and 37 years ago on this day Manuel Noriega surrendered to US forces.The timing of Maduro's capture (Jan 3) also sends a strong symbolic message to Iran. It took place on the anniversary of Soleimani's assassination.
Six years ago on Jan 3rd 2020, Qasem Soleimani was killed by an American drone strike ordered by Trump.
I have strong feeling Iran will be next.The timing of Maduro's capture (Jan 3) also sends a strong symbolic message to Iran. It took place on the anniversary of Soleimani's assassination.
Six years ago on Jan 3rd 2020, Qasem Soleimani was killed by an American drone strike ordered by Trump.
nah from the photos, the envoy members really looked cluelessly happy, don't think too much into it, it makes no sense to send the envoy on such a mission had they known beforehand, but who cares, China never invested too deep into Venezuela other than oil, they knew that it's bit of a lost cause anyway, surprise (and very impressive nonetheless) move from the US, its a high risky but full on showmanship move that solves little and asks for more troubles, if the US really cared about capturing cartel criminals, kidnapping and incarcerating one couple doesn't do much, the whole corrupted system is still there intact (as of now), if they really want to bring some 'justice' at least copy a few things from how China handled Myanmar's Ming crime syndicates.Here is my 2 cents. If rumors were true and the Chinese envoy was talking with Maduro for three hours before the kidnapping, it's quite likely that they were working out terms of surrender. Its likely that China and US already agreed on the surrender of Maduro, and the US SoF were simply escorting him out. If China and Maduro agreed to resist, it wouldn't take them three hours to decide that. Recall 2022 Ukraine-Russia negotiations. It took both sides 3 days to agree on the terms, but only a 5 minute phone call from Boris Johnson to delete all that progress.
We'll see what happens to Maduro in the future. If he gets a slap-on-the-wrist treatment, then it's likely that everything was arranged beforehand.
As for the terms of the surrender and what China got out of it, I guess we'll see.
Its actually concerning if China had no clue at all about this operation. I'd think that chinese intel and their sats could at least catch and predict US force mobilization.nah from the photos, the envoy members really looked cluelessly happy, don't think too much into it, it makes no sense to send the envoy on such a mission had they known beforehand, but who cares, China never invested too deep into Venezuela other than oil, they knew that it's bit of a lost cause anyway, surprise (and very impressive nonetheless) move from the US, its a high risky but full on showmanship move that solves little and asks for more troubles, if the US really cared about capturing cartel criminals, kidnapping and incarcerating one couple doesn't do much, the whole corrupted system is still there intact (as of now), if they really want to bring some 'justice' at least copy a few things from how China handled Myanmar's Ming crime syndicates.