Venezuela's Maduro Captured: Will Be Tried in USA

CNN: Venezuela president Maduro captured and flown out of country after ‘large scale’ US strike, says Trump

“Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been captured and flown out of Venezuela after the US carried out a large-scale strike on the capital city of Caracas, US President Donald Trump announced in a post on social media. Trump said there will be a news conference today at 11 a.m. ET.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi says Maduro has been indicted in New York on drugs and weapons charges. Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a GOP senator Maduro will stand trial in the US and that he anticipates no further action.”

also CNN: The Nobel Prize laureate at heart of opposition to Maduro

“Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado said in December that the days of the regime of Nicolás Maduro were numbered. She had just been smuggled out of Venezuela, days before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway.

Machado’s current whereabouts are unknown, and her spokesman has declined to comment on the events of the past 24 hours. But she will be a critical figure in any new order should the Maduro regime crumble, now that the president has been seized and removed to the United States.

Machado is 58 years old. She was born into a wealthy family and was first elected to the National Assembly in 2010. She once confronted Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez during a nationally televised session, telling him: “To expropriate is to steal.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee described her as “a brave and committed champion of peace … a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness.”

Machado said in her speech accepting the Nobel prize that during 16 months in hiding the opposition had “built new networks of civic pressure and disciplined disobedience, preparing for Venezuela’s orderly transition to democracy.”

“I will stand again on the Simón Bolívar Bridge, where I once cried among the thousands who were leaving, and welcome them back into the luminous life that awaits us,” Machado said.

“I’ll be back in Venezuela, I have no doubt,” she said in Oslo.

Machado has voiced support for the opposition candidate in the 2024 election González and said last month he had invited her to be vice-president in a democratic government. She added that “the vast majority” of the police and armed forces would follow the new administration’s orders once the political transition began.”

…As the world devolves into temporary chaos in the first half of 2026, a U.S. coup in Venezuela leading to fast regime change may be the best international news we will hear for many months. Expect the United States to revive the Monroe Doctrine of hegemony over the Americas, and to secure resources - not just oil - for America’s reindustrialization process. There will be a painful transition. We may even make a deal with China - you give up control of the Panama canal and other Latin American advantages, and we let you have Taiwan… (and who knows how that would affect the future dominance of high end computer chips, AI, and world domination.) Pieces are being moved into position for WWIII. Expect more changes in the Americas, wars in Taiwan, Iran and the Middle East, and even in the middle of Europe in 2026.