Tag: venezualea

California Democrat Has Incredibly Stupid Take on How Venezuela Operation Will Affect American Energy

Congressman Jimmy Panetta, a Democrat from California, recently offered an amazingly stupid take on how Trump’s operation to take Maduro out of Venezuela will affect Americans and American energy.

To hear Panetta tell it, this situation might further lower energy prices and that could cause instability.

If that makes sense to you, you might be a progressive.

In the clip below, Panetta says:

“We don’t know if the world’s saturated oil market will accept any more oil. This has left great instability not just in Venezuela, but in the region. And that leads to insecurity for the United States of America.”

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Oil Companies Are Key Partners in Trump’s Imperial Plans for Latin America

For months, U.S. President Donald Trump proclaimed that his pressure campaign against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, backed by dozens of illegal killings through drone strikes, was about fighting drugs and cartels. But at his press conference after the U.S. abduction of Maduro, Trump couldn’t stop talking about oil.

“We’re gonna take back the oil,” Trump brazenly said. “Very large United States oil companies” will “go in” and “spend billions of dollars,” he promised. “We’re gonna be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground.”

All told, Trump uttered the word “oil” at least 20 times during the press conference. Oil company stocks — ExxonMobil, Halliburton, ConocoPhillips, Valero, Phillips 66 — surged the following day, with Chevron, the only major U.S. oil corporation with a current foothold in Venezuela, seeing its share value jump more than 5 percent.

Further demonstrating the administration’s drug accusations to be mere propaganda, the Justice Department recently dropped its longstanding claim that Maduro was the head of “Cartel de los Soles,” implicitly conceding that it is indeed not a drug cartel but a slang term referring to political officials who have become corrupted by drug money.

The Trump administration’s barefaced imperial grab for Venezuela’s oil is fraught with challenges, and it’s far too early to predict what will happen. But its abduction of Maduro and effort to gain control over Venezuela’s oil industry aligns with the administration’s openly stated vision of reasserting undisputed political and economic hegemony across the Americas and the Caribbean, including control over natural resources and trade routes, through gunboat diplomacy backed by military threats. In doing so, Trump is looking to corporate allies like Chevron, which could stand to benefit handsomely from his administration’s action — though this is far from guaranteed.

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Editorial Boards Cheer Trump Doctrine in Venezuela

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” Mark Twain allegedly quipped. On January 3, 1990, Panamanian Commander Manuel Noriega surrendered to US forces, who carried him off to face drug charges. Thirty-six years to the day later, US forces swooped into Venezuela, abducting President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, following decades of hostility between the oil-rich socialist country and the United States. The pretext offered: Maduro had to be taken to the US to face drug charges.

The coincidence is a reminder that the US has a long history of both covert and military intervention in Latin America: President Donald Trump, as extreme as he might be, isn’t an outlier among American presidents in this regard. And despite the right’s attempt to paint Trump as some sort of peacenik (Compact, 4/7/23; X, 10/14/25), he is no less an imperialist than his predecessors.

And that’s precisely why many of the nation’s leading editorial pages are hailing Maduro’s capture.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board (1/3/26) called the abductions “an act of hemispheric hygiene,” a dehumanizing comparison of Venezuela’s leaders to germs needing to be cleansed.

For the Journal, the abductions were justified because they weren’t just a blow to Venezuela, but to the rest of America’s official enemies. “The dictator was also part of the axis of US adversaries that includes Russia, China, Cuba and Iran,” it said. It called Maduro’s “capture…a demonstration of Mr. Trump’s declaration to keep America’s enemies from spreading chaos in the Western Hemisphere.” It amplified Trump’s own rhetoric of adding on to the Roosevelt Corollary, saying “It’s the ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine”—a nod to the long-standing imperial notion that the US more or less owns the Western Hemisphere.

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CIA Drone Carried Out First Known Land Strike On Venezuela 

The CIA is reported to have carried out a bombing operation within Venezuelan territory, CNN and The New York Times report in follow-up to President Trump touting that the US had knocked out “a big facility”.

CNN while citing unnamed sources, reports that the CIA conducted a drone strike on a remote dock along Venezuela’s coastline, after the US suspected the site was being used to store and transport illegal drugs, and which were supposedly bound for America.

Reports indicate the location was unoccupied at the time of the strike, which occurred earlier this month. The New York Times published a similar account based on anonymous sources, specifying that the operation took place last Wednesday.

