As video of U.S. military operations inside Venezuela began to surface on social media, President Donald Trump has announced that overnight the U.S. military carried out a “large scale strike” against Venezuela and captured President Nicolas Maduro.
Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López survived tonight’s strike operation, giving his first statement since the capture of President Nicolás Maduro. pic.twitter.com/a1G6qAmg5V
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) January 3, 2026
Just 5 hours ago, Chinese officials arrived in Venezuela for talks with President Maduro.
4 hours later, the US launched large airstrikes on Venezuela's capital in a major escalation.
A statement from President Trump is expected. pic.twitter.com/jbDMXSXnRq
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) January 3, 2026
Maduro is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government. Maduro is the head of the Cartel de Los Soles, a narco-terror organization which has taken possession of a country. And he is under indictment for pushing drugs into the United States.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) July 27, 2025
NOW – Suspected U.S. Apache and CH-47 aircraft fly over Caracas, Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/FqDOJBYmRX
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 3, 2026
🚨 BREAKING: U.S. Army Apache attack helicopters are absolutely ANNIHILATING Fort Tiuna in Caracas, Venezuela
This is a key military installation in the country’s capital
I mean, was… pic.twitter.com/BoQUGO4Ccy
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 3, 2026
Now deal with the loudmouth Colombian president.
PDJT is proceeding in alphabetical order. Mamdami is next in line for “kinetic action.” sarc
Dishing out some rugged individualism to the warmth of collectivism.
https://x.com/visegrad24/status/2007346372539015213
“warmth of collectivism” sounds like tyranny in a onesie
That’s pretty dang funny!
Spelling the new NYC mayor’s name wrong has consequences. Its Mamdani.
It’s Mangani
It’s Maggot.
It’s Madmani
I will add that he swore an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution. The very first amendment is Freedom Of Speech. Are you saying that he lied out of his ass when he swore that oath? If you say he didn’t lie, then you are a piss poor follower of that commie POS for not accepting his sworn oath.
Don’t forget that for a Muslim, it is morally right to lie.
It’s Momsdummi.
I prefer Madmommy
Oh, I thought J B Pritzker was next.
Boasberg.
…and maybe us laws effectuating:
… ny mayor, and company,
… mx cartels drug Lord’s that ruin lives,
…zz, eeee uuuu grifter$,
…mn. oh. etc grifter$ of u.s. taxpayer$
p.s.
It is also good the that u.s. stymied multiple terror attempts during holidays… and still watching..
Working to make this a better place than how it was / is found.
Reducing the scourge of rampant illegal drugs helps so, so many people.
Example of untold harms:
A Christmas tree at church, for years, has has multiple envelopes attached ( includes names of private, quiet families that have a family member incarcerated )
for people to select, take home, discern, pray and buy gifts and deliver gift to family missing their family member.
i.e. ( the servant in us acting for another person ) Delivering a little joy, showing care -from the family member -that is not home.
The scourge of drugs running rampant is harmful – and there are many story often untold. Often families become voluntarily secluded out of their shame of what happened to a loved one.
( often root caused by what mad uro and company infliction of temptations ( risky drug / money ventures )
into the u.s. )
Having someone like mad uro and company having some time to reflect on his / her evil acts is well past due.
The peaceful long time $ 50 million bounty did not get the duty done.
( some may have tried, but… )
Imho
Love thy neighbors
They should split that $50 million up between the people that worked on the mission. I realize there are so many behind the scene people involved that it might just give whomever a $100 bill. But don’t you think they would frame that $100 bill and put it on the wall and look at it with pride in years to come? Sure would be something to tell your grandkids about.
The multipolar world is sorting itself out.
USA is the big dog in the Americas, Russia decides Ukraine, China decides what will be in its neighborhood.
Venezuelans stay where they are, DO NOT bring plane loads of them into the USA.
We have been enriched beyond measure by Afghans, Somalis etc.
All the parasites are returned to where they came from, the criminal scammers in the USA governments at all levels do jail time.
Follow the bouncing ball as PDJT works his way through this four dimensional matrix. Welcome to 2026.
I have a feeling that 2026 is going to be a barnburner. PDJT is done playing nicey nice.
One can hope.
How soon for all those Venezuelan immigrants and asylum holders to move home?
Panama. Noriega. Atlanta, Georgia.
