7:36h · 3. Jan. 2026 - BREAKING: Explosions have been heard and plumes of smoke are rising in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, according to an Al Jazeera correspondent there, amid spiralling tensions with the US.
7:43h · 3. Jan. 2026 - BREAKING: Massive U.S. airstrikes against military targets in Caracas, Venezuela. Dozens of U.S. helicopters are flying above the Venezuelan capital city.
https://www.derstandard.at/story/300000 ... ure-maduroTHE NEW YORK TIMES
Inside 'Operation Absolute Resolve,' the U.S. Effort to Capture Maduro
The tactically precise operation successfully extracted Mr. Maduro with no loss of American life, a result heralded by President Trump amid larger questions about the legality and rationale for the U.S. actions in Venezuela
Man muss zugeben, dass das in Planung und Ausführung ein beeindruckender Einsatz war, zudem kaum ein Land auf diesem Planeten fähig gewesen wäre. Es ist allerdings auch festzustellen, dass diese enormen Fähigkeiten Instrumente einer US Regierung sind, die das Völkerrecht und die eigene Verfassung nach belieben auslegen, um ihre Interessen durchzusetzen. Maduro war sicherlich ein Diktator und auch von der EU nicht als legitimer Präsident anerkannt. Das die USA nun bis auf weiteres die Kontrolle über das Land - oder eigentlich der Ölindustrie Venezuelas - übernehmen möchten, ist ein klares Zeichen dafür, um was es der Trump-Regierung eigentlich geht.In August, a clandestine team of CIA officers slipped into Venezuela with a plan to collect information on Nicolás Maduro, the country’s president, whom the Trump administration had labeled a narco-terrorist.
The CIA team moved about Caracas, the capital, remaining undetected for months while it was in the country. Intelligence gathered about the Venezuelan leader’s daily movements — combined with a human source close to Maduro and a fleet of stealth drones flying secretly above enabled the agency to map out minute details about his routines...
The result was a tactically precise and swiftly executed operation that extracted Maduro from his country with no loss of American life...
Trump has justified what was named Operation Absolute Resolve as a strike against drug trafficking...
In the run-up, Delta Force commandos rehearsed the extraction inside a full-scale model of Maduro’s compound that the Joint Special Operations Command had built in Kentucky. They practiced blowing through steel doors at ever faster paces...
In the days before the raid, the United States deployed increasing numbers of Special Operations aircraft, specialized electronic warfare planes, armed Reaper drones, search-and-rescue helicopters and fighter jets to the region last-minute reinforcements that analysts said indicated the only question was when military action would happen, not if...
Trump had authorized the U.S. military to go ahead as early as Dec. 25, but left the precise timing to Pentagon officials and Special Operations planners to ensure that the attacking force was ready, and that conditions on the ground were optimal...
The U.S. military wanted to conduct the operation during the holiday period because many government officials were on vacation and because significant numbers of Venezuelan military personnel were on leave, according to a U.S. official...
The operation officially got underway around 4:30 p.m. Friday, when U.S. officials gave the first set of approvals to launch certain assets into the air...
The president’s aides told him that they would be calling him later that evening, around 10:30 p.m., for the final approval. Trump did so by phone, then joined his senior national security officials in a secure location on the property...
Inside Venezuela, the operation began with a cyber operation that cut power to large swaths of Caracas, shrouding the city in darkness to allow the planes, drones and helicopters to approach undetected...
More than 150 military aircraft, including drones, fighter planes and bombers, took part in the mission, taking off from 20 different military bases and Navy ships...
Early Saturday morning, thunderous explosions boomed across Caracas as U.S. warplanes struck at radar and air defense batteries. While some of the explosions posted on social media looked dramatic, a U.S. official said that they were mostly radar installations and radio transmission towers being taken out...
At least 40 people were killed in Saturday’s attack attack on Venezuela, including military personnel and civilians, according to a senior Venezuelan official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe preliminary reports...
Even though Venezuelan air defenses were suppressed, the U.S. helicopters came under fire as they moved in on Maduro’s compound at about 2:01 a.m. local time. Caine said the helicopters responded with "overwhelming force."...
