Update from the Heartland
No.1251
29.12.25 – 4.1.26
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
At 02:01 [Q] Atlantic Standard Time (AST), Saturday, 3.January.2026, U.S. Special Forces, presumably and initially reported as a unit of Delta Force, executed Operation ABSOLUTE RESOLVE, a ‘snatch & grab’ action within the presidential compound in Caracas, Venezuela. By 04:29 [Q], U.S. forces departed Venezuela with Maduro President Nicolás Maduro Moros and his second wife, Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro, in custody under an arrest warrant, charging drug and weapons violations of U.S. law. They took the captured president offshore to the USS Iwo Jima. In support of the capture operation, other U.S. forces hit and disabled various air defense and command & control facilities in and around Caracas. No U.S. casualties were reported in Operation ABSOLUTE RESOLVE. An estimated 50 Venezuelan government and civilian were killed or injured. A full damage assessment has not been made public.
I do not know the validity of the arrest warrant issued for Maduro and Flores. That will be up to the courts to decide.
I will confess my confliction on this one. There is little question that Maduro, and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, ruined Venezuela, forcing many of the nation’s intellectual brain trust to flee the country. Venezuela would be far better off using the Gulf States as a model for distributing oil revenue wealth rather than the Cuban or Russian model, rampant with corruption. However, that is for the Venezuelan people to decide, not Chavez/Maduro. As a consequence, I am encouraged to see Maduro removed. However, what I do not see is the justification for the United States to violate the sovereignty of another nation because we do not like their leader.
The worst aspect of it all, our president has a long, sordid history of lying, exaggeration, misinformation, and otherwise obfuscating everything from small to big, simple to complex. We cannot trust a word he says. If he is speaking, he is probably lying. And, as if that is not bad enough, he chose and the Republican sycophants in Congress confirmed a bevy of cabinet officers, who do nothing but say, ‘yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full.’ We have no basis to trust a word any of them say or do. We cannot trust anything coming from this administration, which means another nation and people must pay a heavy price I would not be surprised if they are making everything up as they go. Until we see the legal basis for this kidnapping tested in court before a federal judge, we do not know whether Operation ABSOLUTE RESOLVE was (is) a legal action.
If Maduro/Flores are guilty as accused, and the charges are validated in a proper court of law with a conviction, then I will say good-on the administration for bringing a criminal to justice. What diminishes the validity of this action is the president’s unilateral “full and complete pardon” to former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been convicted and imprisoned on drug trafficking charges. The message to us—John Q Citizen—this president only cares about those people who support him or give him money.
As other contributors to this humble forum have written, the U.S. actions against Venezuela were not about drugs, but all about oil. The orange one and his minions see money in the oil reserves of Venezuela. Now, the orange one is claiming Venezuelan oil production capacity belongs to us, and we are taking it back. He is apparently referring to the days when the “Seven Sisters” dominated oil production around the world until the mid-1970s, when oil producing countries nationalized their oil production. Venezuela was among those nations; their indigenous oil fields were nationalized on 1.January.1976. The obvious question is, does the Felon-in-Chief intend to depose all governments that nationalized oil production owned by U.S. companies?
All that put together . . . a different, disturbing picture emerges. The use of extra-judicial murder on the high seas was simply an excuse, a prelude, to the real reason for this string of USG actions against Venezuela. It appears there was only one actual reason—money. Does anyone want to take a bet that the orange one will not try to put his name on his new acquisition?
Comments and contributions from Update no.1250:
Comment to the Blog:
“CBS News is a real loss to ethical journalism. While the Sharyn Alfonsi’s story on the CECOT prison showed up immediately via multiple sources, Agent Orange’s soldier, Bari Weiss, will find ways to prevent good journalists from doing their jobs in the future. Losing the 60 Minutes program harms all of American journalism.
“I’m sad to see the West Coast devastated by these atmospheric rivers, as I was to see the wildfires the scars of which now make the rains’ effects worst. Climate change proceeds apace.
“Agent Orange uses social media, which really is ‘something new under the sun.’ He seems not to realize that the multitude of us can use it to force the truth on (relatively) traditional media. Prior dictators’ mouthpieces had far less feedback from ordinary people, and Agent Orange doesn’t like it one bit. Besides his personality issues, he probably fears we’ll force media attention on the victims of his violent crimes. People will be more outraged by that than by the theft of their own money.”
My response to the Blog:
Oh my, you got that right! Tragic actually. They used to be the standard for broadcast journalism. I absolutely agree. Terrible loss . . . and all to serve the orange one’s ego.
I am with you on that one. On the positive side, all this precipitation is putting a good dent in the drought that has choked California’s agriculture.
Good observation about social media and the orange one. The blade cuts both ways. I would like to see more generals speaking out, but they would be subject to the same processes as Senator Mark Kelly is facing—recall and court-martial to satisfy the orange one’s sense of vengeance.
. . . and, we are not even to the one-year mark.
. . . Round two:
“I need to look up the level of Lake Mead. The rains might have given them a reprieve for a year or two.”
. . . my response to round two:
I did look up Lake Mead’s water level. It has come up but is currently 166 feet below full pool. My comment was not about Lake Mead. It was about California’s drought situation. If you look at the national drought map. The current map shows the whole of California to be drought free now. The state’s reservoirs are apparently full. Whatever the current situation is, one thing is certain—it is not permanent.
. . . Round three:
“Now I get your point. California produces a great deal of food; drought there is a concern for all of us. I hope they can maintain good water levels, but I also doubt they will. Lake Mead is a related issue. I noticed that Ohio has more and more serious drought than California at the moment. It's in some of our best agricultural land, too. Water is more and more of an issue as the climate changes.”
. . . my response to round three:
Regardless of the internal California water supply, the southern part of the state is a major consumer of water from the Colorado River—Lakes Mead and Powell. Water will remain an issue for all of us regardless of the reservoir levels. Climate change will only exacerbate any local situation. We all need to pay attention to protect our water and food supply.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
