Venezuela - US Conflict: News, Updates

[Fatman17]

AI Overview



The U.S. has intervened for regime change in numerous countries, including
Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Chile (1973), Panama (1989), Afghanistan (2001), and Iraq (2003), often covertly via the CIA or overtly with military force, leading to the overthrow of leaders like Mossadegh, Arbenz, Allende, Noriega, the Taliban, and Saddam Hussein, and more recently, directly capturing President Maduro of Venezuela (2026), marking a significant escalation in overt regime change actions.
Here's a breakdown by era and examples:
Cold War Era (Overt & Covert)

• Iran (1953): CIA-backed coup to overthrow Prime Minister Mossadegh, installing the Shah.
• Guatemala (1954): CIA-orchestrated coup (Operation PBSuccess) to oust elected President Jacobo Arbenz.
• Cuba (1961): Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro (failed).
• Dominican Republic (1965): U.S. intervention to prevent a leftist government from taking power.
• Chile (1973): Support for the military coup overthrowing socialist President Salvador Allende.
• Nicaragua (1980s): Support for Contras against the Sandinista government.

Post-Cold War & Post-9/11 (Overt Military Actions)

• Panama (1989): Operation Just Cause to depose Manuel Noriega.
• Iraq (2003): Invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government.
• Afghanistan (2001): Invasion to remove the Taliban regime harboring Al-Qaeda.
• Libya (2011): NATO-led intervention supporting rebels against Muammar Gaddafi.

Recent (2020s)

• Venezuela (2026): Recent U.S. military strikes and capture of President Nicolás Maduro, justified by Trump as combating "narco-terrorism" and taking control for a transition.

This history highlights shifts from covert CIA operations during the Cold War to direct military interventions, with recent actions in Venezuela signaling a renewed, bold approach to regime change, say analysts.

 

[Meengla]

Taylor Green warned that Americans were disgusted with the government’s ‘never ending military aggression’ and funding the Washington ‘military machine.’‘This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end,’ she wrote. ‘Boy were we wrong.’

But some MAGA are beyond reasoning: A close MAGA relative yesterday was heard saying 'Well, that's what Maduro said: Come and take me' to America and so we did'.
Trump can't do no wrong.

 

[PakFactor]

Trump (even USA) isn't obsessed with oil in a traditional economic sense, it's more Strategic Denial to BRICS. Venezuela, under Maduro, had become a diplomatic threat to the Western Hemisphere's Lithium Triangle (Chile, Argentina, Bolivia) - what began around 2022 was China/Russia slowly pushing an agenda of "Lithium OPEC" of sorts and Argentina, Bolivia, and Venezuela were party of it while Chile remained largely neutral. Argentina (in 2023) and Bolivia (in 2025) were successfully politically flipped back to Team US, while Venezuela couldn't be flipped politically because of Maduro's hold.

Venezuela isn't a country within the Lithium Triangle, but it was included in the "Lithium OPEC" agenda because of its Oil Reserves - so the 4 country could become an anti-imperialist "Resource Bloc" in Western Hemisphere for China/Russia. The largest buyer of Venezuelan oil is China, and Venezuela has been arming itself with the forex earned from it. Venezuela was to become a military shield in the region overtime which triggered US's fallback to Monroe Doctrine.

And, yes, though we can scale and apply the Core-periphery model to an extent but that model can only explain the "felt need" for multi-polarity of the global power bloc and not the geo-politico-military mechanics at play.

I have been working on a "gamified" model to understand and to an extent even predict (the possible next moves) the geo-politico-military mechanics but I am not sure where to post that on the forum. Perhaps a thread of its own? (Is it allowed to start a thread based on a theory developed in-house?) - it's a working model as of now and I think input from other members will help refine it greatly.

Yes, you can make a new thread. I remember in the previous PDF, there was one where they war-gamed, etc.

Tag me when you do make it.

 

[Cash gk]

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[Viet]

AI Overview



The U.S. has intervened for regime change in numerous countries, including
Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Chile (1973), Panama (1989), Afghanistan (2001), and Iraq (2003), often covertly via the CIA or overtly with military force, leading to the overthrow of leaders like Mossadegh, Arbenz, Allende, Noriega, the Taliban, and Saddam Hussein, and more recently, directly capturing President Maduro of Venezuela (2026), marking a significant escalation in overt regime change actions.
Here's a breakdown by era and examples:
Cold War Era (Overt & Covert)

• Iran (1953): CIA-backed coup to overthrow Prime Minister Mossadegh, installing the Shah.
• Guatemala (1954): CIA-orchestrated coup (Operation PBSuccess) to oust elected President Jacobo Arbenz.
• Cuba (1961): Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro (failed).
• Dominican Republic (1965): U.S. intervention to prevent a leftist government from taking power.
• Chile (1973): Support for the military coup overthrowing socialist President Salvador Allende.
• Nicaragua (1980s): Support for Contras against the Sandinista government.

Post-Cold War & Post-9/11 (Overt Military Actions)

• Panama (1989): Operation Just Cause to depose Manuel Noriega.
• Iraq (2003): Invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government.
• Afghanistan (2001): Invasion to remove the Taliban regime harboring Al-Qaeda.
• Libya (2011): NATO-led intervention supporting rebels against Muammar Gaddafi.

Recent (2020s)

• Venezuela (2026): Recent U.S. military strikes and capture of President Nicolás Maduro, justified by Trump as combating "narco-terrorism" and taking control for a transition.