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-global/panama-noriega-maduro-10453762/
May I suggest sending the home via Trebuchet?
Gravity operated so the Greenies should be pleased.
You mean drug smugglers, right?
On the plus side, it should be easier for us to unload captured Venezuelan gang members now.
How long will it take before some judge demands the US return Maduro?
Briefs are being written as I type/you read this.
Since when does any judge have jurisdiction over foreign policy??
Apparently starting about 8 years ago when they told the President of the United States that he couldn’t block visa’s to citizens of countries harboring known terrorist groups.
you forgot the sarc tag
Just hope Maduro receives due process—by Democrat lawyers for $1000+/hour.
From his drug money that isn’t even pocket litter.
Seconds.
Exactly. What for it – Boasberg-the-cadaver.
Well, as I am sure everyone remembers…🤣🙄🙄🙄
In 2002 when we did the last coup there…kind of..🤪
Chavez was overthrown for…47 hours. Pedro Carmona
was installed, dissolved the National Assembly and
Supreme Court….some say our installed puppet was
only installed for 36 hours. 🤷♀️ meh…just hours.
Probably why with this coup….the leader was taken
out of the country! 🤣 🤣
Are they going to bring Gonzalez back from Spain?
It was he who ran against Maduro last time.
He lost, then went to Spain.🤷♀️🤷♀️
New elections?🤷♀️ What are the people going to do?
Civil riots— welcome her with open arms?
Military remain in control until litigation regarding
Maduro is resolved? Civil War against different faction?
International Community already voicing displeasure.😳
Now What?
When you stir a ### pot….you never know what you are going
to be eating.
Arrest the judge for aiding and abetting.
Right?!? They’ll order Maduro expatriates and returned to power. Judges control foreign policy now, national defense.
Not only have they made that clear in their rulings – with John Roberts’ blessing – but Trump has obeyed the anti-Constitutional rulings usurping his powers. He has made the office of the President inferior to the Judiciary, ceded the co-equal stature it once had.
There has always been push-pull tension between the branches, some eras where one branch dominates the other two. Strong presidents are able to dominate. Weak presidents get dominated.
Trump’s refusal to assert his authority where the US Constitution is explicitly clear renders him a weak president in the push-pull relationship between the branches. The judiciary will gladly humiliate him by ordering Maduro returned.
If Trump obeys, as he has consistently done, he will be humiliated on the world stage as the president who speaks loudly but carries a small stick. The anti-Teddy Roosevelt. Which may very well be the plan of the jackals and snakes in his administration.
Thank you Sec Rubio for setting the record straight way back in July for those paying attention.
Agree. This must repeated, often.
I’m sticking with President Trump on this as I have faith there’s a lot we don’t know about it yet. Looking forward to the news conference at 11am.
Get some Mr. President!
We need a new holiday in January, January 3rd to be exact…
…as we commemorate Noriega and Maduro…
American Independence from Narco Terrorists….
If I’m not mistaken, wasn’t Venezuela suspected of running election Fraud in our elections??? The Smartmatic/Dominion voting machines….Could this have also been part of the reason for the raid while the Administration couldn’t say that???
All I know for sure is that the machines were first deployed there, and presumably invented there.
Communists don’t know how to invent, only destroy, so to me that says see eye aye was in charge.
Just an opinion. But I’ve seen machine origin there cited and proven a number of times.
It’s the birthplace and trial run then pushed across the globe. This action is multi faceted action. Immigration drugs, crime, elections and corrupted us officials
Hope they’re sweating today
Research the owner of globovision, financier of cartels . Chevron ties
Raúl Gorrín, owner of the Globovisión
Bingo, James. If you listened to Lara Logan’s recent podcast on 2020 (and prior) U.S. election fraud and how it all originated in Venezuela with the help of Cuba, Russia and China. Venezuela is where the fraudulent voting machine system started and the Venezuelan programmers who made that possible, moved to America and, if I remember correctly, ended up running both Smartmatics and Dominion here.
I would bet money Trump is turning the screws on Maduro to get him to confess to the fraud and how it happened.
Watch the guilty squeal. Those American politicians who were in on the voting fraud are going to go ballistic. Gallego of AZ, who won a Senate seat against Kari Lake in a questionable election, is already out of the gate. Look at his family’s background. Tells you everything.
