Colombia launches major counter-drone program after U.S. hits Venezuela Defence Blog
from news.google.com
Venezuela US Conflict
Russia’s foreign ministry has accused the United States of “unlawful actions” after US forces seized the Russian-flagged oil tanker Marinera in international waters. Moscow said the seizure violates international maritime law and risks further escalating already strained Russia–US relations.In an official statement issued on Thursday, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov called on Washington to respect established principles of international maritime law and immediately halt actions against the Marinera and other civilian vessels operating on the high seas. This comes after US forces seized the tanker on January 7.
As Venezuelan detainee Diógenes Angulo left a prison in San Francisco de Yare after a year and five months behind bars, his family appeared to be in shock.
He was detained two days before the 2024 presidential election after he posted a video of an opposition demonstration in Barinas, the home state of the late President Hugo Chávez.
As he emerged from the jail in San Francisco de Yare, approximately an hour’s drive south of the capital Caracas, he learned that former President Nicolás Maduro had been captured by U.S. forces Jan. 3 in a nighttime raid in the capital.
Angulo told The Associated Press that his faith gave him the strength to keep going during his detention.
AMERICANS in Venezuela should “leave the country immediately” as armed militias hunt for Trump fans, authorities have urged.
Although international flights have resumed, US officials have advised citizens to “depart immediately” after the streets of Caracas have been taken over by Maduro supporters in solidarity of their toppled tyrant.
Motorbike gangs and armed security forces have wreaked havoc across the city in the aftermath of the brazen capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by US forces.
On January 3, 2026, U.S. armed forces and law enforcement extracted Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela. I join President Trump in praising the men and women who led “Operation Absolute Resolve” and brought Maduro back to the United States to stand trial—all without the loss of American life.
Maduro is an indicted narco-terrorist who poisoned over 100,000 Americans. His “rap” sheet also includes involvement with transnational criminal organizations and befriending our foreign enemies like China, Iran, and Russia.
President Trump wants to fight this corruption, as do I. Operation Absolute Resolve made real progress on that front. Now people are asking, “How do we move forward?” My bill, the Americas Act, gives us that path forward.
The U.S. needs a clear plan for the Western Hemisphere that supports U.S. manufacturing, ends corruption, and counters foreign powers trying to muscle their way into our neighborhood. Look at Venezuela. Under Maduro, China was moving in fast, locking in influence while the country fell apart. If we don’t get a unified strategy together, we risk letting the Chinese Communist Party shape the future of our hemisphere instead of us.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent actions in Venezuela and his overall strategy for the Western Hemisphere should serve as a warning to all Canadians and require a more fulsome response from its political leaders, Canada’s former ambassador to the United Nations says.
Bob Rae, who finished his five-year ambassadorship last November, told Global News in an interview that the U.S. under Trump is rejecting multilateralism in favour of asserting its dominance over the hemisphere, without “any notion of legality.”
The aftermath of the ICE shooting of an anti-ICE activist in Minnesota has quickly exploded into a national story that sucks the oxygen out of anything else trying to elbow its way into the news cycle . This includes Venezuela, where the NBC Nightly News was the sole evening network newscast to chronicle a major development: the Chavista regime’s release of an indeterminate number of political prisoners.
Here is the Venezuela roundup that has the prisoner release at the top, in its entirety and as aired on NBC Nightly News on Thursday, January 8th, 2026:
NBC Nightly News was the only network newscast to mention the release of political prisoners in Venezuela (1/8/26). pic.twitter.com/wowfhFZAg0
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) January 9, 2026
The problem with the left is that they don’t actually stand for anything. This is why they would rather support a narco-terrorist dictator while protesting a fake dictator, a.k.a. the leader of the free world. They hate Trump so much that they would rather have Venezuelans continue to live in poverty and famine in an effort not give him a win. This is because, to them, this is a third-world problem—something their first-world brains could not even begin to understand if their lives depended on it. This is wrong, which is why one Venezuelan woman broke down in tears while speaking to KATV, calling out liberals for saying, “This is not a reason for celebration.”