One of the helicopters was hit. Two U.S. officials said that about half a dozen soldiers were injured in the overall operation.
The Delta Force operators assigned to capture Maduro were whisked to their target on Venezuela’s most fortified military base by an elite Army Special Operations aviation unit, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which flies modified MH-60 and MH-47 helicopters...
The 160th, nicknamed the Night Stalkers, specializes in high-risk, low-level and nighttime missions including insertions, extractions and raids. The unit conducted what the Pentagon called training missions near the coast of Venezuela in recent months...
Once on the ground, Delta Force moved quickly through the building to find Maduro...
The U.S. official said Special Operations forces took three minutes after blowing open the door to move through the building to Maduro’s location...
Trump said that once the Special Operations forces made it through the compound to Maduro’s room, the Venezuelan leader and his wife tried to escape into a steel-reinforced room, but were stopped by U.S. forces...
About five minutes after entering the building, Delta Force reported that they had Maduro in custody.
The military was accompanied by an FBI hostage negotiator in case Maduro had locked himself in a safe room or refused to surrender...
By 4:29 a.m. Caracas time, Maduro and his wife were transferred to the USS Iwo Jima, a U.S. warship in the Caribbean stationed about 100 miles off the coast of Venezuela during the operation...
The couple was transferred from the Iwo Jima to the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, where the FBI had a 757 government plane waiting to bring him to a military-controlled airport north of New York City...
Trump said that the United States was prepared to conduct a second wave of attacks against Venezuela, but that he did not think it would be necessary. He issued a warning to other Venezuelan leaders: He would be willing to come after them, as well.
A. Western Hemisphere: The Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region. We will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere. This “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine is a common-sense and potent restoration of American power and priorities, consistent with American security interests.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u ... rategy.pdfThe United States must reconsider our military presence in the Western Hemisphere. This means four obvious things:
[...]
- A readjustment of our global military presence to address urgent threats in our Hemisphere, especially the missions identified in this strategy, and away from theaters whose relative import to American national security has declined in recent decades or years;
- Targeted deployments to secure the border and defeat cartels, including where necessary the use of lethal force to replace the failed law enforcement-only strategy of the last several decades; and
- Establishing or expanding access in strategically important locations.
https://www.southcom.mil/Media/Special- ... -Congress/Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey, commander of U.S. Southern Command, testified before the House Armed Services Committee on April 1, 2025, and the Senate Armed Services Committee Feb. 13, 2025, as part of the command’s annual Posture Statement to Congress.
The LAC region is on the front lines of a decisive and urgent contest to define the future of our world. China is assailing U.S. interests from all directions, in all domains, and increasingly in the Caribbean archipelago – a potential offensive island chain. Failure to adequately compete here and now “will leave the region under the influence of America’s chief authoritarian rivals,” which directly threatens the “US shift to the Indo-Pacific...jeopardizing freedom of maneuver, access, and influence in our near-abroad.”
The region is home to abundant natural resources, including 20 percent of the world’s oil reserves, 25 percent of its strategic metals, 30 percent of its forest area, 31 percent of its fishing areas and 32 percent of its renewable freshwater resources. Economics plays a central role in China’s interest in the region. Understanding this, China has used its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to become South America’s largest trading partner and second largest in Central America and the Caribbean.
Winning the strategic competition with China in the Western Hemisphere is essential to securing the defense of our homeland, maintaining regional stability, and advancing U.S. national interests. Increasing Chinese presence creates vulnerabilities and a potential ability to exploit global chokepoints – such as the Panama Canal, sea lines of communication, space, and supply chains – in future conflicts. Moreover, the malign activities, harmful influence, and autocratic philosophy of China are a direct threat to the democratic will of this region’s people.
