CNN team witnesses multiple explosions in Venezuela’s capital Caracas | CNN
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/03/americas/venezuela-explosions-intl-hnkOpen linkView original on feddit.org607
Comments116https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/03/americas/venezuela-explosions-intl-hnkOpen linkView original on feddit.org
Maduro has been kidnapped by US forces, this is insane
No it's still insane, just common and expected.
Don't forget the ungodly amounts of money that were probably laundered through his casinos. How large a cut do you think he got?
Hypernormalization is our enemy. This has never stopped being insane, but the intensity intensifies intensely by the day
Zero tears for Maduro tho
Might as well be commenting "he was no angel though" on a post about George Floyd
I don't see the comparison
He made a deal with Trump. Maduro has abandoned venezuela. You can't capture a national leader this easily unless they're compliant
I don't think "come or die" is really a deal.
Trump gets:
Maduro gets:
You get the oil and minerals because the next guy knows not to deny you when you ask
Yet, you mean? I don't know what to expect anymore, so nothing is out of the question
It'll be weird to watch. He just pardoned a convicted cartel boss that was the leader of a nation with the excuse that the leader of a nation wouldn't be involved in drug trafficking or murder.
It'll be a three ring circus and he'll probably lose since he can't even manage to successfully prosecute a single immigrant.
The replacement is little more than a US puppet. She will be indebted to Trump for as long as he remains in office, be it three more years, or for the rest of his life.
That has technically already happened. Maduro just refused to transfer power.
As far at the PR goes, Trump doesn't need PR anymore. His idiot base are unshakable. If he can get convicted of multiple felonies and still get elected, and then the Epstein files drop and implicate him and he still doesn't get brought up on impeachment charges, then there's no social ramifications for him any longer. Congress and the courts will protect him from run-of-the-mill abuses of power and scandals that would otherwise be devastating to a normal political figure. About the only thing he's in danger of is letting people starve, which will cause mass riots. As long as he can avoid total economic collapse, he'll be fine.
He has already claimed them and is talking more boots in the ground.
Nope.
https://apnews.com/live/trump-us-venezuela-updates-01-03-2026
Unless of course he made a deal and was immediately crossed.
that's a major hit to their ability to fight back right? Even if he wasn't collaborating losing a monolithic leader like would be a massive blow their ability to effectively resist.
Depends on whether anybody can quickly step in to fill the gap really
You do when you have our military.
As an American I fully condemn this, condemn the regime that ordered it, condemn the Military Officers that received orders to do this and didn't immediately resign, and fully hope that International consequences against the guilty parties will be forthcoming.
Who do you think owns those 10 years bonds? Its the capitalists, they already support this if it made them money.
Billionaires have no real country allegiance beyond what benefits them directly.
I mean, US citizens should have taken to the streets way before this.
We did, or are you calling for us to engaged in an armed uprising?
Have two or three big protests in a year is not "taking to the streets". It's performative bullshit.
So you're wanting us to engage in an armed uprising. I see a lot of people outside the USA calling for this without understanding the social dynamics of the country.
I said nothing of the sort.
You did not refute my point you were wanting us to engage in an armed uprising, so you either didn't read the full comment or are just trying to play it off.
They have, repeatedly. Millions upon millions of them. The biggest protests EVER.
But you are free to come here and show us how it's done! Lead the way
Unless you're having big protests everyday, or at the least every weekend than you've accomplished nothing. If you don't get labor and other non-governmental organizations on your side to start shutting down broad swaths of the economy and society, they ignore you. It's not rocket science.
what percentage of your people are unionized?
In USA it's 10%, and most of those are ironically police and feds what an odd coincidence.
POLAND has better benefits than the USA, longer vacations, health care, and more. We've been surpassed by eastern Europe.
But Musk is a trillionaire yaaay
They've been bombed. Not just explosions, the child rapist asking for a nobel peace prize just bombed them. Nice way to start 2026... Here's hoping Venezuela becomes the cunt's Vietnam!
You want him to reinstate the draft‽
Low key yes. So many Americans have this "well it doesn't affect me" attitude.
What I've found so far: CNN has a team present in Caracas and witnessed the strikes.
(Some X account posted footage from the Iranian attack on Israel and claimed it to be Venezuela.)
Opinion:
So it's international agression then. Taking out air defense and inserting helicopters over the capital of another country is generally considered an act of war. I guess Trump thinks he needs a war for some reason. It might be smart to prevent him from getting a full-scale one - and the next best thing that might dissuade him might be casualties.