The loudest squealers will be the guilty and they are afraid right now.
Trump has to instill fear in the hearts of election cheaters now, before the midterms.
Diebold was another. Thing is, these EVM companies change names, ownership all the time. At least on the surface. Same actors below the surface.
Adrian Fontes is another Arizona politician questionably elected who has Cartel ties. He plans to be Governor after Hobbs.
Agree that there needs to be fear in the hearts of Election Cheaters for us to have a shot at a free election in the midterms. But that only happens when election integrity laws are put in place and they see their co-conspirators in handcuffs, preferably their leaders. Unfortunately Bondi appears to be in on the game to do nada. And President Trump is allowing her & the DOJ to get away with this, even though people have been begging him to replace her. The Election Cheaters rule the roost, despite all the blowhards threatening accountability. I hope that will change.
Yes. In the 208 State of the Union President Trump even presented Juan Guaidó as the real Venezuelan president.
2018 article here:
“The U.S. and more than 50 other nations believe the 2018 reelection of President Nicolás Maduro was illegitimate and say Guaidó should be considered president under the Venezuelan constitution. Trump in his speech called Maduro a “tyrant.”
Venezuela has been a top priority in Latin America for the Trump administration, which a year ago was the first among 60 governments to throw its weight behind Guaidó after he launched a campaign to oust Maduro from power.
U.S. officials have called Maduro a “dictator,” and hit the state-run Venezuelan oil firm PDVSA with sanctions and other financial measures designed to push out the socialist leader. However, Maduro remains in control, having faced down a coup attempt, a brief renewal of mass anti-government protests and U.S. sanctions.”
Fentanyl would be enough for me, and I trust our Great American President Donald J Trump!.
But when you mix in the fact that Smart-Matic (electronic voting/cheat system) was developed and field tested to install Hugo Chavez and keep him there.
Let us not forget all sanctified by The Carter Center, with Jimmy “the peanut” Carter personally declaring it a “free and fair” election.
Then as sure as day follows night we were treated to the horror of the “hanging chad” …da-da-da-dum, something must be done.
The poison pill of institutional vote fraud was foisted on the world and the world was filled with installed frauds who dance to the tune of their glo-bull-ist masters.
Along with Mail in Ballots, double counting and viola, sexual perversion is normalized, War makes great TV, deadly disease is released on the world, 3rd world invaders are immigrants, tens of thousands of small businesses are destroyed et al.
All the while the glo-bull-ist danced and sang at the destruction they wrought.
“I believe in love, I believe in peace, I believe the things we used to scream in the streets…but with demons, that’s naïve.
As far as Iran, gain with the Peanut Jimmy Carter allowed the Shah to be deposed letting the weird beards, Ayatollah Khomeini’s gang in, Iran went from a vacation spot to a fevering cesspool of Islamo insanity, put to the forefront.
Though it would be best to allow the good people of Iran to deal with this insanity, “we” helped push them into darkness, perhaps it would be just to help the turn on the lights leaving that 7th century nonsense in the rearview mirror.
That being said, I pray for our American Troops, as America removes a festering cancerous tumor in our hemisphere.
Please Lord watch and keep our troops and protect the innocents as these demons are flushed out, here and abroad.
Amen!
This is the game and this guy is part of what you’re saying….. Raúl Gorrín, owner of the Globovisión
Amen.
Somewhat unfortunate that it had to be done this way but I see several benefits:
This is the track
Add Colombia and Mexico to your last bullet.
Include the refugee caravans of a few years back, while they’re at it. Ask Maduro
who was paying for the transportation, promotion, new “donated” clothing that you
could see on all the future residents coming northward.
Lutheran Services? Catholic Charities?….just a WAG.
I’m actually okay with arresting Maduro, surprisingly.
But don’t be shocked if China moves against Taiwan.
…and Russia capture -Z- or elimi…………..
That would solve a problem for Trump.
Doesn’t Russia have a warrant for Soros? Lordy, that would suck! 😉
President Trump has had the patience of a saint. This is what happens when a bad guy continues to FA.
Eventually they will FO.
https://x.com/EmeraldRobinson/status/2007446737925877953?s=20
Major media outlets that never called me in the last 12 months to explain my original reporting on election fraud, Smartmatic, and Venezuela:
ABC
CBS
NBC
MSNBC
CNN
NYT
WaPo
Politico
The list goes on and on.
