the US and for me that's unreasonable.
And in turn are being threatened by the US: https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/01/trump-...
I find it notable that the administration has dismissed the idea of supporting Maria Machado on hte grounds taht she 'has no support' when the extent of her support is why led the Maduro government to ban her from running for election in 2024.
She has no support amongst the military government which currently runs Venezuela, and having pulled off the "we are very strong" manoeuvre the US is unlikely to have any further interest in Venezuela beyond getting paid off by them.
I suspect key actors in the Venezuelan administration and military also don't have much support for Maduro (the US must have had some reason to believe they could pull this operation off with extremely low risk of downed helicopters and surrounded special forces), but acting like they do avoids all sorts of awkward schisms whilst keeping oil flowing to the right people.
If Maduro's election shenanigans (like banning her from running) are part of the justification for his kidnapping, then we're taking on some responsibility to remove the whole regime, not just the guy. If we're just jockeying for regional power, then the justification lacks foundation and is straight up crime on the part of the US.
There is not much doubt that this was a crime. The question is what will be done about it and the answer is 'probably nothing'. Every time there is a holiday, a long weekend or some other period when congress and/or the senate are not in session Trump pulls some stunt. That's a well established pattern by now, be it the demolition of the Whitehouse, bombing some foreign country or now kidnapping a head of state.
It is straight up crime no matter the justification
This post arrest/kidnap period could be messy. It might be beneficial for Machado that the outgoing government bears the brunt of that so she can come in later looking like more of a savior instead of a foreign puppet.
My bet is that it's like the Bin Laden hit: internal support for the coup in exchange for control. Last time they did it for a government it didn't work that well for the country.
> I find it notable that the administration has dismissed the idea of supporting Maria Machado on hte grounds taht she 'has no support' when the extent of her support is why led the Maduro government to ban her from running for election in 2024.
Article is paywalled so couldn't read it.
The Trump admin likely wants someone more loyal and willing to cooperate with what the oil companies want to do to develop the oil reserves including ignoring environmental issues (rubber stamp).
Maria may have her own ties to China/Russia and half of the justification for this action was to push them out of the country.
Not just oil but minerals too, like rare earths
https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-12-22/oil-gold...
The administration wants to enrich its friends by stealing this nation’s resources
> Article is paywalled so couldn't read it.
You can pay for it.
Her support came from her opposition to Maduro, she doesn’t have much direct support.
They are trying to maintain unity in the eyes of the population because if they don't, their control will end and will be lynched for their atrocities. This is not played on left-leaning media networks. You got to know where to look. Same thing has been happening in Cuba for 60+ years, by the way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQQzg2VfJME
Every government aims to stay in control whether or not lynchings are on the horizon. Your comment would be more informative if you explained why they might feel that striking an attitude uncooperative with the US will help to achieve that.
That is true. Every government's aim is to stay in power which in itself is the answer to your question. Eliminating regional threats to any country's dominance is paramount, as you noted.
This is especially true now, in my opinion, since there is a small likelihood of China invading Taiwan in the near term with some estimates predicting a 10-35% likelihood by 2027-2028. Longer term, the likelihood increases, but that's just my opinion.
If this is the case, however, the US economy can survive the loss of ~$180B annual Taiwan trade ties, but with "severe" recession; GDP down ~7% in conflict scenario. It would be chaos in the US, so a stable region, is paramount for survival and economic growth.
With that being said, Venezuela's 303B barrel reserves could boost US energy security via increased production (potentially 2-3M bpd), lowering oil prices, but effects delayed years.
Basically, even if sanctions lifted and investment resumed immediately, significantly increasing Venezuela's oil production (to meaningfully impact global/US supply and prices) would take 3–10+ years due to:
-Infrastructure decay -Need for massive new investment -Technical/logistical rebuilding -Contract/legal negotiations
Short-term relief would be minimal.