The people who have a problem with what happened in Venezuela cannot even begin to understand anything this woman is saying. They don’t know what it’s like to not have a shower. In the U.S., something like Walmart is often frequented by lower-income individuals. But to this woman, she couldn’t even believe such a selection of food existed.
Many of her friends just disappeared. Many of her loved ones were forced to eat trash. The people were living in fear. This is not something the left can even begin to comprehend. They don’t even care, as they would rather these people suffer than give Trump a win.
Normal people are breathing a sigh of relief that narco-terrorist leader Nicolás Maduro is finally getting his just desserts for getting fat off of the torture of his citizens and funneling drugs into the U.S. for years. For MRC Business, it’s a moment worth recalling when the idiotas at The New York Times made their readers dumber by blaming anything but communism and socialism for Venezuela’s destruction.
The July 28, 2024, story that Times Venezuela reporter Anatoly Kurmanaev, international correspondent Frances Robles and Andes Bureau Chief Julie Turkewitz ran was so bad it was enough to make people lose IQ points:
[I]n recent years, the socialist model has given way to brutal capitalism, economists say, with a small state-connected minority controlling much of the nation’s wealth.
Yes, the journos actually attempted to make Maduro and Venezuela’s bread lines synonymous with — *checks notes* — “capitalism.”
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is hitting Democrats for their stance against the Trump administration’s capture of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, saying their responses are rooted in partisan politics.
Following the U.S. military’s seizure and arrest of Maduro this weekend, many Democrats have criticized President Donald Trump, coming out against the operation and arrest of the foreign leader as an overreach. Fetterman, known for his willingness to break ranks when he disagrees with his party, pointed to former President Joe Biden’s own move to increase the bounty on Maduro to $25 million.
“Democrats, we all agree he was a terrible person, and the kinds of chaos and misery he brought to Venezuela. And he’s gone. Why can’t we just say that’s a good thing?” Fetterman said, referring to Maduro in a radio interview with John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby of the Cats & Cosby Show.
Jasmine Crockett appeared on The View. Maybe she thought she would sound smart and win over Trump supporters in Texas. Maybe she didn’t. Nonetheless, she did none of that, and let’s just say she continues to decrease her chances of winning a seat in the Senate by the second.
According to Crockett, “everything that this administration does is illegal.” But if that were true, why is it not true? If she is going to talk about crimes, she should do her homework first.
What does she even mean when she claims Trump talked to “oil folks”? That makes zero sense, and the fact that she thinks he needs permission from people like her is deeply unserious.
She knows nothing about Venezuela.
The situation on the ground in Venezuela is a mixed bag right now, which is to be expected. One doesn’t just pluck the lead narco-terrorist from a “government” that’s basically organized crime and expect sunshine and roses within a week. It’s going to take time for Donald Trump and Marco Rubio and the United States team to pull all the weeds, and I have no doubt that, if anyone can do it, those two men can.
It’s also changing so quickly that it’s hard to keep up with everything.
That said, I’m seeing a lot of misinformation, speculation, confusion, and biased reporting out there — surprise, surprise — and I want to set the record straight on what’s happening in Venezuela right this minute. Everything I’m going to say comes from our State Department, credible human rights groups, sources on the ground, and people with whom I’ve connected who are from that country. None of them are anonymous.
Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro arrives at Manhattan federal court for arraignment ABC13 Houston
from news.google.com
- Trump said Venezuela stole America’s oil. Here’s what really happened CNN
- Trump’s Goals for Reviving Venezuela’s Oil Industry Will Not Come Easily or Cheaply The New York Times
- America’s century-long interest in Venezuelan oil Vox
- What investors are watching after Venezuela: Five signals that matter for markets CNBC
- Trump says US is taking control of Venezuela’s oil reserves. Here’s what it means CNN
from news.google.com
Secretary of state Marco Rubio on Sunday slammed Kamala Harris and other Democrats for condemning the US operation that led to the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, arguing the Biden administration had long sought his capture but failed to act despite offering a multimillion-dollar reward for his arrest.After Maduro and his wife were captured early Saturday during a US special forces raid dubbed Operation Absolute Reserve, Harris quickly denounced the operation after news of the arrest broke.“That Maduro is a brutal, illegitimate dictator does not change the fact that this action was both unlawful and unwise,” Harris wrote on X. “We’ve seen this movie before. Wars for regime change or oil that are sold as strength but turn into chaos, and American families pay the price.”She further alleged the mission was driven by “oil” and “Donald Trump’s desire to play the regional strongman.”
When deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro makes his first appearance in New York courtroom Monday to face U.S. drug charges, he will likely follow the path taken by…
from japantoday.com
Delcy Rodríguez is due to be officially sworn in as Venezuela’s president shortly (at 08:00 local time; 12:00 GMT) after the country’s supreme court designated her as interim president over the weekend.
She had pledged loyalty to Nicolás Maduro on Saturday and condemned his capture as an “atrocity”, but on Sunday called for a “balanced and respectful” relationship with the US, which has warned they might make a fresh military intervention if she does not accommodate their demands.
Venezuela is still dealing with the fallout from US strikes that hit the coastal town of Catia La Mar on January 3. Residents say the attacks struck a civilian apartment building and nearby port areas during the US operation targeting President Nicolás Maduro. Fires broke out, power was cut in parts of the town and homes were left badly damaged near La Guaira.
Accounts of the human toll vary. Venezuelan authorities confirmed at least one civilian death and several serious injuries at the apartment site, while other sources cited much higher casualty figures across multiple locations. The United States said its forces suffered only minor injuries. No final civilian death toll has been confirmed.
Blow to China From Loss of Venezuela Oil Blunted by Hoard at Sea Bloomberg.com
from news.google.com
As if on cue, the Jew-hating left has descended into conspiracy, absurdly blaming Israel for a U.S. military operation against the Nicolás Maduro regime—an accusation as deranged as it is revealing. The claim is nonsense, yet Israel has every reason to support the action: under Maduro and Hugo Chávez, Venezuela severed ties with Israel, relentlessly attacked it in international forums, welcomed Iran and Hezbollah to build terror, money-laundering, and drug-trafficking networks across Latin America, and drove its once-thriving Jewish community into near extinction. Now, Venezuelan officials openly invoke antisemitic tropes—calling the operation “Zionist”—while Western activists and influencers echo the slander, proving once again that when a tyrant falls, the reflex of the Jew-haters is not to celebrate freedom, but to blame the Jews.
Xi warns bullying actions undermine global order after US raid Yeni Safak English
from news.google.com
The U.S. strike on Venezuela has renewed focus on the country’s oil sector, which includes some of the richest crude reserves in the world.
“We’re going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars, it will be paid for by the oil companies directly. And we’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be,” President Trump said in a public address on Saturday following the attack, in which the U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
Here’s what to know about Venezuela’s oil industry.
Protests continue in Caracas after Maduro seized by U.S. news.cgtn.com
from news.google.com
US capture of Maduro tests limits of China’s diplomatic push Reuters
from news.google.com
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez struck a more diplomatic tone than she had on Saturday, inviting the United States to “work together on a cooperative agenda.”
from www.nytimes.com
China Social Media Hails US Maduro Move as a Taiwan Template Bloomberg.com
from news.google.com
US President Donald Trump on Sunday openly threatened possible military action against Colombia, saying such a move “sounds good to me”.His comments come just a day after the United States carried out an operation in Venezuela, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores and transporting them to New York to face federal charges.
‘They Won’t Survive’: GOP Lawmakers Reveal 2 New Trump Targets After Maduro Operation
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump launched a sharp attack on Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, accusing his government of producing and exporting cocaine to the United States.“Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long,” Trump said.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday night that the United States is “in charge” of Venezuela after its mission that resulted in the arrest of Nicolas Maduro and the fall of his regime.
Initially hesitant to answer a question about who is running the country after Maduro’s ouster, saying it would be a “controversial” answer, Trump ultimately said, “We’re in charge.”
“We’re gonna run it. Fix it. We’ll have elections at the right time,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed back to the White House from Mar-a-Lago.