Venezuelans take to the streets to protest against Trump shortly after their president, Nicolas Maduro, was kidnapped.

Comments by Brian Shilhavy

By now everyone has seen the news that President Trump sent a special forces unit into Caracas, Venezuela to capture President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and son.

It has taken me a couple of days to research all sides of this story before I could comment on it.

For those who mainly get their news from U.S. sources, let’s clear up one false claim that some in the U.S. media have been stating, which is that Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez participated with the U.S. in Maduro’s capture, and was installed as President to replace Maduro by the U.S.

This did not happen.

In fact, Delcy Rodríguez has condemned the actions of the U.S., declaring that Nicolás Maduro is still the president of Venezuela, and it was her own country’s Supreme Court that appointed her as interim president. Her first speech after this event is mostly available on social media, but I did find one copy on YouTube that I will post here.

She blamed Zionist forces as being behind the kidnapping of their president.

The CIA has been trying to overthrow the Maduro presidency for at least a decade, unsuccessfully, because he enjoys widespread support in his own country.

But this is relatively unknown in the U.S., because the richest Venezuelans live mostly in Miami, Florida, where they try to control the narrative.

Even the Trump administration apparently has not coordinated their narrative, as Secretary of State Rubio called this a “police action” and not a declaration of war. But Trump very quickly dropped the “this is all about illegal drugs” narrative and clearly stated that this was about Venezuelan oil, promising that U.S. oil companies would take over the country’s oil reserves.

Pepe Escobar is a Latino journalist from Brazil who covers international geopolitical news, and he states that those loyal to Maduro in Venezuela are probably close to 98% of the population now, as they oppose U.S. intervention.

He states that at Maduro’s arraignment in New York, when Maduro stated:

“I am the President of Venezuela, and I consider myself a prisoner of war. I was captured in my house in Caracas“

that this became a rallying cry all across Latin America.

He published an opinion piece in Strategic Culture yesterday, giving the Latino perspective, and of course Pepe has a lot of friends on the ground in these places.

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Pepe did an interview earlier this morning that I listened to just before writing this article, where he discusses many of the points of his article. He also discusses the possibility that Russia and China allowed this to happen as a trap, and that Trump walked right into it.

Here is some more news coverage on this event.

Maduro says he’s a ‘prisoner of war’: Why that matters

Prisoners of war have rights that Maduro isn’t being afforded at present. by AlJazeera

Excerpts:

Two days after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, 63, was abducted by special forces of the United States during an operation in the Latin American country, he appeared in a courthouse in New York.

On Monday, Maduro pleaded not guilty to federal charges, including narcoterrorism and conspiring to import cocaine. In a blue and orange prison uniform, he listened to the indictment filed by prosecutors against him and his codefendants, including his wife and son.

The Trump administration has framed Maduro’s abduction as a law enforcement operation, arguing that congressional approval was not needed.

But in court, Maduro insisted that he was a “prisoner of war” (POW).

“I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country,”

he said through an interpreter, before he was cut off by US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan federal court.

If Maduro is indeed a POW, then protections under international law apply to him.

The Third Geneva Convention of 1949 mandates humane treatment, respect and protection for POWs.

According to the convention, a POW can be tried and sentenced in another country, particularly the detaining power, but only for certain crimes such as war crimes.

Maduro, however, has been charged with narcotics-related offences, not with war crimes.

And in general, the Third Geneva Convention requires that POWs must be returned “without delay” to their nation as soon as the conflict ends.

“According to President Trump, Maduro is a prisoner of war because Trump declared Maduro had initiated war against the United States via drug trafficking leading to overdose deaths. That would mean the Geneva Conventions would apply but which Trump will certainly disregard,” Fein said.

Full Article.

Zionist GOP Megadonor Paul Singer Stands to Make Billions Off Venezuela Regime Change Op

by Chris Menahan InformationLiberation

Excerpts:

The US sanctioned Venezuelan state-owned oil company Citgo into bankruptcy, forced its sale to Zionist billionaire Paul Singer for about $6 billion two months ago, and then captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to “take over” the country.