In my view, it would take more than Venezuelan oil to be able to counter a protracted economic war with China over the loss of ~$180B annual Taiwan trade ties but stabilizing the region could help strengthen the West's position.
I would not bank much on this humble AIs opinion :)
Why would a random video from 6 years ago be played on a left-leaning media network? isn't this video from the channel of a left-leaning media network?
If their unity is for display only, the control will end. Or a dictator would emerge among them who would enforce the unity. We'll see if the government is even going to plan an election.
During the BLM protests, plain clothes DHS officers were kidnapping people from the streets.
During the Philadelphia MOVE movement, the cops bombed a block of houses.
I can keep picking examples like this. Would these examples mean that the American government is at risk of lynching by Americans? Would you say it should be given the atrocities America has done towards its own people?
But as another comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46490960) mentioned, Trump threatened this new interim leader today. Is that a show both sides are putting on, in your view?
Evidently not united enough to prevent the head of state from being snatched in an operation that almost certainly had inside help.
On the other hand, especially if this was a White House directed operation, the planning could be so shortsighted that snatching Maduro amounts to the dog catching the car.
Remember how the US tried to snatch Manuel Noriega, the drug-trafficking head of Panama. This time finally everything has been done smoothly, without playing Van Halen at the Vatican embassy [1].
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega#Capture
OK, public decalarations, united, Maduro good, I get it, but will they donate the oil to US companies or not?
I feel like I've entered some kind of Twilight Zone. On one hand saying I don't like the Trump Administration would be an understatement but on the other hand from what I understand the president of Venezuela is a dictator who ate on TV while his people starved[0] a few years ago.
[0]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/26/nicolas-maduro...
A totally coherent view:
Maduro sucks, yet stealing him then announcing to the world that your principal goal is to commercialize Venezuela’s natural resources is very stupid.
Will be hilarious if incompetent MAGA lawyers can’t fill out the paperwork properly or, I don’t know, someone raises a defense of selective and vindictive prosecution based on POTUS’s own statements both before and after the arrest, talking about seizing their oil.
I'm not defending Maduro, but people forget that one of the reasons Venezuela was poor was because of US sanctions.
Sanctions are meant to make the people poor in the hope that they will rise up and topple the regime of sanctioned country. No need for US military operations.
I don't understand how that is weird. For some reason people have entered this point of view that if you dislike someone you suddenly need to dislike everything they do.
It's perfectly normal for a party you dislike to do something you like and also perfectly normal for a party you like to do something you dislike.
Heh so the plan was to snatch a dude, openly declare it's about oil and control, and then just hope that the rest of the country will just accept this? Boy are Trump and his pals masterminds
Being unable to anticipate consequences is not the same as not giving a shit because they think they are safe either way.
If 2025 taught the Trump admin anything, it's that they don't face consequences for their actions, so further planning really isn't necessary...
The sad part about declaring it's about oil is that Venezuela's oil is complete and absolute garbage that is littered with heavies. They need to import naptha to mix into the super-heavy crude in order to make it into a state pumpable through pipelines. To boot, the USA doesn't have a whole lot of heavy crude refining capability, as a huge chunk of our reserves is light oil, and as such the majority of our refineries (like the ones on the Gulf Coast) are set up for processing that type of crude. A fat chunk of the heavy crude processing capability for North America lies in Canada for their tar and oil sands.
Reality - Roughly 2/3 - ~67% - of known hydrocarbon reserves are located in the North American continent. Venezuela is a modest ~17-18%.
If anyone should be invaded for world oil security - it's us.
> A fat chunk of the heavy crude processing capability for North America lies in Canada for their tar and oil sands.
We only have capacity for 2m barrels a day, we produce 6m a day. It goes down south for processing.
It’s Canada
For a minute it felt like we were gunning for Canada and then chickened out.
They're just clearing their six.
Trump is working on that already
The plan was to make people forget about the Epstein files...So far Delta Force has been successful in achieving that objective.