This history highlights shifts from covert CIA operations during the Cold War to direct military interventions, with recent actions in Venezuela signaling a renewed, bold approach to regime change, say analysts.

CIA and NSA
if the mission fails the gov can deny any involvement.
if mission succeeds like this one capturing Maduro, the president claims all credits, he is the greatest.

 

[Cash gk]

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[Cash gk]

CIA and NSA
if the mission fails the gov can deny any involvement.
if mission succeeds like this one capturing Maduro, the president claims all credits, he is the greatest.

Why are you all saying capturing? It was an attack on a sovereign country, and they kidnapped a president.

 

[Yellow is Okay]

Kidnapping the legitimate leader of another nation's leader is a gangsterist or terrorist action. very different to making a war. regardless how meaningless a war can be. It is not what a nation should do. Same as what the US did to the former Panamaian president Noriega. But time has changed. 2025 is not 1989. Such careless actions will only weaken the world order created by the US and the West after 1945.

China can easily kidnap or assassinate its dissidents, like Li Hongzhi, who are living in the West, Why didn't they do that?

Vietnam can easily assassinate or kidnap its dissidents like Le Trung Khoa or Nguyen Van Dai who are living in Germany. Why didn't Vietnamese authority do that?

Tào Phi (Cao Pi) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cao_Pi) can easily dethrone or kill Hán Hiến Đế (Emperor Xian), the last emperor of Han dynasty. Why did he ask Emperor Xian to declare three times (and Cao Pi pretended to decline three times) that he was willing to step down and yield the throne to Cao Pi.

The US, and the West in general, lacks the capability to think long term.

I have never said the US kidnapping Maduro is legal. What I meant is how do you define desperation. I think the US action comes from power, supremacy, and perfect execution, not desperation, and surely it will not lead to a collapse of anything. And if somehow it did lead to something, Venezuela is much more desperate and theoretically should go out first.

And no, Vietnam cannot do anything substantial like kidnapping or assassinating Le Trung Khoa. After Trinh Xuan Thanh, has Vietnam even managed to bring back Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan from Germany, let alone go after foreign dissidents?

And do not forget, To Lam was literally charged in Slovakia in connection with the Trinh Xuan Thanh case, and then those charges got cancelled on procedural grounds while the investigation kept moving under a different Slovak authority. That is not the profile of a state that can just run ops in Europe whenever it feels like it, without consequences.

 

[Samurai]

This move alone by Trump was just like how a mafia gang turf war happens, when the powerful mafia boss takes over the turf of the smaller and weaker one. But aside from all the news related to running the country of Venezuela, taking control of its oil industry, the biggest outcome of this is that no matter how bad a dictator running a country like Venezuela is, this action by US (being a clear violation of international laws) validates the same special military ops that Russia did in Ukraine or any military ops that China will do against Taiwan in the future. Moreover, this will also heavily reinforce the belief in South America about the US imperialism.

The US will have no moral standing on principles to oppose both Russia, China or any other country because it is also standing on the same club now i.e. disregard the rule of international law and order.

 

[Viet]

Why are you all saying capturing? It was an attack on a sovereign country, and they kidnapped a president.

why bother? you can use kidnap or any phrase else you want. people cheer wars against other countries from other corners. more wars coming. watch out.

 

[Cash gk]

It was total disrespect to international laws. Now doors are open. No small country is safe

 

[Yasser76]

Now would be a good time to take out leadership in Kabul under same justification Trump used....

 

[AViet]

I have never said the US kidnapping Maduro is legal. What I meant is how do you define desperation. I think the US action comes from power, supremacy, and perfect execution, not desperation, and surely it will not lead to a collapse of anything. And if somehow it did lead to something, Venezuela is much more desperate and theoretically should go out first.

And no, Vietnam cannot do anything substantial like kidnapping or assassinating Le Trung Khoa. After Trinh Xuan Thanh, has Vietnam even managed to bring back Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan from Germany, let alone go after foreign dissidents?

And do not forget, To Lam was literally charged in Slovakia in connection with the Trinh Xuan Thanh case, and then those charges got cancelled on procedural grounds while the investigation kept moving under a different Slovak authority. That is not the profile of a state that can just run ops in Europe whenever it feels like it, without consequences.

The Trinh Xuan Thanh case was just an odd case, when a sudden idea pop up and carried out by a leader of the Ministry of Public Security, without the approval by the Minister of Public Security. The leader was then scolded, as far as I know. The Vietnamese top leaders do not want to continue such gangsterist, Mossad-style actions, otherwise, all dissidents would be killed or brought back to Vietnam by now.

I do not think Slovakia, Germany, or the US, can do much, although they might get frustrated.

 

[hasssanali8998]

 

[Yellow is Okay]

The Trinh Xuan Thanh case was just an odd case, when a sudden idea pop up and carried out by a leader of the Ministry of Public Security, without the approval by the Minister of Public Security. The leader was then scolded, as far as I know. The Vietnamese top leaders do not want to continue such gangsterist, Mossad-style actions, otherwise, all dissidents would be killed or brought back to Vietnam by now. I do not think Slovakia, Germany, or the US, can do much, althought they may get frustrated.

The key difference between Trinh Xuan Thanh and other dissidents is that he did not hold citizenship of the host country, while others like Le Trung Khoa do. A lot of "sources" have been saying there's constant surveillance around Nhan's place, but that's hard to confirm. So if Vietnam really thinks this is doable, maybe it should try bringing that "easy target" back first, and only then talk about going all in on kidnapping German citizens later.