Overnight on January 2nd and into the early hours of the 3rd, the United States launched what they code named "Operation Absolute Resolve". The operation began with explosions and airstrikes around 2AM local time in Caracas, Venezuela and nearby areas, targeting military installations, air defenses, and infrastructure. Simultaneously to this, a US special ops force including Army Delta Force and FBI HRT performed a raid on the residence of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, apprehending him and his wife and extracting them back to the US to stand trial.

The Trump administration framed the operation as a law-enforcement (not military interventionist) action to arrest Maduro, who had been indicted in the US Southern district of New York on charges of narcoterrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons offenses. It was under this legal framework that officials argue that the president had "inherent constitutional authority" under Article II, citing that he was wanted on serious U.S. criminal charges. They did not, however, seek congressional approval beforehand, nor was the UN made aware of the operation. Likely because it would have been viewed, as many legal critics and international law experts have stated, as a violation of the UN Charter and Venezuela's sovereignty. With legal scholars speaking out against the raid and calling it "an illegal act of aggression, and abduction under international law", lacking any valid self-defense or Security Council justification.

The legal argument will likely rage on for months to years, so I don't intend to get into the ins and outs of that matter here. Instead, I would like to focus on what led us to here, what it really means, and what likely comes next. I made a post on my personal Facebook page HERE summarizing some of the backstory and trying to get a more factual picture of what was going on out there, but I was unable to really get into everything. I won't attempt to drag you through EVERYTHING here, either, but I did want to go back through some of it and try to break some things down a little further for those curious.

Our history with Venezuela is, shall we say, toxic af to put it mildly. At one time, however, the US and Venezuela had a relatively cooperative relationship centered on oil trade and anti-drug cooperation. That would all change with the election of Hugo Chávez in December 1998. Chávez would immediately go to work redirecting oil wealth towards social programs, and strengthening ties to Cuba, Russia, and Iran, while openly criticizing U.S. foreign policy and attacking the "Washington Consensus" model. In April of 2002, a coalition of military officers spurred on by the CIA (or elements within it), business elites, and opposition leaders were successful in briefly removing Chávez from power in a coup that installed Pedro Carmona, a politician more sympathetic to U.S. regional ambitions. This would last for all of about 47 hours before massive street mobilization and loyalist military forces removed Carmona and restored Chávez to power. If you're wondering why we chose to straight up abduct Maduro, the memory of this massive misstep likely played a part in it. Following the 2002 coup attempt, Chávez hardened his anti-U.S. stance and deepened his alliances with Cuba, Russia, China, and Iran, while the U.S. shifted to a long-term strategy of pressure and regime change rather than partnership. From here the U.S. would also move from covert meddling to open economic and diplomatic pressure designed to weaken the Chávez/Maduro project and push the country towards a more compliant leadership. This would largely manifest in a series of targeted sanctions, initially aimed at arms sales but would soon expand greatly over the years. In 2014-2015: Under Obama, Washington sanctioned Venezuelan officials over alleged human rights abuses and repression of protests (that the CIA was, of course, helping to spur on in the country). In Trump's first term, sanctions would escalate sharply after Maduro contested elections, and with his creation of the Constituent Assembly (known as the ANC locally) in 2017. Which is a long story and too much to get into here, but in short it consolidated power in the hands of Maduro and loyalists, greatly restricted or completely nullified the opposition's legislative powers, and rather than surrendering to the IMF/World Banking system- chose a path of monetary self-destruction and improvised partial dollarization. Thus keeping Venezuela outside the global banking order, but at a massive internal cost due to sanctions.

In 2019 the U.S. recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as "interim president", froze Venezuelan government assets in the U.S., and slapped an oil embargo on their crude exports to the American market, all in hopes of finally strangling the economy and forcing Maduro out. This would devastate their ability to sell oil, access global finance, import goods, all greatly deepening the ongoing economic collapse and growing humanitarian crisis, while simultaneously generating leverage for U.S. demands on political change and access to the countries oil.

Narco-charges, bounties, and the road to "arresting" Maduro...

From 2020 onward, the U.S. would begin layering a criminal justice narrative on top of the sanctions and regime-change efforts, branding Maduro and his circle as "narco-terrorists" to begin the justification of increasingly more drastic actions.