This is also a message to the Iranian regime who is on shaky ground right now.
Yes, it is. I would imagine Columbia, Cuba and Mexico are paying attention as well.
Spot on as usual Colkitto. Obama’s mentor and trainer. Their trail of ruin runs too, to Maduro.
His daughter looks more like him every day.
I have mixed feelings about this. Yes, Maduro is bad news. But I didn’t vote for Trump so he could secret the CIA into Ukraine and they could guide missiles into Russia (an act of war), keep US troops in Syria, bomb Nigeria, threaten the mullahs. Does Trump think getting rid of Maduro is going to stop Americans from doing drugs? Not going to happen. 100,000 drug users died last year? Three years from now it will still be 100,000 (more probably). Demand is the problem. Unless demand goes away, nothing will change. America is a big country. And there are many ways to get drugs into America. Also, the ghouls running drugs aren’t stupid. So, today Maduro. Tomorrow? How about Mexico? Canada? A lot of drugs come in though Canada. And then China? Why not go to the top of the supply chain? These kinds of actions against tinpot dictators can work well–they better. America spends close to a trillion dollars so defense industry contractors can sleep in warm beds. America hasn’t done so well when there was even quasi resistance. We lost the war in Afghanistan. We lost the war in Iraq, which was the dumbest foreign policy move in our lifetimes. Mullahs? The idea of sending American troops into Iran is absurd. I agree: the mullahs are cancer. But the mullahs have support. How much is anyone’s guess, but I wouldn’t believe a word out of the CIA. If even half the Iranian thug troops fight American “liberators,” our troops will be in for a grim time of it. My bottom line is I’m sick to death of American interventionism. If we are attacked, that’s one thing. I look at this Maduro topple and I see the fingerprints of deep state actors. Dollars to donuts they are breaking out the champagne at CIA & FBI headquarters. Happy days are here again.
Who do you think installed Maduro? Seriously? You honestly think the CIA would celebrate the removal of Maduro? Um ok.
America WAS attacked by Venezuela. They attacked us with drugs that killed Americans. They attacked us with illegal aliens/violent gangsters who killed Americans. They stole American oil facilities built by American companies-billions of dollars in theft.
Venezuela declared war on America a long time ago and multiple UniParty presidents watched it happen.
God bless President Trump for forcefully using his Constitutional powers to stop this war being waged against us by Venezuelan thugs and criminals who wanted us dead.
President Trump has the mantle and mandate from Jeremiah 1:10. “See, I have this day appointed you to the oversight of the nations (President Trump) – and of the kingdoms to ROOT OUT and PULL DOWN, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant. ”
Do you see why President Trump had to go through a difficult interim season of the “cross” (2020 – 2024) – so that when he returned to power – he would know it was only the Lord that had put him in office ?
Power and authority WITHOUT love and compassion will always go into the ditch.
I was reading the account of Jeremiah 24 – this morning – BEFORE my husband told me about dictator Maduro; JEREMIAH – telling Zedekiah – King of Judah – that he would be captured and go into Babylon because of his disobedience and breaking covenant. Zedekiah – like “Maduro” – was given the opportunity to humble himself – but he would not. Consequences.
The Lord can give power and authority – like He did with all twelve apostles in Luke 9 – that is a gift from the Potter; but the CLAY has to decide to become like the POTTER in the ways of love.
DEATH HAS NO POWER OVER TRUE LOVE. This is called “resurrection life.”
We know what happened to Judas; he betrayed. Peter betrayed also – but Peter humbled himself. The Lord had compassion and love and told Peter – to feed His sheep. Peter entered into “resurrection life.”
Stubborn clay that refuses to humble themselves before the Potter – will have nothing but the Lion nature of law and justice in this life and in the next.
Now watch for other nations with corrupt governments to fall. Keep your eyes on Iran.
Continue to pray for President Trump and not “prey” on him. Jeremiah 1:10 is a heavy mantle and he will need all of the intercessors on the earth to help him fulfill this mandate.
TYPO JEREMIAH 34
The DOJ has announced that charges have been filed. I hope it is not in DC
SDNY.
Isn’t that just a bad?
Yes. Should have been Florida federal court.
