WMD Redux

Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez has been named acting president in the absence of Nicolas Maduro.

(Jan 4, 2026 12:53 AM)Magical Realist Wrote: There's dictators all over the world doing that. Why pick Venezuela?

There's also a question of operational feasibility.
Personally, I'd be hard pressed to name a dictator as operationally viable to topple.

Venezuela does not have a strong conventional military compared to global powers like the US, ranking around 50th globally due to aging equipment, poor maintenance, and economic issues; however, its government has built strong internal control, an extensive militia, and asymmetric warfare doctrine, making it dangerous in internal conflicts or urban resistance rather than a large-scale conventional war.
- Google AI

So a military geared almost exclusively to be used against its own populace. Whereas most other dictators have much more formidable conventional militaries.
But again, if you think that wasn't worth the minimal risk to our own troops, that's on you.

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(Jan 4, 2026 01:42 AM)Yazata Wrote: Pro-democracy anti-regime demonstrations are once again happening all over Iran. And several Iranian government websites have suddenly gone down, including the Iranian government's main website. Was that cyberwarfare? Could we be planning...?

No. Probably not. But it bears watching. I don't think that we have enough forces in the area to take on Iran, which would be tougher than Venezuela. I'd expect to see more visible buildup before something like that, like we saw recently in the Caribbean. But if Israel and Saudi Arabia and the UAE all joined us, maybe... (And we know that Netanyahu was just in Washington and that he wants to hit the Iranian guided missile program again.)

Well, Trump has said that Iran would face consequences for attacking the protesters. That could be targeted strikes at regime/IRGC/missile facilities... which wouldn't require any buildup.

I'm glad they're happy, but it's probably for naught. Maduro loaded the military with loyal PSUV zombies.
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‘We’re so happy’: Venezuelans in Utah elated at President Maduro’s removal
https://kslnewsradio.com/world-news/vene...o/2272998/

EXCERPTS: For more than 25 years, Mayra Molina and others from Venezuela have been waiting and hoping for the fall of the socialist government in the South American country.

[...] “Everyone is so happy. We’re so happy,” said Molina, who heads the Venezuelan Alliance of Utah, which advocates for the state’s Venezuelan community. “We’re so excited. We’re like relieved that finally Venezuela is getting justice.”

Patricia Quiñónez, who runs a social media operation geared to Utah’s Venezuelan population, Utahzolanos, felt a mix of emotions, mostly elation. The Venezuelan community in Utah, she said, is celebrating.

“It’s a day millions of us Venezuelans have wanted for 25 years,” she said, referencing the election of Hugo Chavez as Venezuela’s president in 1999, when the move to socialism in the country started, continued by Maduro in 2013 when he took over following Chavez’s death. “We feel a mix, euphoria for the fall of the dictator, but at the same time we’re worried about what will happen in Venezuela, with our families and friends who are still there.”

Carlos Moreno, who fled the socialist regime Venezuela in 2009, called the turn of events a miracle. He’s now a U.S. citizen who holds the District 2 seat on the Salt Lake County Council. “It’s been a beautiful and blessed day in my life,” he said. “It’s a miracle.”

[...] “Happy, happy,” said Luigi Rojas, who came to the United States from Venezuela three years ago. “President Trump did what he had to do; we’re thankful to him.”

He, like others, said it sometimes seemed like Maduro would never leave power, but he nevertheless held onto hope. “Waiting, waiting, waiting, always waiting. But we never lost the faith,” he said.

Jesis Acosta, now living in West Jordan, was at the Midvale location with Nestor Parra and Pedro Franco, all of them from Venezeula. “My first reaction was to cry, happiness,” Acosta said.

[...] The vast majority of Venezuelans in Venezuela and Utah, as well as Venezuelans around the United States and the world who fled under Maduro, are happy, Molina said. Some 8 million Venezuelans have left the country, around 700,000 of them to the United States. But those in Venezuela aren’t publicly celebrating, not yet anyway.

“They’re not going into the streets yet. Everyone’s in their own homes, protecting each other,” Molina said. “Still some groups from the regime are out there, trying to intimidate this population. But they’re doing OK. My family and I know most of the Venezuelan people are doing OK.”

Moreover, Saturday’s action doesn’t end efforts to change Venezuela’s government. Quiñónez wonders how the power transition outlined by Trump, involving U.S. and Venezuelan leaders, will unfold. “What does that mean exactly?” she said.

Nevertheless, Molina said, Maduro’s departure is a big step forward. “I can tell you that today as Venezuelans, we’re just so proud and committed to peace, justice and dignity. This is beyond words. No one will ever understand the feeling that we’re having right now,” she said...

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/LM7ZokDSIXM

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If anyone questions the legal legitimacy of capturing Maduro, just look to the capture of Noriega in Panama in 1990. Like Noriega, Maduro already faced charges in the US before capture. Back then, some Democrats also sided with Russia in objecting to Noriega's capture.

