War Trump says Venezuela's Maduro captured after strikes - The U.S. has accused Maduro of running a "narco-state" and rigging an election.

WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. has struck Venezuela and captured its President Nicolas Maduro, who has been taken out of the country, President Donald Trump said on Saturday.

The U.S. has not made such a direct intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama in 1989 to depose military leader Manuel Noriega.

"The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the country," Trump said in a Truth Social post.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Venezuelan government.

The U.S. has accused Maduro of running a "narco-state" and rigging an election. The Venezuelan leader, who succeeded Hugo Chavez to take power in 2013, has said Washington wants to take control of its oil reserves, the largest in the world.

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This article has been updated a number of times to reflect changes to the linked Reuters article, the following text is from the original unaltered post when this story was first reported on:
Residents in the captial, Caracas, reported hearing multiple explosions, particularly near Fort Tiuna, a major military installation in the city’s south.

Unverified footage appears to show large fires at 3 separate locations.

The cause of the explosions remains unknown at this time.

 

[Party Hat Wurmple]

It now has a 100% power vacuum.
drumpf has just barged in, shat on the floor, and ran away with the vacuum cleaner.
It is going to be shit.

Absolutely not true. Trump has a plan already to stabilize the region.

 

[souschef]

It now has a 100% power vacuum.
drumpf has just barged in, shat on the floor, and ran away with the vacuum cleaner.
It is going to be shit.

There's no power vacuum, Venezuelan people voted against Maduro and got frauded out of their win for decades. It's easy to fill this vacuum

 

[Stunner900]

Absolute victory:
>commie president captured
>commie tomb blown up

 

[Mound Dweller]

Absolutely not true. Trump has a plan already to stabilize the region.

Lol, lmao even, hearts and minds amirite?

There's no power vacuum, Venezuelan people voted against Maduro and got frauded out of their win for decades. It's easy to fill this vacuum

They voted against him and then did nothing, because they had/have no power, there is now an absence of authority.
It's a decisive victory don't get me wrong, but don't be under any illusions that in 10 years this won't be Iraq war tier of "nobody wanted this".

 

[Path Wanderer]

Naturally, the Treason Caucus is seething about technicalities.

Some of ya’ll need to just make a new r/thedonald if your going to act this much like a drone

 

[Not Based or Redpilled]

I conseed neocons. We must send thousands of Americans to die so Venezuela can be a a functional country. In fact, no Americans will die because everyone who opposes us will just give up! It's vitally important to the average American that oil drops by 25 cents, maybe. And if we just pour billions of dollars into Venezuela all of the Venezuelas here will just want to go back!

Seriously fuck off. An idiot can make an IED, and blow off somebody's legs. If we truly cared about benefiting American interests we would've just shot Maduro. The reality is now a 'pro-American' (pro-American business) leader can be emplaced, and the ultra-wealthy can cheaply invest in oil in thr country. Trump explicitly stated this, saying we will invest in oil, and infanstructure (the infanstructure namely between the oil well sites, and a port). The profits of a few companies will soar, their investors will get fatter with wealth, while American men die. These same companies will switch sides to the left at the drop of a hat - as long as they sit at the top. Fuck Maduro, but fuck the oil barons more.

 

[Absolutego]

Quick rundown of some material differences between the situation in Venezuela and Iraq, for the chicken littles dropping surface-level hot takes and allusions ITT:

-Saddam's Baathist party ran the entire country and murdered any upcoming opposition, leaving a void when he was taken out and requiring democratic traditions be built from scratch
-Venezuela has a whole opposition, some in exile, some not, and actually elected Not-Maduro in Eduardo Gonzalez 18 months ago, making Maduro freak out and nullify the election so he could stay in office

-Iraq is a ramshackle of 3 different groups that all hate each other and were held together by Saddam's force of will
-Venezuela is overwhelmingly Castizo or Mestizo Catholic

Arresting their Chinese puppet of a leader to face American legal consequences and letting Venezuelans pick up the slack is a very different proposition from sending 50k infantrymen into the Venezuelan jungle and showing barbarians how to do a democracy. The is the country of Simon Bolivar, they already know.

 

[Tasty Tatty]

Absolutely not true. Trump has a plan already to stabilize the region.

He had a plan back in 2020 already. He said so during his campaign, talking with either Rubio or Cruz. He didn't win and this got delayed. He might be just following through with some adjustments.

 

[Gandhi's Left Hook]

You're imagining emotion when there is none. If Venezuela devolves into Haiti and that video is all we see 24/7 you'll understand. Without a significant contingent of "peace-keepers" that's what will happen. Other countries will intervene if we don't. Seems like a dumb trap to walk right into.

I guess we'll have to see what the plan is. Assuming there is a plan.

What? I'm commenting on the thousands of horns and people screamimg "libertad" from their balconies with a sound so loud it sounds like a concert, yet is a whole city.

 

[souschef]

They voted against him and then did nothing, because they had/have no power, there is now an absence of authority.