As we detailed, President Trump had on Friday in a radio interview disclosed something which missed the attention of the US and global media. He let slip that a large land site had been knocked out by a strike from US forces in the Caribbean.

Trump may have actually assumed the attack which he disclosed publicly for the first time was already being reported on, but it had not. He was being interviewed by John Catsimatidis, the Republican billionaire who owns the WABC radio station in New York on his The Cats & Cosby Show, and the two were talking about the Venezuela campaign. 

“They have a big plant or a big facility where the ships come from,” Trump said, though he did not explicitly identify the exact location or even country attacked. “Two nights ago we knocked that out.”

Interestingly, the remarks generated almost no headlines for much of that weekend. But by Monday he expanded on those remarks during a press conference, saying the target was located on Venezuela’s coast and that a “major explosion” occurred at a dock where boats were supposedly loaded with drugs.

“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” he told reporters at Mar-a-Lago, his club and residence in Florida.

“They load the boats up with drugs. So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area. It’s the implementation area, that’s where they implement, and that is no longer around.”

But even after this, neither CIA, nor White House, nor Pentagon would comment. Even more strange was that Venezuelan officials themselves have also remained silent, issuing no public statements regarding the alleged attack. It is perhaps the case they don’t want the population to panic, or else don’t want to give acknowledgement of a successful land strike by Washington.

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Hegseth Announces 14 Killed In New, Largest Single Attack On ‘Narco-Terrorist’ Boats

Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth has announced yet more strikes on alleged drug vessels operating off South America, in what’s becoming a weekly thing. This latest strike involved four total boats – in what looks to be the largest single set of strikes yet.

Unlike most of the some nine strikes recorded thus far, these fresh attacks were on the Pacific side of Latin America, and not directly off Venezuela’s coast. There’s been only one other prior instance, announced earlier this month, of such operations on the Pacific side.

The attacks against several vessels occurred Monday. Hegseth disclosed on Tuesday, “Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out three lethal kinetic strikes on four vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific.”

“The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth continued.

The death toll was high in comparison with other attacks which stretch back several weeks. Hegseth continues in his statement on X:

Eight male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessels during the first strike. Four male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the second strike. Three male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the third strike. A total of 14 narco-terrorists were killed during the three strikes, with one survivor.

All strikes were in international waters with no U.S. forces harmed. Regarding the survivor, USSOUTHCOM immediately initiated Search and Rescue (SAR) standard protocols; Mexican SAR authorities accepted the case and assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue. 

This note about cooperation from Mexican authorities is interesting, and shows that not all regional governments are against the heightened Pentagon action off their shores – or else they are simply too scared of the Trump administration to say ‘no’.

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Democrat Senator Mark Kelly Makes Veiled Threat of Prosecution to ‘Young Service Members’ for Following President Trump’s Orders to Attack Drug Boats in Caribbean

In an interview on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, senior Arizona Democrat Senator Mark Kelly threatened ‘young service members’ with prosecution for following President Donald Trump’s orders to attack drug boats in the Caribbean Sea.

Kelly made the threat in comments to host Martha Raddatz, saying the Trump administration was “putting young service members at great, legal jeopardy.”

ABC transcript excerpt:

RADDATZ: OK, I want to talk about Venezuela. The Pentagon is now sending a carrier strike group. You know the massive amount of firepower on a carrier strike group. What is your take on what is happening with these suspected drug boats. Is it legal?

KELLY: It’s questionable. And the White House and the Department of Defense could not give us a logical explanation on how this is legal. They were tying themselves in knots trying to explain this. We had a lot of questions for them, both Democrats and Republicans. It was not a good meeting. It did not go well. They have a secret list of 20 something — 24 organizations that they have now authorized to use — use kinetic action against without the normal approach that we have for law enforcement. Hey, we don’t want drugs in this country, especially fentanyl. But all these drugs, we — we should be working really hard to interdict them and prosecute the individuals that are smuggling drugs, not putting young service members at great, legal jeopardy.

Note: ABC omitted Kelly’s word “jeopardy” from the transcript even though it was clearly audible in the broadcast.

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Trump Orders U.S. Military Strike on Drug Boat, Killing 11 Tren de Aragua Terrorists in Warning to Traffickers

On direct orders from President Donald Trump, U.S. military forces launched a precision strike on a drug-laden vessel in international waters, killing 11 Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists en route to the United States. Trump declared the operation a clear warning to traffickers that those who smuggle poison toward American shores will face swift and lethal consequences.

“Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” President Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States.

The president included a video showing an aerial view of the panga boat. At the 20-second mark in the video, the boat explodes and bursts into flames. The boat quickly sank.

The commander-in-chief added, “The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action. No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE! Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!!!!!!!!!”

Breitbart News contacted the Pentagon for additional information regarding what type of munitions and delivery platforms were utilized in the attack. A senior U.S. Defense official responded, saying, “As the President announced today, we can confirm the U.S. military conducted a precision strike against a drug vessel operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization. More information will be made available at a later time.”

The White House reposted the president’s Truth Social comments, adding, “Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!”

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Venezuela Asks U.N. to Help Stop American Anti-Drug Efforts in Caribbean

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil on Tuesday called for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to help “restore common sense” and stop the United States’ ongoing efforts to combat drug cartels in Caribbean international waters — which the Venezuelan narco-state deems a “threat.”

Gil met with U.N. Resident Coordinator in Venezuela Gianluca Rampolla on Tuesday. According to the regime’s main propaganda outlet, VTV, the officials “debated the threats facing Latin America and the Caribbean from the United States.”  Secretary-General Guterres has not publicly commented on Venezuela’s request at press time.

“We request the support of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to restore common sense. In this regard, we share our concerns about the deployment of US military units and even nuclear weapons in the Caribbean, which threatens peace,” Gil wrote on his official Telegram account.

“In the face of false narratives, used as a pretext to justify aggression against Venezuela, we confirm that the 2025 World Drug Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) has ratified Venezuela as a territory free of illicit crops. Furthermore, the efforts of the Bolivarian Government have been duly certified by the UNDOC,” he continued.

Gil’s meeting with Rampolla and his request to Guterres come days after the administration of President Donald Trump increased its efforts to combat drug trafficking in the region and curb the flow of drugs entering the United States. Reports published this month indicated that the U.S. deployed three Aegis guided-missile destroyers and reportedly “about 4,000 sailors and Marines” to Caribbean international waters to fight against local drug trafficking organizations. Subsequent reports published this week detailed that the United States deployed the USS Lake Erie guided missile cruiser and the USS Newport News, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, to reinforce the U.S.’s ongoing efforts. Both are reportedly expected to arrive in the region by early next week.

Socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and members of his authoritarian regime have condemned the United States’ ongoing drug-fighting efforts in the Caribbean and have repeatedly insisted, without evidence, that the United States’s actions are instead part of a purported plot to “invade” Venezuela and oust Maduro from power.

Maduro is actively wanted by the United States on multiple narco-terrorism charges and stands accused of being a leading figure of the Cartel of the Suns, a U.S.-identified Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) led by top leading members of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the Venezuelan military. Interior Minister and long-suspected drug lord Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López also stand accused by U.S. authorities of leading the Cartel of the Suns and are wanted on multiple narco-terrorism charges. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced this month that the United States doubled its bounty on information that can lead to Maduro’s arrest from $25 million to $50 million.

In recent days, Maduro has ordered a series of “preparations” for the alleged American “invasion” and launched a campaign to enlist civilians into the Bolivarian Militia that local and international outlets widely reported as a failure. On Tuesday, Defense Minister López claimed that Venezuela would also deploy “large ships” to “combat drug trafficking” in Caribbean waters.

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Venezuelan influencer killed after accusing the Tren de Aragua and naming High-Ranking Chavismo officials.

On the night of June 22, riel Jesús Sarmiento Rodríguez, a brave 25-year-old Venezuelan influencer, was brutally murdered in his home in El Piñonal, Maracay, while livestreaming on TikTok.

Jesús Sarmiento Rodríguez, a brave 25-year-old Venezuelan influencer, was brutally murdered in his home in El Piñonal, Maracay, while livestreaming on TikTok.

Two armed men broke into his home, shooting him at least nine times and seriously injuring his mother with a shot to the abdomen. The crime, captured in real time, has shocked Venezuela and exposes the rot of a system where organized crime and political power appear deeply intertwined.

Sarmiento, known on TikTok as @unleacks, was a programmer and cybersecurity analyst who used his platform with 80,000 followers to denounce police corruption and the links between Chavista regime officials and criminal gangs such as the Tren de Aragua and the Tren del Llano.

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