Yes, many people objected to Noriega's capture, including the Soviet Union calling it aggression, some US Democrats deeming it unlawful, Noriega's supporters in Panama, and even Noriega himself arguing it violated international law, though Panamanian public opinion largely supported the U.S. intervention, and US allies generally backed the action to restore democracy.
- Google AI

One of the C 17's at RAF Fairford from Fort Campbell has departed Fairford and just landed at Ramstein in Germany. Meanwhile, several more C 17's from Hunter Army Airfield in GA and Campbell Army Airfield in KY are currently crossing the Atlantic headed towards Europe.

Some kind of large movement is underway. For training exercises? To beef up NATO defenses in Poland or someplace? Or...?

2026 United States strikes in Venezuela (wikipedia entry)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Unite..._Venezuela

(Jan 4, 2026 06:49 AM)Yazata Wrote: One of the C 17's at RAF Fairford from Fort Campbell has departed Fairford and just landed at Ramstein in Germany. Meanwhile, several more C 17's from Hunter Army Airfield in GA and Campbell Army Airfield in KY are currently crossing the Atlantic headed towards Europe.

Some kind of large movement is underway. For training exercises? To beef up NATO defenses in Poland or someplace? Or...?

Zilch right now from the legacy media sources, though AI (Skynet) seems aware of it.

"President Donald Trump said he’s counting on American companies to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry.

But the world’s largest proven oil reserves, tantalizing as they seem, may come with more risk than reward for the US oil giants, energy-industry watchers told CNN.

Extracting more oil from Venezuela would require rebuilding the country’s gutted oil infrastructure, which would cost, by Trump’s own telling, billions of dollars. And crude isn’t fetching the kind of prices that would make this kind of investment an easy call. Plus, refining Venezuela’s particular brand of crude oil is an expensive undertaking in itself.

It would be a hard sell in a politically stable country, let alone one in the throes of a political crisis following the ouster of its authoritarian president.


“This whole thing just leaves more questions than answers on the future political situation in Venezuela, and that’s going to be foremost on the minds of corporate planners and industry planners that want to consider the good opportunities there,” said Clayton Seigle, a senior fellow in the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

On Saturday, special US forces executed a large-scale US operation, successfully capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores and transporting them to New York. The two were charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons offenses.

Trump said the US will “run” the country until safe leadership is installed. That same day, Venezuela’s Supreme Court installed Delcy Rodriguez – who oversees the country’s state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, SA – as interim president.

Trump said oil companies will make Venezuela realize its lost potential as a major global oil producer."

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/04/business/...-venezuela

Other than Maduro being captured (for whatever good that does), nothing seems to have really changed, if going by this. Trump is threatening Delcy Rodríguez. But since she's just another hard-headed socialist (accused of civil rights violations) who derives her sense of moral nobility from air-fighting the dragon of fascism and capitalism, I don't see her being amenable anymore than Maduro. All this speculation is putting the cart in front of the horse -- the US actually has to have control of Venezuela first, which it still does not.
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Rubio Suggests U.S. Won’t Run Venezuela’s Government After Capturing Maduro
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharyfolk...ng-maduro/

INTRO: Secretary of State Marco Rubio seemingly backed away from President Donald Trump’s previous statements that the U.S. would “run” Venezuela after capturing the nation’s president Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, and in multiple interviews said the U.S. would continue to pressure Venezuela through other means.

Key Facts
Speaking to both NBC’s “Meet the Press” and CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Rubio said the U.S. would continue its campaign of striking alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean, its quarantine on sanctioned shipments and seizing sanctioned tankers to pressure the Venezuelan government—but would not immediately govern the country or plan elections.

When asked by “Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker what Trump meant when he said the U.S. would “run the country,” Rubio instead said “it's running policy, the policy with regards to this.”

These campaigns will create a “tremendous amount of leverage,” Rubio told “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, and called them “the sort of control the President is pointing to when he says that.”

Rubio also confirmed there were currently no troops on the ground in Venezuela, telling “Meet the Press” that “everyone knows they were on the ground for about two hours when they went to capture Maduro.”

However, the secretary of state also told “Face the Nation” Trump “retains optionality” on everything, including possibly sending troops to occupy the South American nation.

“There's not a war,” Rubio insisted during his “Meet the Press” interview. “I mean, we are at war against drug trafficking organizations, not a war against Venezuela. We are enforcing American laws with regards to oil sanctions.”

On the subject of why can't the US replace the interim leadership with the opposition (which a majority of countries and public support).

The answer is simple, If Trump put Maria Corina Machado into office, the opposition would claim that she is an American prpxy (a CIA plant) which isn't the truth however it would potentially be enough for some to doubt her sincerity.

Trump has stated that he doesn't think she'd be any good or have the backing of the people. I guess he could be trying to stock some revolutionary fire in those that support her to be ready to deal with the opposition but most people there are likely tired of the violence, so don't want to have that happen. It's not necessarily they are scared of the opposition,its just they don't want to see people killed or their homes ransacked.

The main things that should be pushed for by Trump is getting New Elections setup to happen at the earliest opportunity (which could be months away), getting a change to the term time for who gets voted in (down from 6 years to 4) and removing the capacity for a person to rule indefinitely. (Only allowing 2 terms)

If those things are in place then democracy can prevail, and if they end up with a president that's no good (no matter who they pick), at least its for a shorter duration.

After talking tough and saying Maduro was their only president, Maduro's VP is now saying she wants to work with the US.