Trump Regime Begins Imperial Conquest (Foreign Policy)

[Rate This]

Well this is fun. Kind of a timeline as it unfolded.

AP:
At least seven explosions and low flying aircraft were heard in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. The cause behind the explosions was not immediately clear.

FAA bans U.S. commercial flights in Venezuelan airspace over “ongoing military activity” ahead of explosions in the capital.

Trump says Venezuela’s Nicholas Maduro has been captured after U.S. conducted a “large scale strike” on the country.

Utah Senator Mike Lee says Trump Regime has briefed him that Maduro will face criminal charges in the United States.

https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-us ... -Venezuela

Just like that Maduro and his wife have been flown out of the country.

I’m sure it’ll be related to drugs… but if they are worried about fentanyl so bad… China is by far the top supplier. Maybe we should attack them instead.

[Matt]

This is impeachable, yes?

[Rate This]

This is impeachable, yes?

You would hope so… his whole schtick has been isolationism. They claim there will now be no further action in Venezuela but this isn’t exactly a group that is bound to the truth. You can’t imagine Venezuela is gonna take this lying down either.

This is the only blurb touching on that so far…

AP:

The United States hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” early Saturday and said its president, Nicolás Maduro, and first lady Cilia Flores, had been captured and flown out of the country after months of stepped-up pressure by Washington — an extraordinary nighttime operation announced by President Donald Trump on social media hours after the attack.

The legal authority for the strike — and whether Trump consulted Congress beforehand — was not immediately clear.

Multiple explosions rang out and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas, the capital, as Maduro’s government immediately accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations. The Venezuelan government called it an “imperialist attack” and urged citizens to take to the streets.

Trump announced the developments on Truth Social shortly after 4:30 a.m. ET and said he would host a news conference at 11 a.m. ET.

Looks like this continues a plot point from Trump 1.0…

The Justice Department during Trump’s first term in office charged in the several indictments that Maduro had effectively converted Venezuela into a criminal enterprise at the service of drug traffickers and terrorist groups as he and his allies stole billions from the South American country.

The coordinated unsealing of indictments against 14 officials and government-connected individuals, and rewards of $55 million for Maduro and four others, attacked all the key planks of what then-Attorney General William Barr called the “corrupt Venezuelan regime,” including the Maduro-dominated judiciary and the powerful armed forces.

One indictment by prosecutors in New York accused Maduro and socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello, head of the rubber-stamping constitutional assembly, of conspiring with Colombian rebels and members of the military “to flood the United States with cocaine” and use the drug trade as a “weapon against America.”

Their original article from 2020 when the charges were brought:

https://apnews.com/article/caribbean-in ... df125c243f

Some reactions to this chain of events…

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau says the military action and seizure of Maduro marks “a new dawn for Venezuela,” saying that “the tyrant is gone.”

He posted on X hours after the strike. His boss, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, reposted a post from July that said Maduro “is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry condemned what it called a U.S. “act of armed aggression” against Venezuela in a statement posted on its Telegram channel Saturday.

“Venezuela must be guaranteed the right to determine its own destiny without any destructive, let alone military, outside intervention,” the statement said.

The ministry called for dialogue to prevent further escalation and said it reaffirmed its “solidarity” with the Venezuelan people and government, adding that Russia supports calls for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting.

President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, one of Trump’s fiercest critics, said the Colombian government convened a national security meeting before dawn Saturday and sent security forces to the border in preparation for a potential “massive influx of refugees” from neighboring Venezuela.

He said he’d also call on the U.N. Security Council to consider “the aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and of Latin America.”

“Without sovereignty, there is no nation,” Petro wrote on social media.

[Rate This]

Comment from Bondi on this. Apparently Maduro’s wife is getting charged too.

AP:

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi says Maduro and his wife will face criminal charges after an indictment in New York.

Bondi vowed in a social media post that the couple will “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”

Maduro was indicted in 2020 in New York, but it was not previously known that his wife had been.

Also the opposition leader has declined to comment…

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s spokespeople declined to comment on the U.S. operation.

Machado was last seen in public last month, when she emerged from 11 months in hiding and traveled to Norway, where she was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize.

[MegaHertz]

And on the sixth anniversary of attacks on Baghdad! The president of peace.

[Matt]

The Trump regime is also a criminal enterprise. Do other world powers have an opening to kidnap him and Melania?

[zzand]

Of course will have to "guard" their oil operations, right?

[MWmetalhead]

This was an unconstitutional act of war.

It was unconstitutional because Trump failed to obtain Congressional authorization.

It's also a ploy to shift attention away from Trump's disastrous handling of Russia's invasion into Ukraine.

[Rate This]

This was an unconstitutional act of war.

It was unconstitutional because Trump failed to obtain Congressional authorization.

I gotta believe this isn’t the last word in hostilities here whether that means Venezuela formally retaliates or sends somebody or multiple somebodies to shoot Trump. But I can’t imagine they’ll just lie down and say/do nothing.

The MAGA folks are already jumping towards “if you don’t support this you’re defending/supporting dictatorship” line of thought.

[MWmetalhead]

How long before terrorism cells use this incident to provoke attacks on the U.S. ?

Trump just opened a Pandora's box.

If apprehension of Maduro was justified, making a case to Congress for authorization of use of force should've been rather easy.

Maduro is a bad dude and it's possible the action taken was appropriate; that in no way excuses sidestepping the Constitution.

[zzand]

No one will question him except the Democrats and they don't have the power needed to do shit at this point. What we need are some Republicans to grow a set and stand up to yam tits

[Matt]

How long before terrorism cells use this incident to provoke attacks on the U.S. ?

Trump just opened a Pandora's box.

If apprehension of Maduro was justified, making a case to Congress for authorization of use of force should've been rather easy.

Maduro is a bad dude and it's possible the action taken was appropriate; that in no way excuses sidestepping the Constitution.

There is no scenario where the United States taking this action is justified. I don't think that is what you were saying but just wanted to clarify.

[MegaHertz]

They won't. It's all about bragging rights. Good, bad or indifferent, as long as they WIN, it's all good.

[Honeyman]

As a "wartime" president, this mother fucker gets many more powers given to him by the constitution.

[zzand]

If it is Venezuela by itself then there is not a lot to worry about. But they won't be alone. It remains to be seen who will side with them but this has the chance of getting out of hand real quick like and real messy