Russia’s malign activities in the Western Hemisphere have global security consequences as it seeks to “position itself at the heart of a new world order.” Moscow views strategic competition in the region as analogous to that in Europe and is engaged in a campaign to challenge United States leadership and influence. Consequently, Russia seeks to undermine the U.S. regional interests, support like-minded authoritarian regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and foster stronger relations with other potentially receptive nations. To do so, Moscow leverages malign propaganda, military engagements, arms sales, and force projection, along with diplomatic and economically coercive practices to demonstrate its global reach.
https://www.southcom.mil/Portals/7/Docu ... 6wKQ%3D%3DAlthough the theocratic regime works primarily with Venezuela on the diplomatic and military front to provide drones and warships to Caracas, it also has expanded security cooperation with Bolivia. Iran has provided drones and river boats to Bolivia, and it has assisted Bolivia with cybersecurity matters and participated in combined military training exercises. Iran has expanded overtures to Brazil, and in January 2024 joined BRICS. In 2023, Brazil was the only country in the region to permit Iran’s 86th Surface Action Group to make a port call, allowing the vessels to stay for a week before continuing its 8-month mission to circumnavigate the globe.
Iranian partner Lebanese Hizballah (LH) has had a presence in Latin America since the 1980s. The group has plotted attacks against targets in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Panama, and Peru. LH launders money, extorts local populations, and profits from drug trafficking, primarily in the tri-border area between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.
Senator MCCORMICK. [...] To make matters worse, as has been discussed, the Chinese Communist Party has stepped into that vacuum left by uninterested leaders in Washington to expand its activity and influence in Latin America.
And for Beijing the calculation simple—gain access to resources and critical infrastructure to support the CCP’s global ambitions while undermining the influence and economic priorities of the United States in its own backyard.
This cannot continue, and that is why I am so glad that Secretary Rubio and the Trump administration have focused on these challenges.
Senator SCOTT OF FLORIDA. [...] Let us see, the Castro regime still controls Cuba. Venezuela just stole another election. Ortega is getting stronger in Nicaragua. Petro is a terrorist. Name it. Lula is trying to destroy Brazil. I do not know—did we help Milei get elected? I do not think so.
https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/medi ... sphere.pdfRESPONSES OF DR . JOSEPH LEDFORD TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY SENATOR JOHN CORNYN
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Question. How can we better elucidate the harms of overreliance on the PRC in the minerals sector to our neighbors in the Western Hemisphere, and encourage de-risking and collaboration with the United States in the critical minerals sector?
Answer. Containing the world’s largest copper and lithium deposits, as well as vast reserves of silver, tin, zinc, nickel, bauxite, graphite, gold, and rare earth elements, Latin America has enormous potential for economic growth by contributing to the global energy and technology sectors. To facilitate such growth while reducing the region’s reliance on China, the United States must develop an effective public diplomacy campaign in conjunction with a novel policy agenda for developing, expanding, and securing the critical minerals sector throughout the Americas.
[...]
Launching an ‘‘all that glitters is not gold’’ public diplomacy campaign would prove useful in highlighting how China’s predatory involvement in Latin America’s critical mineral sector will not result, over the long term, in desirable economic benefits, especially given China’s hostile behavior and willingness to use economic coercion. Through media, events, and diplomatic engagements, this campaign should drive the message that the investments and profits from China today undermine Latin America’s economy and sovereignty tomorrow.
Due to recent legislation, a statutory requirement exists for a public diplomacy initiative in the Western Hemisphere, which offers a framework for the Trump administration. The Western Hemisphere Partnership Act (P.L. 118–159), enacted in December 2024 via the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025, mandates a comprehensive 5-year strategy that contains a public diplomacy component. In crafting this strategy, the Trump administration should include a multi-year plan for encouraging America’s neighbors to engage in hemispheric partnerships to further the region’s critical mineral industry without a reliance on Chinese investment and purchasing.
[...]
With varying degrees of risk and sizable reserves, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, and Peru possess critical mineral industries worthy of American investment. The United States must commit to initiatives that channel private capital into these nations’ critical mineral sectors to spur development and secure the regional supply chain.
Such programs can incentivize American investment in exploration, refineries, and infrastructure. The United States is now pursuing an economic program in the Americas that would catalyze it. Under America Crece 2.0, the Trump administration seeks to facilitate investments in energy and infrastructure from US private capital.
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/p ... 3585-1.pdfThese findings are significant for both DHS and DoD, given the former’s counterterrorism mandate in Latin America and the latter’s strategic interests in the region. Hezbollah’s evolving presence warrants careful consideration from defense planners to effectively address potential challenges to U.S. interests and regional stability.
