How dangerous is the US stand-off with Venezuela? | Inside Story
Russia and China voice support for Venezuela after Donald Trump intensifies pressure on Nicolas Maduro. The US blockades sanctioned tankers in the midst of a major military build-up in the region. What are the dangers -- and what might happen next?
IMO, the "War on Venezuela" is in part a "Wag the Dog" scenario when it gets highlighted in the news media just when attention is brought again to the Epstein files. While it is a real war, the U.S. does not need Venezuelan oil, but seeks control of it and that territory which is a reflection of the NWO globalist goal of dividing the geopolitical landscape into a small handful of regions.
Excerpted from article below: One thing Mr. Trump made clear was his desire to open up Venezuelaâs vast state-controlled oil reserves to American oil companies, who he said would pay to rebuild the energy infrastructure in Venezuela.
âWe are going to run the country right,âł Mr. Trump said. âItâs going to make a lot of money.â Past Venezuelan governments, he said, âstole our oilâ â an apparent reference to the countryâs nationalization of its oil industry.
Trump Says U.S. Will âRun the Countryâ After Capture of Maduro
Delcy RodrĂguez, Venezuelaâs vice president who was sworn in as interim leader, contradicted President Trump by rejecting U.S. intervention and demanding NicolĂĄs Maduroâs return. Maduro and his wife were being taken to New York to stand trial on drug and weapons charges.
The U.S. military captured the Venezuelan president, NicolĂĄs Maduro, in a swift and overwhelming strike on Caracas early Saturday morning and was transporting him to New York to face criminal charges â the stunning culmination of a monthslong campaign by President Trump and his aides to oust the authoritarian leader.
Hours later, Mr. Trump said at a news conference the United States would ârun the countryâ until a proper transition of power could be arranged, raising the prospect of an open-ended commitment. He offered few details, however, and it was not clear whether he meant U.S. forces would occupy the country, although he said he was not afraid of âboots on the ground.â
It was not immediately clear how much control the United States had over the country. There were no obvious signs of a U.S. military presence in Venezuela at midday on Saturday, as Venezuelans began to assess the damage from the American airstrikes and the ground incursion that led to the capture of Mr. Maduro and his wife.
Venezuelaâs top officials and state news media projected a message of defiance on Saturday afternoon. Mr. Maduroâs vice president, Delcy RodrĂguez, who was sworn in as interim president at a secret ceremony in Caracas, delivered an address to the nation rejecting the U.S. intervention. She accused Washington of invading her country under false pretenses and asserted that Mr. Maduro was still Venezuelaâs head of state.
âThere is only one president in this country, and his name is NicolĂĄs Maduro Moros,â Ms. RodrĂguez said to thundering applause.
The main opposition leader, MarĂa Corina Machado, posted a statement urging that her political ally, Edmundo GonzĂĄlez, be recognized as Venezuelaâs president immediately. Though Mr. Maduro claims he defeated Mr. GonzĂĄlez in the last election, the United States and other international observers say he won through fraud. âToday we are prepared to enforce our mandate and take power,â said Ms. Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year.
Mr. Trump avoided embracing either Ms. Rodriguez or Ms. Machado. He said his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had spoken to Ms. Rodriguez and âsheâs essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.â He also said Machado didnât have the support or respect to lead the country.
Mr. Rubio said he was reserving judgment on Ms. Rodriguezâs speech rejecting cooperation with the Trump White House. âWeâre going to make decisions based on their actions and their deeds in the days and weeks to come,â he said, referring to the interim Venezuelan government.
One thing Mr. Trump made clear was his desire to open up Venezuelaâs vast state-controlled oil reserves to American oil companies, who he said would pay to rebuild the energy infrastructure in Venezuela.
âWe are going to run the country right,âł Mr. Trump said. âItâs going to make a lot of money.â Past Venezuelan governments, he said, âstole our oilâ â an apparent reference to the countryâs nationalization of its oil industry.
The military operation came after months of threats, warnings and accusations of drug smuggling by Mr. Trump against Mr. Maduro. Mr. Trump said that no American troops had been killed but suggested in an interview with Fox News that some had been injured when their helicopter was hit.
Mr. Maduro, a self-described socialist, has led Venezuela since 2013, and the Biden administration accused him of stealing the election that kept him in power last year. His inner circle appeared to have survived.
Here is what else to know:
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Anti-American protests: Hours after Mr. Maduro and his wife were captured by U.S. forces, Venezuelaâs state-run television was broadcasting rallies and protests taking place across several cities, including the capital, Caracas. Mr. Maduroâs supporters vowed to defend their country from what they described as an illegal attack and the kidnapping of their âlegitimateâ leader. Read more>
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C.I.A. involvement: American special operations forces captured Mr. Maduro with the help of a C.I.A. source within the Venezuelan government who had monitored his location in recent days, according to people briefed on the operation. Mr. Trump posted an image of Mr. Maduro in custody aboard the U.S.S. Iwo Jima, one of the American warships that have been prowling the Caribbean, and said he and his wife would be taken to New York.
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Casualties unclear: Venezuelan authorities were still assessing the damage done by the strikes and it was unclear how many people had been killed. At least one older woman was killed when an airstrike hit an apartment building near the Caracas airport, according to her family.
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Military buildup: Before the strikes on Saturday, the Pentagon has amassed troops, aircraft and warships in the Caribbean. The U.S. military has attacked many small vessels that U.S. officials maintained were smuggling drugs, killing at least 115 people. And the C.I.A. conducted a drone strike on a port facility in Venezuela last month, according to people briefed on the operation.
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Oil blockade: The United States has also carried out a campaign against tankers carrying Venezuelan crude, throwing the countryâs oil industry into disarray and jeopardizing the governmentâs main source of revenue.