Bringing Maduro to be tried in NY is utter buffoonery, clown show material. I hope this isn’t true, but it wouldn’t be a surprise. The question is, who would have advised the POTUS to do this?
saw that and thought wtf.almost worse then d.c.should have hauled him to guantanamo
The charges were filed in 2020 under Barr in NY. As much as I dislike Blondi, this isn’t on her.
Just woke up to this. Bizarre and not sure what to think at the moment. I was ok with bombing the drug boats.
Step into the real world. We’ve lived decades where Democrats sow chaos, illegal immigration abounds, rule of law wiped away, corruption was free flowing and 3rd world despite in our own hemisphere dumped fentanyl into this nation by the tonnage. Furthermore the GOP is the Maginot Line of political opposition. Pretenders. You should wake up thanking your lucky stars that PDJT put this dictator in shackles and toss away the key.
Maybe the same should be done to the people that were going to put President Trump in prison. That’s what I wanted most that we’re not going to get.
Ok, you just answered your own question, you’re rightfully supportive of taking this narco terrorist, dictator out of power and into custody. Pretty simple.
Maduro sent the worse of the worse across our border under the illegitimate Biden regime. That alone is enough for me. Venezuela isn’t wrecked, and Maduro was captured alive. Which is astonishing.
Suddenly lots of instability in Venezuela. Here’s hoping there is a plan to install the duly elected Madame President, without the need for a prolonged presence in the country.
I think the “prolonged presence” will be the legitimate owners of the oil leases (US Companies), and not any US boots on the ground. (Of course CIA operates there, too – another “prolonged presence”.)
Trump can’t go after the deep state/global Intel blob directly. (DS/GI) There are too many actors, the command-control structure is too nebulous.
But he can go after their funding and the places where they are operating.
Massive fraud is a major source of funding. Trump is going after their operations in S/C America (South and Central). As we watch this continue, expect to see more elections where right wing governments are elected.
The DS/GI operates in the dark and in the gaps. But if Trump creates official policy and the DS/GI acts against it, sedition and/or treason charges will follow against the individual actors identified.
This is going to continue until they are no longer able to operate.
How ironic is that Maduro gets brought into the same city that just elected a mayor with a similar political agenda.
I look forward to Mamdani’s comments on this.
Not one to offer President Trump advise but hope his presser includes a scrolling 1-800 number for Venezuelan immigrants (both legal and illegal) to book flights home.
Are there any airports left there?
Maybe “drop them off” Pinochet style?
It all seems like a well planned and coordinated story narrative. Something out of a fiction novel. An extremely wealthy dictator, knowing full well he is the most publicized number one target of America, protected 24/7 by ruthless Cuban trained commandos, is merely scooped up and whisked away? I don’t believe a word of it.
The people in Trinidad despised Hugo and Nick, there is going to partying in the streets there.
Trinidad was flooded with drugs and all the crime and death that went with it.
Should have been Florida, if only for the jury pool.
The elephant in the room:
Where are the indictments for conspiracy to rig US elections for the last 20 years?
And why weren’t the Rodriguez siblings snatched up too?
Or is the intent that those two get the Ceausescu treatment from the Venezuelan citizenry?
Maybe the decision for Maduro is trial so the American public can be educamated, while the decision for the Rodriguez’s is death, either from below (the people) or above (the skies)?
Delcy Rodriguez is in Russia?
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-forces-strike-venezuela-trump-reveals-maduro-has-been-captured
Interesting, that.
Dmitriev:
https://x.com/kadmitriev/status/2007413051478421989?s=20
Maybe Russia is going to do a snatch and grab on Z?
That would be pretty awesome
SDNY seriously? Some Trump hating district judge there is already writing up orders to release/return Maduro. Should be out by COB Monday or sooner.
Southern District of NY? No justice forthcoming.
Zohran’s jurisdiction?
Wasn’t he indicted 5-6 years ago in SDNY?
I doubt military operations are solely to capture Maduros. Most of that cartel-government was named in the indictment.
Indicted in SDNY in 2020 under Barr.
Well, they say you can vote your way into socialism, but you’ll have to shoot your way out
President Trump gave Venezuela an out.
Get rid of socialism
Embrace capitalism
Country will thrive again. 💪
Exactly what the Bush warmongering crew said after the purple finger election in Iraq.
The key word in Tom’s comment is “again.”
FAFO.