The Netherlands is scaling back its participation in U.S.-led counter-drug missions in the Caribbean, a reaction to the rising death toll from American military attacks on vessels suspected of being used to smuggle narcotics.
Speaking Monday evening in Aruba, Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said Dutch forces would continue drug interdiction within Dutch territorial waters, but would not use its naval “station ship” for interdictions on the high seas linked to the U.S. Operation Southern Spear.
The operation, launched in September, has killed more than 100 people in over 20 attacks on boats that the U.S. says were ferrying drugs.
“We have worked together with the Americans on counter-narcotics for many years, but in a different way,” Brekelmans said. “When we see drug smuggling, we try to arrest and prosecute those responsible. Not by shooting ships.”
The move was first reported by the Dutch daily Trouw.
A spokesperson for the Dutch defense ministry told POLITICO that cooperation with the United States has not been completely discontinued, noting that the Netherlands “has been working with the United States and other partners for many years” through Joint Interagency Task Force South.
What has changed, the spokesperson said, is the role of the Dutch station ship, which is currently being deployed for monitoring the regional security situation rather than being used for drug missions.
“Where necessary, it supports the Caribbean Coast Guard in counter-drug operations in the territorial waters of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom,” the spokesperson said.
Brekelmans made clear the Netherlands would not provide facilities, helicopters or other support if requested for Southern Spear, Washington's operation to target alleged drug vessels north of the Venezuelan coast.
“Outside our territorial waters, we see that the Americans have now chosen a national route again,” he said. “The method and the operation the United States is carrying out now, they are really doing that themselves. We are not participating in that.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/netherl ... -tensions/Brekelmans said there is no current military threat from Venezuela toward the Dutch Caribbean islands, but noted that rising tensions can affect regional stability.
“We must always be prepared for different scenarios,” he said, noting that rising tensions can affect airspace and regional stability. “But you also have to look realistically at what the actual threats are.”
Artikel 110
Recht zum Betreten
(1) Abgesehen von den Fällen, in denen ein Eingreifen auf vertraglich begründeten Befugnissen beruht, darf ein Kriegsschiff, das auf Hoher See einem fremden Schiff begegnet, ausgenommen ein Schiff, das nach den Artikeln 95 und 96 vollständige Immunität genießt, dieses nur anhalten, wenn begründeter Anlaß für den Verdacht besteht, daß
a) das Schiff Seeräuberei betreibt;
b) das Schiff Sklavenhandel betreibt;
c) das Schiff nicht genehmigte Rundfunksendungen verbreitet und der Flaggenstaat des Kriegsschiffs nach Artikel 109 Gerichtsbarkeit hat;
d) das Schiff keine Staatszugehörigkeit besitzt oder
e) das Schiff, obwohl es eine fremde Flagge führt oder sich weigert, seine Flagge zu zeigen, in Wirklichkeit dieselbe Staatszugehörigkeit wie das Kriegsschiff besitzt.
(2) In den in Absatz 1 vorgesehenen Fällen kann das Kriegsschiff die Berechtigung des Schiffes zur Flaggenführung überprüfen. Zu diesem Zweck kann es ein Boot unter dem Kommando eines Offiziers zu dem verdächtigen Schiff entsenden. Bleibt der Verdacht nach Prüfung der Dokumente bestehen, so kann es eine weitere Untersuchung an Bord des Schiffes vornehmen, die so rücksichtsvoll wie möglich durchzuführen ist.
(3) Erweist sich der Verdacht als unbegründet und hat das angehaltene Schiff keine den Verdacht rechtfertigende Handlung begangen, so ist ihm jeder Verlust oder Schaden zu ersetzen.
(4) Diese Bestimmungen gelten sinngemäß für Militärluftfahrzeuge.
(5) Diese Bestimmungen gelten auch für jedes andere ordnungsgemäß befugte Schiff oder Luftfahrzeug, das deutlich als im Staatsdienst stehend gekennzeichnet und als solches erkennbar ist.
and we're going to distribute those funds to the interim authorities in Venezuela and align that with incentives to improve [...] the criminality
