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this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
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I'm starting to think they did a kidnapping precisely because they could not do anything else. If everything was on their side why do strikes on other targets instead of doing a stealth operation? Why 12 helicopters with ~36 soldiers each capacity (360 troops total just for this op)? That seems like a lot of troops on the ground if this was a pinpoint, fullproof mission. Air strikes were done to confuse and pull attention away from the actual operation. Striking the mausoleum was part of the op to divert the public eye.
It's very close to the historical US invasion of Panama in 1989. They also struck military targets to begin with naval reinforcements brought in over the past months and then flew in special forces to kidnap Noriega. Notably the invasion was much larger-scale at the time.
It doesn't have to be an inside job btw. Lots of people jumping to this but forces committed (if those helicopters were not empty of course) suggests decapitation method - going through various locations where target is expected to be found. There was absolutely scrambling and cyberwarfare to bring air defenses down, and striking at 3AM to catch army off-guard. Escalating tensions in the last few months including the strikes on civilian boats tested Venezuelan response protocols and reaction times and helped create complacency in the army.
It still remains to be seen what exactly they expect this kidnapping will do. Like I said it's possible they settled for taking Maduro because that's the only thing they could do (at this time at least), but why did they still proceed with it?
Time will tell.
Mhh interesting, thank you! Tbh i thought it wouldn't be so easy for them to just kidnap them, but maybe they are just more competent than i thought and i don't even buy into the "US/CIA got lazy and believe their own propaganda of how great they are" tale that seems to be going around.
I think you are right that only time will tell for now.
Why wouldn't it be easy? Maduro was very open about where he was, he chose to remain publicly visible and show that he was not intimidated and would not run and hide. That would have made him look like a coward. This did the opposite. He practically dared Trump to come and get him. It was the geopolitical equivalent of non-violent resistance. The point of it is how bad it makes the oppressor look in the eyes of everyone who is still on the fence.
These kind of rogue, blatantly illegal actions only further damage the US' international standing and ultimately help global anti-imperialist forces. If they had killed him they would have made him a martyr. But abducting a head of state from his own country is even worse. It is an incomprehensibly bad look. It tramples all norms of international relations going back hundreds of years. There is a reason why coups are usually done through proxies.
Even the US' most loyal vassals are struggling to find a way to unequivocally justify this. So now if they do a show trial they will further expose the farcical nature of the "rules based order" and the absurdity of the charges leveled at him. And if they let him go under international pressure it will be a public admission of defeat. No matter what this is a lose-lose for the empire. Just like Gaza was a lose-lose proposition for the Zionist entity no matter how many people they slaughtered.
I am frankly surprised at how close to ideally this whole situation was handled by Venezuela. This went in the worst possible way it could have for the empire, and the funny thing is the morons probably don't even realize that they stepped right into the trap. They think is some kind of victory for them when it is the exact opposite. The Bolivarian revolution emerged much stronger from of the coup attempt against Chavez and this is already having a similar galvanizing effect.
I don't know if I would go so far as to say this is a lose-lose for the empire. Except that everything is lose-lose in a long enough time horizon.
First off, the ability to test systems and tactics against Venezuela's defenses was valuable in its own right. Made more valuable by the fact that many of those systems are from larger adversaries of the US. That provides lots of valuable intelligence.
Second, the shock and awe factor is very valuable. A public execution of Maduro is definitely in the cards and doing so would ramp up the shock and awe. It will cause lots of reactions, lots of movement. A lot of that movement will be opportunity for the US to act again. Get one more shock and awe event out of that, and it would be very valuable.
Third, it shakes the relationship tree and reveals the ride-or-die allies versus the mere sycophants. It tightens the circle, it creates bonds of allegiance, and it allows the empire to do more terrible things faster.
Everyone already knows this. The "rules based order" has always been a facade for allowing Multinational Corporations to do whatever they want. You are huffing copium. No one is on the fence. Every Western Nation knows the game, and leaders of those countries are selected because they support it. Venezuela was never in the club, neither is Colombia or Cuba, but they literally do not matter. If Trump had spent 3 months carpet bombing Caracas to nothingness the response of the world would look exactly the same. Morality is not a part of the calculus, neither is most of latin america.
I'm sure they paid off some collaborators on the ground but probably not anyone of consequence.
B.t.w., Manuel Noriega surrendered in Panama on January 3, 1990