God,Guns and Guts
Made America Free.
What’s worked over 200 years
Still works good enough for me.
God, Guns and Guts
Keep America Strong.
And if we don’t believe in all three
We Won’t Be Americans Long!
Question…..was the narco activity out of Venezuela helping fund the Ukraine war? Was jt creating an impediment to a peace deal? The timing of all of this is curious.
Yup….and we can’t complain when he does it. The law of unintended consequences is about to kick in bigtime.
And Taiwan. Does this signal China they can move on the island?
Just about everyone on this website has pointed out that the US would have invaded and annexed Mexico if it had joined the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15431079/Venezuelas-President-Nicolas-Maduro-indicted-New-York-drugs-weapons-charges-Keir-Starmer-distances-US-airstrikes.html
The beta male PM of Great Britain has already bleated that he needs to consult “allies” (the EU), but that he believes in uphold[ing] international law.
Finger-in-the-wind foreign policy.
I love the smell of smoking Marxists in the morning….
It smells like victory!
NO MERCY!
I wonder if this arrest and capture for drugs is the cover story publicly and the real mission was to capture Maduro and get him to speak about possible election fraud?
A 2 for 1?
I doubt it.
possible…
Very possible. Our president hates election fraud at least as much as he hates drug smuggling.
Bet it won’t just be democrats pitching a bitch today. Be surprised of there aren’t some RINOs pissing and moaning also.
They are one and the same. Oh pooh to you too along with the Dems.
My bet is we see the Insurrection Act declared within 30-60 days……………
Consider Maduro was first of the fascist dictators (among the most dangerous, including: Venezuela, Columbia, Brazil and Nicaragua) to be removed as the rationale for the strike on Venezuela has allot more in common with the strike on Grenada in 1983 … vs being a major counter drug operation.
My opinion, President Trump preempted the next Cuban Missile Crisis.
In 1983, Grenada was being developed by the Cubans as proxies for the Russians to establish another major hub of Operations to influence South America and the Caribbean.
The development of Venezuela was taking a far more dangerous and ominous as it was being lead by Islamic Forces, supported by China Inc.. Those tankers being intercepted were likely carrying much more than oil.
During the open border days of Sock Puppet JoeBama, the start point for terrorists coming to the US was Venezuela. The FARC Guerillas operating in Colombia and who’s leader was eventually was installed as President were materially supported by Venezuela. There is likely more that came across our borders 2020 to 2024 that has not been reported … which originated in Venezuela.
Hopefully the Mexican Government also takes the hint to roll back it’s NARCO-Terrorists and cooperate with the US in doing so.
This is what “America First” looks like. Drugs have been killing too many Americans. Stemming the tide of drugs helps more Americans than two decades in the middle east. This action in Venezuela was glorious.
How much bail will be set for Maduro and his wife? 10 billion dollars each? And will the bail bondman be a Chinese national working out of the New York City Chinese consulate?
Judge can deny any bail if the circumstances warrant it, which in this case they certainly do.
Cashless bail, in NY !
he is not a prisoner of NY state. He is a federal prisoner.
The Somalis in Minnesota, Ohio and Washington could pitch in.
Dang, turned everything off, went to bed early and wake up into a new world!
Looking forward to this morning’s news conference.
The capture and arrest of the leader of the Sun cartel and his wife should not be handled the DS SDNY and the injustice Department.
Just 5 hours ago, Chinese officials arrived in Venezuela for talks with President Maduro
https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2007374426795585827
Taiwan next.
Why?
Oil
This will be intricately extensive.
They pledged support for Maduro. A few hours later, Maduro is taken out.
I look forward to China’s official statement on this. Obviously Trump was not going to give them (or anyone) a heads-up. But the timing of this military action was a subtle slap at Chairman Winnie-the-Pooh.
China expressing support for Venezuela amid rising U.S. pressure, including a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers, was foreseeable. Recent developments show that China is actively reinforcing its alliance with Venezuela amid escalating U.S. pressure.
