Venezuela - US Conflict: News, Updates

Venezuela's interim leader sacks general in charge of Maduro's guard​


www.bbc.com

Venezuela's interim leader sacks man in charge of Maduro's guard

General Javier Marcano Tábata was the commander of the inner circle of guards tasked with protecting Maduro.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

A bit difficult to hold on to the job if you have dropped the ball soo much!
 
VCheng said:
That problem of financing both their social programs and defense costs is one for them to solve. I am happy to let them figure it out.
Click to expand...

Of course, it would be their problem to solve. But as a businessman, I like to read. You never know when a profitable opportunity can arise in this. :)
 
PakFactor said:
Of course, it would be their problem to solve. But as a businessman, I like to read. You never know when a profitable opportunity can arise in this. :)
Click to expand...

Of course. Euro defense stocks, I would imagine.
 
F-22Raptor said:
Not piracy, you can’t paint a Russian flag on your vessel after the fact. In reality it was a stateless tanker shipping sanctioned oil.
Click to expand...


Oh..the tanker is apparently a “ flagged vessel, so it will be protected vessel under international marine law.
If it were an unflagged vessel then the rules change considerably
Things could get very interesting and real quick.
 
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
PakFactor said:
The U.S. is on course to checkmate Russia and China, or, as others call it, the Global South, which has all but splintered. The Global South was frozen in response. The Western Hemisphere has been sanitized of Chinese influence.

I will say this: the Russians and Chinese have a hand in giving the U.S. what it wants on a silver platter, but some on this forum will argue against this without understanding why I said it.

@Fatman17 on the previous page made the post below, and it's something the Chinese and their partners fail to grasp. Tens of thousands of examples were shown through live fire over the last twenty years, and the Chinese & Co. failed to take lessons. You can have all the Belt and Road initiatives, CPECs you want, but without strength or a show of force, it's meaningless. [They've lost their chance in Ukraine to establish a frontier. As you know, I've advocated for this for the last four years.]

As the Chinese love Sun Tzu, who offers timeless insights, but if you cling exclusively to his philosophical approach, you risk being overtaken by states that have developed modern, institutionalized theories of war. Western strategy, shaped by Clausewitz and refined over centuries, integrates politics, industry, and military force in a way that Sun Tzu’s framework simply doesn’t address.

In those twenty-some odd years, while the Chinese economy advanced, its strategic pull has been nonexistent.
Click to expand...
America blew 2.3 trillion and still got booted from Afghanistan. At the start of the Ukraine war they screamed Russia would collapse, yet the side handing over land is the “most-allied” Ukraine. Now the same chorus claims Washington can “conquer the Americas.” Don’t swallow the line fed by the press—keep your own head switched on.

You must not imagine that what you do not get on the battlefield, you can obtain at the negotiating table.

Those who think America is winning should realize that the interest on U.S. national debt has already surpassed military spending—and the debt will only keep rising, never fall.
 
Last edited:
The Venezuelan forces were on standby as the US Navy was parked next to Venezuela.

The thing is once the bombs started to drop there should have been some kind of mobilization that could have been done in 10-15 minutes , but nothing! If I am wrong, let me know.

The radars can be jammed but planes, helicopters, and other AAA can’t be. These need to be taken out physically.

The math just doesn’t make any sense!
 
Last edited:
Fallstuff said:
The Venezuelan forces were on standby as the US Navy was parked next to Venezuela.

The thing is once the bombs started to drop there should have been some kind of mobilization that could have been done in 10-15 minutes , but nothing! If I am wrong, let me know.

The radars can be jammed but planes, helicopters, and other AAA can’t be. These need to be taken out physically.

The math just doesn’t make any sense!
Click to expand...
The Venezuelan Air Force would have been destroyed before a single aircraft got off the ground.
 
PakFactor said:
Just my personal opinion for what it's worth: I don't think the Russians or the Chinese were promised anything with the removal of Maduro. If there had been a deal, maybe we'd see the U.S. partially withdrawing from the Pacific, and China pulling out of South America. But, as it stands, the U.S. is still actively deploying assets in the Pacific region.

We must also take into account not just oil; the Chinese have been sourcing agricultural goods after replacing American farmers with South American ones during Trump's trade war. This could alarm Chinese thinkers regarding food security.

What comes next is what I'm very curious about, both excited and cautious.
Click to expand...

@VCheng @Meengla @LeGenD @j_hungary

The article below sheds more light on the possible framework that could have been worked on behind the two larger powers.



Russian officials indicated in 2019 that the Kremlin would be willing to back off from its support for Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela in exchange for a free hand in Ukraine, according to Fiona Hill, an advisor to President Trump at the time.

The Russians repeatedly floated the idea of a “very strange swap arrangement between Venezuela and Ukraine," Hill said during a congressional hearing in 2019. Her comments surfaced again this week and were shared on social media after the U.S. stealth operation to capture Maduro.

Hill said Russia pushed the idea through articles in Russian media that referenced the Monroe Doctrine — a 19th-century principle in which the U.S. opposed European meddling in the Western Hemisphere and, in return, agreed to stay out of European affairs. It was invoked by Trump to justify the U.S. intervention in Venezuela.

Even though Russian officials never made a formal offer, Moscow's then-ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, hinted many times to her that Russia was willing to allow the United States to act as it wished in Venezuela if the U.S. did the same for Russia in Europe, Hill told the Associated Press this week.


“Before there was a ‘hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink, how about doing a deal?' But nobody [in the U.S.] was interested then," Hill said.

Trump dispatched Hill — then his senior advisor on Russia and Europe — to Moscow in April 2019 to deliver that message. She said she told Russian officials “Ukraine and Venezuela are not related to each other.”

At that time, she said, the White House was aligned with allies in recognizing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s interim president.

But fast forward seven years and the situation is different.

After ousting Maduro, the U.S. has said it will now “run” Venezuela policy. Trump also has renewed his threat to take over Greenland — a self-governing territory of Denmark and part of the NATO military alliance — and threatened to take military action against Colombia for facilitating the global sale of cocaine.

The Kremlin will be “thrilled” with the idea that large countries — such as Russia, the United States and China — get spheres of influence because it proves “might makes right,” Hill said.

Trump’s actions in Venezuela make it harder for Kyiv's allies to condemn Russia's designs on Ukraine as “illegitimate” because “we’ve just had a situation where the U.S. has taken over — or at least decapitated the government of another country — using fiction,” Hill told AP.

The Trump administration has described its raid in Venezuela as a law enforcement operation and has insisted that capturing Maduro was legal.

The Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hill's account.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not commented on the military operation to oust Maduro but the Foreign Ministry issued statements condemning U.S. “aggression.”

 
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 8 (members: 0, guests: 8)

Pakistan Defence Latest

Country Watch Latest

Latest Posts

Share this page

Back
Top