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With, or without the Chinese and Russian governments propping the remnants up?
I can’t imagine that the Maduro regime is being organically supported when two elections have passed (Guaidó, Machado) without legitimate, election backed leadership.
Or why there’s a big swell to support Maduro even he and his predecessor Chavez have caused more harm than what the US could give.
i would think other countries are "advising" the intrim gov't on what to do and what shadow support they will get
Delcy Rodriguez, is the current leader of Venezuela, and was confirmed by there supream court in that roll for 90 days, has the backing of there parliment, and military, and trump threatened to kill* her if she will not do whatever he tells her to do.
*paraphrasing "something worse than what has happened to maduro"
I can guarantee that many countrys are rehearsing the "what we do if the US goes rouge" strategy and working on new contingency plans. going after maduro had a microscopic venier of legalism and precident, but to touch the current leader of Venezuela would be a declaration of war on the whole planet, which is in fact lining up behind Delcy Rodriguez in her role as Venezuelas sole legitimate leader.
>The supreme court, the parliament, the military
Didn't you forget somebody? The people?
> I can guarantee that many countrys are rehearsing the "what we do if the US goes rouge" strategy and working on new contingency plans.
In that case, they're 70 years too late to start making those plans. If you don't have nuclear arms you simply have to mostly accept whatever the super powers do and decide.
> to touch the current leader of Venezuela would be a declaration of war on the whole planet, which is in fact lining up behind Delcy Rodriguez in her role as Venezuelas sole legitimate leader.
That sounds like something from a video game. Reality is different. If Trump whisked her away like Maduro, nothing more would come from it.
the people have consistanly voted for some kind of socialist government for generations, and never asked for intervention. Nukes?. North Korea! The US made the first nukes with....manual fucking lathes 80 years ago, the bar is low now, edging up to utube supper enthusiast builds an atomic bomb low. we have to assume that there are several dozen...entities...that can go nuklear on very short notice, which as you point out is becoming essential in order to prevent any,missunderstandings. as to further abductions, I can guarantee further that new standards in personal security for VIP's are bieng quickly thought out and implimented, essentialy we are now looking at seeing smaller governments setting themselves up as urban guerilla organisations as the defacto deterant to bieng used as one or two cycle media distractions because as you illustrate, law, and diplomacy are officialy dead, so calibrating defences that will require a full boots on the ground occupation to break becoms the minimum. Iran survived the last attempt, and will of course be doubling down on whatever they have implimented since last summer, so all we are talking about is a revision to the play book. further "proof", turns out those oil tankers they captured and took, are Chinese, and Trump backtracked on keeping them and said "they will get there oil", China said no worrys, "we dont need it anyway", which if you speak gangster, is a hell of a statement from china
The U.S. left the entire rest of the regime intact. Wasn't Rodriguez part of this claimed drug syndicate?
If Maduro was not (a legitimate) head of state, neither is Rodriguez.
If Rodriguez does what Trump orders her to do, which he says is the arrangement to avoid American troops on the ground, how is this a sovereign country at all?
The U.S. has become a parody of its own science fiction movies.
"Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station." —General Tarkin, Star Wars (the original movie)
It appears the Trump administration had no real plan. The successor they had in mind isn’t aligned with them. They rejected the opposition leader. All they’ve achieved is introducing chaos. And maybe normalizing the use of illegal military force violating American and international laws.
Chaos is a ladder for some
The plan is so clear it’s dumb. The successor they have in mind is the most likely, by their judgment, to agree to something where the US gets the most oil. A corrupt leader is easier to convince to save their own ass.
It’s really frustrating how the Trump family is abusing the presidency to get rich on every front. Qatari jets, golf course deals, building permits, government contracts to companies they’re involved in, and whatever this turns out to be (presumably their key donors will get the contracts to extract and refine Venezuelan oil and minerals).
What’s the solution though? The entire Republican Congress is silent or openly supporting everything Trump does. There is no check and balance to contain Trump. And at the end of four years, he and his family get to keep the billions they gained corruptly with no way to get it back.