Shocking... An unarmed population didn't topple the heavily armed dicatorial military regime? For your information, there were several clashes with the population in protest, and Maduro's national guard ran them over with vehicles



There's so much you can do when you're unarmed against an authoritarian government. As for your "abscence of authority" argument, i think exploding Caracas lends a lot of authority in building a new government that already has an opposition persecuted for decades

 

[llllIllIllIIIIllI]

This is such a good thing and it proves how shitty brown spics aren't really "fighters", they just think they are because they come to the USA and start shitty gangs in rich, gentrified areas full of old weak white ladies that are easy to steal from.

The second you actually fight back even a little they cave and show how easy they are to defeat. I've been saying this for years, spics aren't fighters they just think they are, so instead of wasting time on the border wall we could just invade each country and win in a matter of days and save all the pain from the loss of life and money that comes from the south border one way or another.

We could have taken over latino countries at any time we just didn't think it was worth our time until the drug and gang problem got worse enough.

Hope we invade all latino countries, then go nuclear on crime like el salvador did. Literally every south american and central american country with the exceptions of el salvador and maybe now argentina, are shit holes with no future that are just all gangs and spent the last 400 years killing each other and dealing drugs, and only recently started to emigrate to USA. Fuck all of south america and central america, do the same shit to them.

 

[Mound Dweller]

Shocking... An unarmed population didn't topple the heavily armed dicatorial military regime?

It isn't exactly a hypothetical, it does in fact happen every so often.

As for your "abscence of authority" argument, i think exploding Caracas lends a lot of authority in building a new government that already has an opposition persecuted for decades

It's a fallow field alright, can't wait to see what shining example will be erected out of the rubble, mission accomplished!

 

[Party Hat Wurmple]

Lol, lmao even, hearts and minds amirite?

Trump is talking about it now. Over the next year, oil companies are going to be going into Venezuela and restoring the economy. Trump is very invested in the South American pipeline. He's creating a lot of very strong relationships there and slowly pushing out China and the communists.

He had a plan back in 2020 already. He said so during his campaign, talking with either Rubio or Cruz. He didn't win and this got delayed. He might be just following through with some adjustments.

Exactly, Trump is having a press conference talking about these things right now. All of the questions being posed here in this thread are being addressed by Trump himself now. He has no intention of letting the region fall into chaos.

 

[souschef]

It's a fallow field alright, can't wait to see what shining example will be erected out of the rubble, mission accomplished!

What rubble, it was a surgical strike in Caracas. You guys talk like they dropped a nuclear bomb over there

 

[Mound Dweller]

Trump is talking about it now. Over the next year, oil companies are going to be going into Venezuela and restoring the economy. Trump is very invested in the South American pipeline. He's creating a lot of very strong relationships there and slowly pushing out China and the communists.

Just gotta build that pipline and make line go up, that's gonna fix EVERYTHING.
This mission is going to creep and I think we all know it, some are just higher on the oil braps than others is all.

What rubble, it was a surgical strike in Caracas. You guys talk like they dropped a nuclear bomb over there

The rubble of what was a (barely functioning but "stable") state apparatus.
You really think there's not gonna be scores to be settled? The country has been a factional autocracy for decades, lots of badly done over victims are now gonna have access to US granted legitimacy, there will be blood and the real rubble is yet to come.

 

[SaidNoOneEver]

Trump is talking about it now. Over the next year, oil companies are going to be going into Venezuela and restoring the economy. Trump is very invested in the South American pipeline. He's creating a lot of very strong relationships there and slowly pushing out China and the communists.

No doubt the oil infrastructure will be great in a year. Who is going to feed 30 million Venezuelans in the meantime? Next week?

 

[Sweeter and Savoury]

Oh Oh OH!

Do Canada next Mr President, it's people are in dire need of rescuing from a corrupt and evil government.

 

[Party Hat Wurmple]

Fuck Maduro, but fuck the oil barons more.

Not really. The oil barons got absolutely DECIMATED by Biden. Sure in the short term, they made record profits but their 10 year outlook was fucking grim. Or do you honestly believe half the country being forced to only sell EVs by 2030 was somehow good for the oil barons?

Fuck off, I don't see cartels organizing in a massive force to try to seize the government or do a civil war. They're going to flee. They don't have the resources, they don't have the leadership, and they're thrown into chaos now. The best thing they can do is start redirecting their supply, and fleeing Venezuela. There is ZERO chance they win this conflict and it's foolish to try. If you're a cartel member, you have to understand that this is the writing on the wall.

 

[Tasty Tatty]

A Venezuelan on TV here is crying saying she misses Venezuela so much and she's already thinking to go back with her family. She's crying hard saying she spent seven years here away from her parents and yelling Venezuela is finally free.

She also said there are more people to get rid of, like Diosdado (maduro's second) and that she has faith that soon things will get better.

Another woman saying the same, she's been here nine years and she misses her family too.

They all are talking to go back eventually.

Venezuelans aren't Africans. They didn't leave to sack and rape, not all of them. They're Catholic and very family oriented and they miss their home too much. They just don't want to go stay out forever but they had to leave to feed their families.

The journo on TV just said that the people complaining about Trump just don't know how bad it is there in Venezuela for specially the kids.

There are entire families celebrating outside on the streets of Lima. I'm posting some videos when I curate some. People are crying and celebrating. It is really an historic moment.

 

[KrumBum]

No doubt the oil infrastructure will be great in a year. Who is going to feed 30 million Venezuelans in the meantime? Next week?

Themselves