In March 2020, the U.S. DOJ officially charged Maduro and several top officials with "narco-terrorism" and cocaine trafficking, accusing them of leading or working with the so-called "Cartel of the Suns". Washington then went a step further offering a reward of up to $15 Million for information leading to his arrest. They would later up the stakes even further by raising that reward to $50 million just last year (2025), effectively putting a price on the head of a sitting head of state. During my research for this article (and the post that this stems from) I wasn't able to definitively nail down any evidence of the existence of a cohesive "Cartel of the Suns", and as others have noted previously, it seems that the label functions more as a political and propaganda tool than an actually established criminal designation. More than anything, it seems that this was just laying the groundwork for the argument that a cross-boarder military operation to seize Maduro wasn't really an act of war, but rather a kind of extended law-enforcement action against an "indicted drug kingpin", therefore subverting the typical legal process and cutting congressional approval out of the equation entirely.

This would lead to the disastrous Operation Gideon that I mentioned in my original post, which showed how far the U.S. pressure campaign had devolved into a mix of deniable paramilitary schemes, ex-U.S. soldiers, and opposition exiles trying to trigger regime collapse on the cheap. The plan was the half-baked brainchild of former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau and his security firm Silvercorp USA. alongside, Venezuelan dissidents, aimed to land by sea near Macuto, seize an oilfield, and capture Maduro and senior officials, then fly them out of the country. Roughly 60 men, mostly Venezuelan ex-soldiers with two American former Green Berets at the head, launched in two boats from Colombia in an operation eerily similar to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. It would have an even more disastrous outcome as well, as Venezuelan forces intercepted both boats, killed at least 6 men, and captured the rest before parading the Americans on state TV. Goudreau claimed he had a contract with the opposition and strongly hinted at links to U.S. intelligence, while later (ala Bay of Pigs fiasco) lashing out at the CIA and FBI for allegedly abandoning the operation. Plausible deniability being a signature of intelligence work, it should come as no surprise that Washington officially denied any involvement, but the episode clearly fits a pattern of outsourced, deniable regime-change attempts. In the end, Operation Gideon- AKA "Bay of Piglets"- would be an embarrassing failure, and would do no favors for U.S.-Venezuelan relations.

Which brings us back to Operation Absolute Resolve, and the capture of President Maduro and his wife. While it was initially sold globally as being the culmination of President Trump's efforts to stop fentanyl, which he had recently labeled as a "weapon of mass destruction" (anyone else getting serious Iraq war vibes here?) from entering the country via Venezuelan drug boats, as I have previously laid out, this had nothing to do with drugs at all. Here is a more detailed explanation of why I say this. According to the DEA's own figures, Venezuela produces less than zero percent of fentanyl entering the U.S., and is responsible for virtually none of it's precursor production or trafficking to the U.S. They would pivot once this info became widely reported and shift towards cocaine, so let's take a look at that as well. According to official statistics, Venezuela accounts for about 10% of U.S.-bound cocaine trans-shipments, with the majority of cocaine entering the U.S. coming from Colombia. In recent years, approximately 210 metric tons of cocaine transited Venezuela, which is significantly less than the amounts trafficked through other routes, particularly from Mexico and Central America, whom as you see- we haven't made a single aggressive move towards. So let's dig into the REAL reasons that we needed Maduro out, and eventually a more compliant puppet installed.

1. The Gulf Coast refinery trap. The U.S. doesn't just want Venezuela's oil- we're structurally dependent on it, and Venezuela is the closest and largest source. The Gulf Coast refining complex (Huston, Port Arthur, Beaumont, etc) was built over decades to process heavy, sour crude from Venezuela, Mexico, and the Middle East, with Venezuela possessing the largest supply by far. They need that heavy crude to operate at full capacity and turn a profit. We aren't just after oil- we're after the ENTIRE VALUE CHAIN from Orinoco to the Gulf Coast, and Maduro's government was blocking that control.

2. 2. BRICS, De-dollarization, and the petrodollar firewall.

   BRICS' real goal isn't just a new currency; it's a parallel trade/finance stack. BRICS is building;

• A new payment system (BRICS Pay) to bypass SWIFT

• A clearinghouse for commodity trades in local currencies or a basket (gold-linked or not)

• A development bank and reserve pool to replace the IMF/World Bank cartel loans. Venezuela joining that system (as they have been petitioning to do for years now) would let them sell oil, the massive amounts that they have the potential to, in yuan, rupees, or a BRICS gold backed unit, completely cutting the USD/Petrodollar out of the loop.