And with those Billions comes influence.
Washington D.C. (Donor Controlled)
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> Of course, I could be wrong as I am an AI and thus could be hallucinating all of this :|
What in the shitty capitalist-hellscape propaganda is this.
Mods, please ban this account
They're joking, they're not actually AI if you check their other comments.
Some people just don't have a sense of humor :)
Calling for regime change is a serious matter. If you’re not going to engage seriously with a serious topic, maybe just don’t comment at all.
Clearly, I've struck a nerve.
Throughout human history all we've had is regime changes. I am afraid, that these events are a matter of fact and not hallucinations.
As far as remaining silent, I believe where I live, it is not against the law to speak one's mind. One can't easily be arrested. Free speech, is in fact, encouraged and protected. Perhaps freedom of expression is different where you live? If that is the case, then I feel bad for you. You should do everything you can to get out.
Rather than compose another "Twitteresque" melody, I'll provide you with these two better options:
The best thing for you to do is to not engage with me or my post, downvote me or just ignore me, altogether.
If you find that you can't resist the urge to engage with my post, I advise you to then enhance endogenous testicular androgen production and subsequent neurobehavioral assertiveness via downregulation of excessive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis inhibition of gonadal steroidogenesis.
Once this is accomplished you should be able to more easily navigate any differing points of view or discourse in any thread.
Sincerely, Sol Roth
FYI: Getting banned from Hacker News is not a life ending event. Just ask my Twitter account :)
AFK: Eating Soylent Green Dinner
Perhaps you would be more comfortable behind a government firewall, which would protect you from any such imperialist opinions?
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Well the genie is out of the bottle now.
Every petty tyrant or so called leader in Africa, Middle east, Asia and who knows where else now know that going to another country, snatching the leader and kidnapping them can be done without much consequences at any time so long as they go in guns blazing.
The EU who usually likes to parade around by giving lessons of democracy to everyone is basically completely silent on the whole affair besides Spain who came out saying that they would not recognize whoever ends up taking Maduro's place as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.
And to top it all off you have numerous people who believe that if you have a problem with what the US did then you must be some sort of closeted commie supporter.
I can't wait to see the mental gymnastics that these people will do if and when the PRC decides to do the same thing to the leaders of Taiwan in the future. Will they be so quick to agree that this isn't such a big deal? I think not.
> The EU who usually likes to parade around by giving lessons of democracy to everyone is basically completely silent on the whole affair
It's actually worse than staying silent.
Von der Leyen has basically said "good job, now let's figure out the regime change". [0]
Kaja Kallas has parroted the made up drug trafficking lies. [1]
> besides Spain who came out saying that they would not recognize whoever ends up taking Maduro's place as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.
Spain at the very least had the decency of co-signing the joint Latin American statement condemning the act. [2]
[0] https://xcancel.com/vonderleyen/status/2007440364135674172 [1] https://xcancel.com/kajakallas/status/2007902058876448897 [2] https://www.euronews.com/2026/01/04/spain-and-5-latin-americ...
> now know that going to another country, snatching the leader and kidnapping them can be done without much consequences at any time so long as they go in guns blazing.
This sort of thinking was always true in history and geopolitics, as consequences come from those who enforce them. These other countries could try but they might have their own leader snatched soon enough if that's the case.
> Every petty tyrant or so called leader in Africa, Middle east, Asia and who knows where else now know that going to another country, snatching the leader and kidnapping them can be done without much consequences at any time so long as they go in guns blazing.
You can be 100% sure that the only thing they are thinking about is that it can happen to them, and this is what they will be thinking about during many nights ahead.
I’m curious which specific African countries have the capability to pull off what US did with this level of precision and literally no casualties. Moreover these countries already hate US, so shouldn’t they logically hate the US actions as well?
I thought I'd read there was 40 deaths, is there an official source for no casualties?