From The Wall Street Journal, “Citgo Is a Crown Jewel of Venezuela’s Oil Industry. Elliott Is Set to Reap the Benefits.”:

For [Paul Singer’s] activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, Nicolás Maduro’s swift exit comes at an auspicious time.

A U.S. judge in November backed a roughly $6 billion bid by Elliott for Citgo Petroleum, the refining firm owned by Venezuela’s state-run company Petróleos de Venezuela, known as PdVSA, in a forced sale to satisfy creditors. Citgo, based in Houston, owns a U.S. network of refineries, pipelines and terminals that some analysts have said could be worth between $11 billion and $13 billion.

The deal was controversial in Venezuela. Maduro’s government denounced the proposed sale as fraudulent. The board recognized by the U.S. government as the legitimate overseer of PdVSA’s overseas oil assets vowed to fight to keep Citgo under Venezuelan control.

Less than two months after receiving the judge’s endorsement, Elliott is looking at a more favorable—albeit chaotic—landscape. Maduro is being held in a New York jail. President Trump has sidelined the opposition, accused Venezuela of stealing American crude and said U.S. firms would be strongly involved in its oil industry.

Now, Elliott appears poised to reap the rewards of owning Venezuela’s most valuable foreign oil asset. The regime change could lead to an increase in Venezuelan oil production, which would likely provide cheap feedstock to Citgo’s Gulf Coast refineries and increase the company’s value, analysts and refining experts said.

“Maduro is out, so a lot of the threat is out,” said Jay Auslander, a litigator who represents sovereign interests and private-equity funds. “It looks like a potentially quite good deal that remains high risk.”

Elliott isn’t in the clear yet. The hedge fund still needs approval from the Treasury Department to conclude the deal. Plus, PdVSA and Venezuela have appealed the judicial sale.

“In 2024, Singer, an 81-year-old with a net worth of $6.7 billion, donated $5 million to Make America Great Again Inc., Trump’s Super PAC. Singer donated tens of millions more in the 2024 cycle to support Trump’s allies, including $37 million to support the election of Republicans to Congress. He also donated an undisclosed amount to fund Trump’s second transition,” Judd Legum reports.

Full article.

Ironically, Trump did NOT back the Zionist María Corina Machado, the main political opposition leader against Maduro, who just won the Nobel Peace Prize that Trump thought he should have won. Trump acknowledged that she did not have wide support among her own people.

So today, in an apparent desperate attempt, she offered to “share” the Nobel Peace Prize with Trump.

Venezuela’s Machado says she wants to share Nobel Peace Prize with Trump

Excerpts from euronews:

María Corina Machado said toppling of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was a “huge step for humanity, for freedom and human dignity”.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said on Monday she wants to share her Nobel Peace Prize with US President Donald Trump and personally thank him following his administration’s military intervention in Venezuela.

Machado said she had not spoken to the US president since 10 October, the day when she was announced as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The 58-year-old was awarded the prize after mounting the most serious peaceful challenge in years to Maduro’s government.

Although Trump called Machado in October to congratulate her on winning the Nobel prize, US media reported that he was displeased about the fact that she had accepted the much-coveted award rather than declining it and giving it to him.

Machado’s interview with Fox News came days after Trump rejected the idea of working with her.

“I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader,” Trump said of Machado.

“She doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”

Full article.

China was perhaps the first country to comment and claim that Donald Trump was renewing the Monroe Doctrine, with his threats now to take over Greenland and perhaps all of the Americas.

“Overthrowing the Maduro government has long been an objective pursued by the US, but capturing a sitting head of state in this manner is highly unusual and can be described as reckless,” Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Saturday.

“It not only violates international law, but also lacks any legal basis under US domestic law.”

“This is a declaration of the revival of a new Monroe Doctrine and an assertion of US hegemony in the Western Hemisphere,” Lü added. (Source.)

So now the term “Donroe Doctrine” seems to be appearing everywhere.

And this from the man who claims he should have won the Nobel Peace Award.

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Via https://healthimpactnews.com/2026/venezuelans-unite-against-trump-and-zionism-as-maduro-claims-to-be-a-prisoner-of-war/