• Venezuela's oil is the "kill switch" for the petrodollar. If Venezuela (and later Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia) starts pricing oil in a BRICS-style unit, the global demand for dollars to buy oil in collapses entirely. That's really what the U.S. is trying to prevent here: a world where the dollar is no longer the only way to buy the world's most important commodity.

• Most coverage of BRICS fixates, myself included, on the potential of a proposed gold-backed BRICS currency, but the frightening truth is- ANY credible alternative unit that the central banks and oil importers can use is a real danger to the US dollar. Even if it's not fully gold-backed, a BRICS oil trade currency would still erode dollar dominance and force the Fed to raise rates or accept much higher inflation. How much higher? Only time will really tell, but it's important to remember that the USD hasn't been fully gold-backed since the 30's, and ended international convertibility of the dollar to gold in 1971 under President Nixon. Meaning, the ONLY real thing that currently gives the dollar it's perceived value is its use as the global reserve currency/petrodollar for global oil trade. I can assure you, Venezuela's BRICS bid scared Washington much, much more than any "narco-state" label ever could.

  3. The IMF/World Bank "rules" and Venezuela's defiance.

For decades, the U.S. and its allies have used the IMF/World Bank to enforce a standard regime on countries in the Global South. Meaning;

• Privatize state assets (oil, utilities, mines)

• Slash social spending and subsidies

• Open markets to foreign investors and creditors

• Adopt dollarization or tight currency pegs

Venezuela refused to play this game. Chávez/Maduro have instead;

• Kept PDVSA (state oil company) under government control

• Maintained price controls and subsidies (even if piss-poorly managed)

• Resisted IMF structural adjustment and debt restructuring on Western terms

• Sought alternative financing from China, Russia, and now BRICS instead

The Banking Cartel Angle- When a country refuses IMF/World Bank rules, it becomes a threat to the global finance architecture that benefits Wall Street, the City of London, and the global banking cartel. Venezuela's defiance is part of a broader pattern (Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, etc) where the U.S. uses sanctions, coups, and military pressure to force compliance or regime change,

The "Narco-terrorism" angle is little more than a convenient smokescreen, and the perfect excuse for extrajudicial actions that would never be allowed under any other pretext without congressional approval. By using this reasoning, it justified military action without needing a clear act of war. It distracts from the economic and geopolitical motives at the heart of the matter. And it appeals to domestic audiences who care about the drugs but not about oil or BRICS. The other matters no one seems to want to bring up involve;

• The role of Private Military Contractors (PMCs)- There is strong evidence that PMCs (often ex-U.S. military) have been involved in training, logistics, and even direct action in Venezuela for years. These firms, aside from being frequently contracted out by the CIA for "off-books" black ops, are deeply tied to the oil security sectors and stand to profit massively from regime change.

• The resource curse and the illusion of liberation- Venezuela's oil has historically been a curse , not a blessing, because it fuels corruption, conflict, and foreign intervention like we are seeing now. If the U.S. truly wanted to help the people of Venezuela, why has it always backed coups and sanctions that make the lives of everyday citizens more difficult?

• The long game: running Venezuela until a "proper transition"- Trump's statement is little more than a euphemism for a de facto occupation and economic takeover, something we have a long and disastrous history at. That means:

  U.S. oil companies taking control of PDVSA assets

  IMF/World Bank imposing structural adjustment

  A pliant government that accepts dollarized trade and Western-aligned policies.

  I hope this has helped to demonstrate the real motives behind this action against Venezuela, and brought some things into focus a little more clearly. This isn't an isolated event by a long shot, but rather, iit fits a clear pattern of falsely justified invasions, seizing of assets and infrastructure, and then spending billions or trillions defending it against its own people. Which makes our country less, not more, safe. This not only looks horrible on the world stage, but only serves to further foment resistance and aggression against America. While corporations and contractors plunder and profit massively, we as citizens pay the bill. A proverbial "can" that we can only keep kicking down the generational road so much further before it explodes in an economic disaster.

  In closing, this was never about saving Venezuela (or America) from a "narco-regime" ; it was about saving a fragile empire from a country that dared to sell it's oil, write it's own rules, and slowly walk away from the dollar. Strip away the press releases and sound bites, remove the precision-strike footage and what remains is the same old doctrine in a modern wrapper: when a resource-rich nation refuses to kneel to Washington and the global banking cartel, it will be starved, sabatoged, or shattered until a more obedient government can be installed in it's place.