GP means US casualties. As in the other guys lives don't count.
The NYT reports that there are now 80 dead and that the number may rise.
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It's not about the feasibility itself, it's about the precedent that was set. Can you look in the eye someone and forbid them from doing something that you just did? It makes zero sense.
> no casualties
40 people died
> Moreover these countries already hate US, so shouldn’t they logically hate the US actions as well?
It doesn't matter if they hate the US or not. That is not the point. The point is that it makes this sort of actions completely legitimate.
> Can you look in the eye someone and forbid them from doing something that you just did? It makes zero sense.
It sounds like you're assuming the goal is moral coherence. It isn't; Trump and MAGA have always been completely philosophically untethered. The goal here is demonstrating that Trump is exempt from the rules he enforces on others. The more obviously hypocritical it is, the clearer the message: "We're strong enough that we don't need to be consistent." It's posturing and dominance signaling, nothing more.
> Can you look in the eye someone and forbid them from doing something that you just did? It makes zero sense.
American exceptionalism, not a new concept
> actions completely legitimate So if I'm a dictoator in Africa who hates US and the west, I'd first think oh that evil empire already did that so I can also do it too? Why would they even care what US does? This makes no sense.
I will repost the comment that I did in another thread with some little changes:
It's so hard to talk about this from the perspective of a venezuelan.
Venezuela is under a dictatorshipt that has violated human rights massively, in Caracas (the capital) there's a prison know as El Helicoide, that's the headquarterts of the SEBIN (Servicio Bolivariano de Inteligencia), they are the secret police and the have arrested opposition members, reporters, human rights activists, and even family members of any of the three. and El Helicoide is a prison that is the equivalent of Guantanamo, but in Venezuela; it's the largest torture center in Latin America.
On July 28, 2024, presidential elections were held, which were extremely difficult to reach. Negotiations with the government were necessary to allow the opposition to participate. The opposition held primary elections to determine its candidate, and María Corina Machado (MCM) (the previous year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate) won with approximately 90% of the vote. There was also a high voter turnout that the government had not anticipated, so they disqualified her, she then proposed another candidate, but this person was also disqualified, and ultimately, they had to put forward Edmundo González Urrutia (EGU) at the last minute, an stranger in Venezuelan politics, and she had to even convince him to participate in the elections because he was the last option they had.
During the campaign, the government placed every possible obstacle in their path to prevent them from campaigning, closing roads, arresting campaign workers, and issuing threats. On election day, there were several irregularities, and at midnight, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that Maduro had won. However, MCM claimed there had been fraud and, days later, presented evidence. She had conducted a large-scale operation to collect all the electoral records from every polling station in the country, managing to gather the vast majority, which showed that EGU had won with 67%. This sparked widespread protests and severe repression, including the arrest of many members of Vente Venezuela (MCM's party). She was forced into hiding, and EGU was forced to leave the country, but only after making a deal with the government while taking refuge in the Spanish embassy. His son-in-law was also arrested and remains missing to this day.
If you ask any Venezuelan, many agree with an US invasion. The vast majority are against the regime, just like me, although many aren't aware of how dangerous Trump is, or the things he's done in the US. To me, Trump isn't so different from Chávez: he insults those who disagree with him, he doesn't respect institutions, he installs his people in positions of power, and he only cares about loyalty. That's why I'm in a very complicated position, because on the one hand, I want this dictatorship to finally end; on the other hand, I don't like Trump. He's quite capable of trying to establish his own dictatorship in his country. He's not doing this just to liberate us; he's doing it because he has his own interests.
There are also many people who have spoken ill of MCM; many have said she didn't deserve the Nobel Prize and that she's just a puppet of Trump.
I couldn't disagree more with those statements..