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Cartel accusations: A new indictment was unsealed by a federal judge in New York City, charging Mr. Maduro, his wife and four others with four counts including narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine and possession of machine guns. The indictment was similar to the one unveiled in March 2020, which accused Mr. Maduro of overseeing a violent drug organization known as Cartel de los Soles. U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Mr. Maduro is actually at odds with one group, Tren de Aragua, and analysts say the Cartel de Los Soles does not exist as a concrete organization.
News Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01/03/world/trump-united-states-strikes-venezuela
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says the US takeover of Venezuela is âgreat newsâ for Israel
Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodriguez says that Venezuela was attacked by "Zionists"
Nat Rothschild posts a statement on X praising and congratulating the removal of NicolĂĄs Maduro from power in Venezuela
Spot-on analysis by Brad Miller:
Some initial thoughts on last night's actions in Venezuela:
While the US is capable of performing highly complex ops, the lack of Venezuelan resistance is telling. Trump & Venezuela likely made an arrangement to arrest Maduro. Maduro himself may or may not have been in on the deal. (He might have been sold out by his inner circle or he may be part of the scheme.) Much of what we saw last night was intentionally showy & theatrical.
The globalist networks that see themselves as lords of the world's resources want unfettered access to Venezuelan assets. Trump has now ensured that access through the regime change now in motion.
BRICS & the nations in the BRICS orbit do not represent a true challenge to the globalist networks of power. What is meant to appear as a new emerging East/West construct of conflict is merely an ongoing campaign of further globalist power consolidation. This consolidation effort masquerades as 'great power' competition, but in reality the great powers are beholden to the same globalist power structure.
Because the op last night appears to have been planned & executed so well (perhaps the result of a back door deal), it will have the immediate effect of bolstering support for Trump amid the sizable segment of the American population that doesn't care about the truth or the law. So much of the public can still easily be swayed by flashy, performative acts that appear to be expressions of American power. This is part of Trump's role- to gain the trust of naive Americans who like the 'tough guy' approach even if there's no substance behind it.
In reality, the impacts of last night's actions may be much less positive & may reverberate for some time.
Despite what some DC apparatchiks are already saying, there was no constitutional authority whatsoever that permits last night's actions. We've become a nation entirely unmoored from truth, the law, or justice. Unless this country radically alters its course, we will reap what we have sown for so long. Like his predecessors in office, Trump is merely continuing the long line of totally unlawful military actions entirely based upon lies. Too few Americans have challenged this type of behavior from our govt.
That these actions (& previous actions in/around Venezuela) are unequivocally unlawful is not a defense of Maduro. (For all we know, he's perhaps in on this scheme as well.) No one is saying Maduro is a paragon of noble governance. However, the narrative about drugs or even stolen elections is a cover story. The US govt is the largest drug trafficking enterprise in the world. The US govt doesn't care about free elections either. Those aren't the primary reasons these actions against Venezuela & Maduro are occurring. Believing the US govt cares about stopping drugs or holding free elections is as stupid as believing the covid shots are safe & effective and saved 100M lives as Trump said for years.
One last thing to remember is that increased surveillance mechanisms at home are often the domestic counterpart to military action abroad. Any war escalations will be used as further justification to build out the digital control grid (which is now being erected all around us in real time).
2026 is already showing to be a year of increased tyrannical action.
Source: https://x.com/BradMiller1010
Venezuela HITS BACK, Trump's Oil War BACKFIRES w/ Diego Sequera [LIVE from Venezuela]
Trump and his US administration have claimed immediate victory in the wake of its illegal operation that kidnapped Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro and saw the launching of airstrikes which took the lives of over 40 people. Venezuelan journalist Diego Sequera reveals the truth on the ground in the aftermath of the operation. - D.H.
The U.S. got Maduro but lost Venezuela: Putin and Xi Jinping made Trump an offer he couldn't REFUSE
Netanyahu : "We congratulate this, we congratulate President Trump on his decision."
The Epstein files were expected to be released by the Department of Justice, but they missed the January 4th deadline. The next release of documents is now anticipated around January 20 or 21, 2026.
The Wretched Watchmen (Zach) gets a lot of criticism for his point of view particularly in the video you posted. I included a clip (below) from the entire video which is worth watching as it gets right to the main point of the same video that he titled: Venezuela For Ukraine | Did Trump & Putin Make A Deal?
The need to venerate a man, as some do towards Putin, others towards Trump and some even towards Adolf Hitler, as being saviour-like is futile because such attributes are rarely found in man and in the extremely small amount of humanity where it is found, those people would not want to be venerated anyway. To find such a one in today's leadership of globalists sounds like a preposterous expectation. So, for Zach to remain objective and put forth that which is not popular, but the result of his investigative reporting and personal opinion based on that research is commendable. Kudos to Zach.
Clip: Cuba, Mexico, Columbia are Next
China is livid, and they are not hiding it. -
After Trump announced the U.S. will refine and sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil previously frozen under sanctions, Beijing fired back, calling the move a blatant power grab and a direct hit on their interests.
Why? Because that oil wasnât just sitting there, China had already paid for a big chunk of it, through loan-for-oil deals and state-backed agreements with Maduroâs regime.
Trumpâs plan? Ignore all that, break the blockade, grab the barrels, and reroute them to U.S. refineries.
The pitch: American energy security, because the U.S. is in charge now.
This is also about who gets to call the shots in Venezuela post-Maduro, and right now, Beijing just got boxed out while Washington takes over the chessboard.
Itâs a high-stakes geopolitical standoff over energy, influence, and who controls Latin Americaâs future.
China just lost billions in oil access, but the U.S. just cashed in.
Source: Reuters