{"id":69397,"date":"2026-01-03T11:22:58","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/?p=69397"},"modified":"2026-01-05T11:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T17:43:15","slug":"ding-dong-maduros-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.battleswarmblog.com\/?p=69397","title":{"rendered":"Ding Dong Maduro’s Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s always a pleasure to wake up to find another communist dictatorship dumped into the dustbin of history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

President Trump announced early Saturday morning that U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife during a \u201clarge scale strike against Venezuela,\u201d a dramatic conclusion to Trump\u2019s months-long pressure campaign to oust the socialist dictator.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Trump\u2019s announcement, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Maduro and his wife had been indicted in the Southern District of New York on drug trafficking and firearm charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,\u201d Bondi said of Maduro and his wife.<\/p>\n

Venezuelan officials did not immediately release casualty numbers but said that the operation did result in Venezuelan deaths.<\/p>\n

Trump administration officials have long argued that Maduro, who seized power in 2013, is an illegitimate ruler and is responsible for trafficking vast quantities of cocaine into the U.S. He was indicted in 2020 in the U.S. on charges that he was the active leader of a drug cartel known as Cartel de los Soles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite the surge in socialism among the Democratic Party’s ideological core, it’s long been a bipartisan<\/i> foreign policy position that Maduro’s regime is illegitimate. The Biden regime considered Maduro’s regime illegitimate<\/a>, with then Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognizing opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the legitimate winner of the 2024 Presidential election<\/a>, just as the Trump45 Administration and the Organization of American States had previously recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate President of Venezuela<\/a> in 2019. <\/p>\n

Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2019s only public comment on the operation consists of a reposted social message, originally published in July of last year, stating that \u201cMaduro is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pentagon has been amassing warships, troops, and air assets in the Caribbean since August and has attacked many small vessels which Pentagon officials insist were carrying drugs, killing at least 115 people. The U.S. has also seized two Venezuelan oil tankers in recent weeks, disrupting the Maduro regime\u2019s main source of revenue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though reports seem light on military details, Suchomimus has video footage of airstrikes hitting military targets in Caracas, noting the presence of Chinook helicopters over the city:<\/p>\n