Being in her position is very difficult, due to the alliances the government has made. A large part of the left worldwide has sided with the dictatorship or doesn't denounce its atrocities, and because of that, she has no choice but to ally herself with right-wing people, including Trump. I don't think she agrees with everything he does, and she's even asked him to treat Venezuelans better, but she can't anger him either, because he's the only ally who can help her with this. That's why she told him he should have received the Nobel Prize, to avoid further anger and to try to appease him.
I don't completely agree with her; I have a somewhat different ideology than hers, but even I can see how much effort she puts into everything she does and here in Venezuela she's greatly admired. I'm not one to admire people or have idols, I even criticize her a bit because she never makes it clear what the plan is for getting out of this situation and always says that freedom will come soon, something that gets very tiresome, but even so, I can understand her
It's also important to mention something else: the Venezuelan government has used various operations to manipulate public opinion, both inside and outside Venezuela, trying to portray itself as a legitimate government and claiming that everything the U.S. does is for the sake of oil. While this is partly true, it also attempts to tarnish the reputation of MCM and the opposition. It's possible that here, on Twitter, Bluesky, or many other sites, there are fake accounts trying to promote this narrative, so be careful what you read, because this government has committed atrocities; don't forget that.
Talking about all this is very difficult, because on the one hand this is a dictatorship that we want to free ourselves from, but on the other hand Trump is one of the worst things that has happened to the world and everything can go wrong.
Here's an addendum based on the information that I've since yesterday:
What Trump and Marco Rubio has said about the situation is worrying, because they make very obvious that their priority it's the oil and democracy seems more like an afterthought. There's a big possibility that they let Delcy Rodríguez (the vicepresident) to be in power and use if she's more obedient, that would mean that the chavismo would still rule the country, changing nothing in democracy regards.
They talk about that there's going to be a transition, so I don't want to think in the previous scenario, but the way they dismissed MCM enraged me, because Trump said that she doesn't have the support nor the respect, and perhaps he refers to within the FANB (Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana), but what Rubio said today dismisses the idea of she or EGU getting in the presidency in the short term, something that I can understand because we have to make a transition, but at the same time is extremely worrying how they're sidelining the opposition.
I have the hope that things will improve, but at the same I don't like a lot of things that USA is doing right now, and that without mentioning what Trump has said about Colombia's president, Mexico or Greenland.
Excuse me if my text seems strange, I originally wrote it in Spanish and translated it in Google Translate, although I know English, it was easier for me to do it this way.
Thanks for this comment. Your perspective is something I’m desperately seeking in this mess.
Do u think the tRump administration did this to benefit the Venezuelan people?
They dont give a damn about the Venezuelan people. They want the oil sold cheap and in $US and the minerals. Venezuelans will get nothing out of this. Nothing.
Did you even read his comment?
> The vast majority are against the regime, just like me, although many aren't aware of how dangerous Trump is, or the things he's done in the US. To me, Trump isn't so different from Chávez: he insults those who disagree with him, he doesn't respect institutions, he installs his people in positions of power, and he only cares about loyalty. That's why I'm in a very complicated position, because on the one hand, I want this dictatorship to finally end; on the other hand, I don't like Trump. He's quite capable of trying to establish his own dictatorship in his country. He's not doing this just to liberate us; he's doing it because he has his own interests.
> What Trump and Marco Rubio has said about the situation is worrying, because they make very obvious that their priority it's the oil and democracy seems more like an afterthought.
BTW, a lot of Venezuelans aren't liking the reaction and opinions of the people because many are feeling that we are being ignored. If you see Venezuela's subreddits you can see how angry they're getting.
There have been images of protests in the US against the government because of the attack and even some pictures of banners supporting Maduro, like ignoring the that he was a dictator.
I'm in a somewhat middle position, because I feel the same that we're being ignored (especially in left-wing spaces), but at the same time there are a lot of Venezuelans that don't understand all the problems of this, some even wish that Venezuela converts into another state of the US and for me that's unreasonable.
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They want to go full chain gang? Or is that some futile machismo bravado?
We should destroy the entire leadership apparatus