Whether one agrees or disagrees with the constitutional, legal and political aspects of “Operation Absolute Resolve,” the bravery and skills of our military, C.I.A. and law enforcement personnel executing this daring mission cannot be questioned.
The virtually flawless operation had been months in the planning by the U.S. military, the C.I.A and other agencies and included the insertion of a clandestine C.I.A. team in Venezuela, a Delta Force rehearsal of the extraction of strongman Nicolás Maduro and his wife inside an exact full-scale model of Maduro’s compound, and the use of “a fleet of stealth drones flying secretly above…to map out minute details about [Maduro’s] routines.”
In an audacious pre-dawn raid early Saturday morning, a fleet of more than 150 military aircraft, including F-35, F-22, and F/A-18 fighters, B-1B Lancer bombers, air refueling tankers, electronic counter measures aircraft, in addition to drones, quickly suppressed or overwhelmed Venezuela’s air and ground defenses, clearing the way for several MH-60 and MH-47 helicopters carrying Special Operations forces to proceed to Maduro’s compound and to accomplish their mission. Not a single American life or aircraft was lost. However, one of the helicopters was hit and about half-a-dozen soldiers were injured during the operation.
According to Venezuelan officials, at least 40 military personnel and civilians were killed in the attack.
Cuban authorities have subsequently reported that 32 Cuban personnel providing security for Maduro were killed during the attack.
The success of Operation Absolute Resolve is breathtaking and cannot be tarnished or diminished even by the dismal failure of the commander in chief to, in an address to the nation following the operation, provide the American people with a consistent and credible justification for the operation and, perhaps more important, with a plausible plan to deal with the days, weeks and months after this perfect military operation.
For weeks and months, President Trump, has been attacking Maduro with rhetoric and with piracy-like actions on the high seas, allegedly because of the dictator’s involvement in narcotics trade. This after having recently pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, the notorious drug kingpin and former president of Honduras, who was serving a 45-year prison sentence for smuggling more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.
The 25-page federal indictment against Maduro is replete with drug trafficking charges. Yet, in his address to the nation, Trump made it abundantly clear that his true interests lie not in eliminating the drug trade, not even in re-establishing democracy in that troubled country, but rather in Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, the largest in the world.
Interestingly, the indictment does not include a single charge against Maduro for “stealing” oil rights and assets from the U.S. and U.S. companies as Trump repeatedly claimed to be one of the reasons for the attack.
At the root of it all, Trump made clear, is oil, something that his critics had long claimed while the administration portrayed the months-long pressure campaign as principally about stopping the drug trade. Today, Trump didn’t hide his intent. The U.S. wants to revitalize Venezuela’s oil industry, with U.S. oil companies leading the charge…
While referring to oil, its value, and its potential benefits to U.S. oil companies more than a dozen times, the concept of true democracy for Venezuela is briefly addressed by Trump only once: “We want peace, liberty, and justice for the great people of Venezuela,” he says.
Regarding democracy, when asked about a successor to Maduro, Trump rejected Venezuelan democratic opposition leader María Corina Machado who received the Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for democracy in Venezuela, and who has a 72% approval rating from Venezuelans.
Nor does Trump seem to support Edmundo González for president, even though González was the legitimate winner of the 2024 election that Maduro threw out.
Instead, on Saturday, Trump said he would accept Venezuela’s Vice President and close Maduro ally Delcy Rodríguez to govern Venezuela. Only to, on Sunday, threaten her that she could “pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she “doesn’t do what’s right.”
As to what the plans are for “the day after,” frankly speaking, there are none, but the title of a Washington Post piece, “U.S. Plan to ‘Run’ Venezuela Clouded in Confusion” is quite an understatement.
And here’s hoping that The New Republic’s piece, “Trump Wants Stephen Miller to Have a Terrifying New Role in Venezuela,” is just cruel satire.
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Note: The number of non-U.S. casualties suffered during the attack has been updated.