January 3, 2026 – Maduro did meet with Qiu Xiaoqi, China’s special representative on Latin American affairs, to discuss bilateral ties and investment continuing ongoing diplomatic engagements. First, fentanyl. Secondly, tied to this -Taiwan is totally dependant on foreign oil imports. Along the route to Taiwan from the Middle East and West Africa is East Asia’s “energy lifeline”-the Strait of Malacca. Experts estimate that 25% of the world’s goods and 50% of the world’s energy resources must transit this area. It is one of the world’s busiest sea lanes. Nevertheless, it is also the most pirate-infested stretch of ocean in the world. There are constant reports of fishing boats, freighters and oil tankers being robbed or hijacked.
In the 1990s a CPC tanker fell victim to pirates and all the valuables on board were stolen. Luckily, no harm came to the crew, the ship, or the crude oil she was carrying. Because piracy was rampant in the area then, CPC tankers were forced to avoid the Malacca Strait and make a detour around Indonesia and the Philippines.
In recent years the situation around the Malacca Strait has quieted down a bit owing to the strict patrol of US naval forces in the area. But this has sparked a new round in the geopolitical contest between the US, China and Southeast Asian countries and has injected another variable into the region.
From the oil fields of the Middle East and West Africa to the gas stations on the highways and byways of oil-poor Taiwan, each drop of oil is a struggle.
China pledged support for Maduro. A few hours later, Maduro is taken out. why?
Despite China’s political backing, it lacked the military capability to intervene in Venezuela, and its support had increasingly been limited to diplomatic statements rather than tangible defense commitments. Beijing had already scaled back lending and investment due to Venezuela’s economic collapse and the diminishing viability of the Maduro regime, focusing instead on protecting existing commercial interests, particularly in energy. While China condemned the U.S. action as a violation of international law and sovereignty, calling it “deeply shocked” and accusing the U.S. of “hegemonic behavior,” it did not take any direct action to prevent or reverse Maduro’s capture. Why? While oil is a significant factor, the meeting also underscores a broader geopolitical alignment between China and Venezuela, one that strengthens Beijing’s global position and potentially emboldens its assertiveness toward Taiwan.
China has not changed its fundamental stance towards Taiwan. It continues to view Taiwan as an inalienable part of its territory and opposes any moves toward formal independence.
However, recent U.S. actions against Venezuela, including the blockade of oil tankers and military strikes, are seen by experts as setting a dangerous precedent that could embolden China to adopt similar coercive measures against Taiwan. Some analysts warn that if the U.S. justifies military and economic coercion in the name of security or counter-narcotics in Venezuela, China may use analogous justifications—such as “anti-secession” or “law enforcement”—to impose a blockade or conduct military drills around Taiwan.
Idk, there’s an element of “do not eff with us” with this invasion.
Taking the oil from China tightens the vice on their nuts. Their economy is in trouble.
From a legitimacy POV, China can make the case that they also have a criminal regime off their coast. We can’t discount that. But there’s a difference between the US projecting power and an economically weak China rattling sabers.
Zelensky is the guy who should be worried. Trump hardly seems like the POTUS you’d want in the WH if the Russians capture you. Trump is likely to shrug and say, “I tried to help him, but he wouldn’t listen.”
This is what we voted for. Now insert Obama’s photo and all the others in Maduro’s perp walk snapshot. God bless and protect President Trump.
Well that was a “holy s**t” moment when I turned on the ‘puter and saw this article.
It’s good that this was done publicly. Everybody knows Maduro is cartel, and everybody knows the Chinese were supplying him with fentanyl. Now they can all watch their little playhouse get knocked over. Watch as China goes into saber-rattling mode over this arrest.
Do not forget about Dominion and the stolen US election of 2020!
President Trump has certainly not forgotten.
I ask again, why take this asshole to NY?
Nothing good comes from the courts in NY.
Judges, jurors all stacked against justice.
Take him to Texas, Florida, or even here in Alabama.
Take him to Central Pennsylvania ( i.e. Alabama North) where every family has a Fentanyl story.
Quit hanging ourselves with this stupid court system
Speculation; because that’s where the financial and energy power is, those who have an interest in the outcome.
President Trump gave the Venezuelans their own special New Year fireworks celebration!
Did the CIA help Maduro get into power?
Maria Corina Machado – you go, girl! The pearl clutching on msm this week will be un”president”ed.
Well, at least we haven’t lost any servicemen, so far. Looks like we will install the Nobel Peace Prize winner. I love The Presidents domestic agenda but I just don’t understand his foreign policy moves. Still looking for the PEACE PRESIDENT.
Gerg, out