The Venezuelan people are today liberated from the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro and can do nothing but rejoice. By seizing power and violating fundamental freedoms, Nicolás Maduro has inflicted grave damage on the dignity of his people.
French President Emmanuel Macron
You have to hand it to the 47th president of the United States: he doesn’t play games with enemies. Secretary of State Rubio said the quiet part out loud; “This is a president of action, and now you know this is the way it’s going to play out. Don’t play games with this president because it’s not going to turn out well. So I hope that lesson was learned last night. If I lived in Havana, and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.”
The Good
CNN Senior Military Analyst James Stavridis agreed: “Privately, Iran, Russia and China will be impressed with the military capability here. I would argue none of those three militaries could have executed an extraordinary operation like this.” To wit, Venezuela’s vaunted air defense, the “Russian Shield” that was supposed to be an iron dome, was turned it into red-hot scrap metal at 0400 EST on January 3rd by the U.S. Navy.
For a decade, defense blogs have been predicting Russia’s S-300VM missile system and Su-30 jets would sink the American fleet before it could reach operating range. This weekend, Operation Southern Spear cracked Venezuela’s air defense in 20 minutes by exploiting a glitch in the 9S32ME guidance radar. In short, the USS Gerald Ford’s air wing jammed the radar, the Tomahawk missiles hugged the ground, and the S-300 did not hit what it could not see (source: We Are THE MIGHTY military newsletter).
The video streaming on social media shows the jaw-dropping aftermath of America’s military might; Madura and his wife landing in New York, smoldering tanks and decimated equipment in Venezuela, one damaged US aircraft, no US casualties, and allies congratulating the USA. British PM Keir Starmer: “We regarded Maduro as an illegitimate president and we shed no tears about the end of his regime.” Italian PM Giorgia Meloni: “Italy considers legitimate a defensive intervention against hybrid attacks on [America’s] own security, as in the case of state entities that feed and favor drug trafficking.”
The Bad
America’s enemies reflexively took to tut-tut-tutting the flawless military operation. Iran’s foreign ministry condemned it “as a blatant violation of national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Russia’s foreign ministry called it “deeply concerning and condemnable.” China said it “strongly condemns the use of force against the president of a country.” Their gal AOC (D-NY) joined the boo-hoo chorus: “It’s not about drugs. It’s about oil and regime change.”
Really? Because the United States DOJ has a five-year-old indictment charging Maduro and his wife with narco-terrorism; specifically, leading the “Cartel de los Soles” that trafficked the drugs that killed over a million Americans between 1999 and 2021. That’s on top of his policies creating such severe shortages of food and medicine that over 8 million fled Venezuela, including 650,000 entering the US illegally (source: Pew Research).
Still, today’s Democrats goose-step with our enemy. To wit, Rep. Tlaib (D-MI) accused the President of “illegal and unprovoked bombing of Venezuela and kidnapping of its president” that are “grave violations of international law and the U.S. Constitution – the actions of a rogue state.” A theme picked up by Governor Hochul (D-NY): “a flagrant abuse of power by acting without congressional approval”.
Rogue state? That would be Maduro’s government, which the UN and Carter Center found guilty of thousands of extrajudicial killings, depriving Venezuelans of international aid, and imposing fraudulent presidential elections in the 2018 and 2024 – or California. Flagrant abuse? That would be Maduro siphoning billions from the Venezuelan state and ruining its economy (e.g. GDP down over 70%, currency almost worthless, and infrastructure in shambles) – or the Biden auto-pen operators.
The Ugly
Fox News documented the “second front” opposing America’s arrest of Maduro; a “psychological and propaganda operation” that “opened up” on American soil within minutes of the military strike, one run by a “hardened cell of self-described Marxist, socialist and communist leaders.” Just like after the October 7 Hamas attacks, the “grass-roots protests” aired on CNN and MS-NOW were anything but…not based on the cell’s co-ordinated calls-to-action:
- The propaganda arm of the socialist cell, BreakThrough news, aired “illegal bombing campaign” video at 1:35 AM, minutes after US special forces entered Venezuela
- A cell leader, the Peoples Forum’s Manolo De Los Santos, posted about the “illegal bombing” on Twitter-X at 1:45 AM
- The ANSWER Coalition, a cell affiliate, urged protestors to the streets of New York on Twitter-X at 2:29 AM
- The People’s Forum, a cell affiliate, re-posted that call-to-action, at 2:34 AM
- The Party for Socialism and Liberation, a cell affiliate, re-posted the call-to-action at 2:43 AM
- Vijay Prashad, cell member and director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, denounced the military action online at 3:21 AM
- CodePink, a cell affiliate, condemned the “terrorist United States” at 6:09 AM
This is not news to Congressional lawmakers, who are already investigating this socialist network for its ties to Neville Roy Singham, the American tech executive, who sold his software firm, moved to Shanghai, and allegedly works closely with the Chinese Communist Party. His wife, Jodie Evans, founded Code Pink, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that protests “human-rights abuses” and war. I’m calling BS on these phonies because Venezuelans are better off without Maduro’s drug-trafficking, refugee crises, stolen elections, and wrecked economy.
The Trump Train
The issue now is what comes next, and the guess here is that Trump’s idea of “running” Venezuela via a “group” means Marco Rubio helping 2024-election-winner Edmundo González Urrutia return from exile and preside over new elections. The US president called it the “Don-Mon Doctrine,” which simply means a hemisphere without Chinese, Iranians, and Russians operating freely within hours of the American homeland. Open your windows, and you might hear it; people all over the world, join hands, get on the Trump train (oh well, you get the idea).