An extremely unpleasant side effect: unless Maduro stumbles and falls really quick, he's pretty much legitimizing Maduro and causing his supporters to consolidate around him. In the game of diplomacy, that's not the right move.
Some other countries would certainly benefit from Trump getting bogged down anywhere, in any country. Especially a large and technically sophisticated country which wants to annex an island well known for its electronic products would approve of the US going on adventures in random places and getting bogged down.
I can think of at least one
Only one?
Trump's Approval Rating Drops to 36%, New Second-Term Low
President Trump Quips About Canceling 2028 Elections If U.S. Is At War
Nah, at least one 😆
Trump is good friends with Saudis. The Saudis bring in billions every day because of their oil. Trump covets that, and wishes he had that.
Venezuela is sitting above the largest oil deposit on the planet. Trump wants it. If he can control Venezuela, he can control that oil, and be as rich as the Saudis.
It's always easy with Trump. Just follow the money.
Not always. Sometimes Trumps motivation is using the adoration of the crowd to fill the hole in his heart from not being love enough as a child. Expect him to be peacocking around in front of news cameras expecting everyone to gush over him.
Can't forget the need for petty revenge. He is a small, petty man.
Valid.
Valid.
It seems like those helicopters carried special forces that are now on the ground and doing what they are there to do.
It actually seems they hit the jackpot - they claim to have taken Maduro prisoner and claim to have taken him out of the country.
If all of that is true, I'm still not sure if I'm impressed by the operation. A loose grid of guys with shoulder-launched missiles on a few rooftops could have ruined absolutely all of it.
But if they got in without getting shot down, got Maduro and got out without getting shot down, then luck favoured them and war will hopefully not ensue.
Maduro had likely built everything on personal loyalty to himself. A normal country would continue fighting and delegate authority downward, but Maduro wasn't running a normal country, apparently.
Seems like everything went smooth and that Maduro is gone from power now. It is good that Maduro is gone but we'll see what happens with Venezuela now, hopefully it becomes better but I'm far from certain about that.
Since I find that my own optimism was premature (I should cross out my last paragraph), I will cool your optimism too. As much as I currently understand, Maduro is gone, but the ministers of interior and defense, and the vice president, are fine. The figurehead is gone, the regime is armed and retains power.
Didn't Trump say that US will take control over Venezuela for now? In that case I assume the regime will fall. But he says a lot of things, so who knows what that means? Maybe he made a deal with the vice president etc. that they can rule as long as he gets some money from the oil.
In the videos I saw, the helicopters were twin-rotor design. Some variant of the CH-47 Chinook.
I get off work at this god awful hour to learn that the US has performed an extrajudicial kidnapping of a foreign leader and their spouse. This fucking wild and I hope it doesn't turn into regional conflict for all our sakes.
What an ineffective distraction ftom the Epstein Files!
And what a travesty Drumpf is literally playing with the lives of others, American and Venezuelan, to do so.
Ah yes, let's ignore the fact that he spent the bulk of his adult life grooming and raping girls (not "women", but minors) with his best friend, the world's most notorious pedophile sex trafficker, because he is starting an unprovoked war over oil.
Genuine question: are you really incapable of being angry about multiple things at once, or do you just have a generally laissez-faire attitude towards violent sex crimes against kids?
Then why keep going on about distractions?
"My president is bombing innocent people, I bet he's only doing it to distract us from him being a pedo" is not the enlightened stance you think it is
The truth is that Americans don't care about their country killing foreigners, but they care a little more if their president is shown to be sexually impure. Politically it's way more relevant.
Puritanism and all that.
Can I just jump in here and say as an American I fucking care. I think we need to prosecute presidents for war crimes. All of them. I think every living former president deserves to be on trial for the murders they have committed. I’m staunchly anti-death-penalty but would make an exception if it prevents them from pardoning each other. This is the ONLY way we will reign in my country’s insane bipartisan military aggression, presidents should be scared as hell to misuse that power. I’m fucking horrified.
In my opinion you're part of a minority so small that I wouldn't know how to represent it numerically.
Probably, but I still think it’s worth saying.
"Sexually impure"...? He could have every freaky kink in the book and I wouldn't care at all...
He raped and trafficked children.
It's not exactly "puritanism" to be mad about that. And we can still be mad about the imperialist invasion of Venezuela.
Yeah and he also killed many MANY more than he raped, yet they don't matter as much, apparently.
Women? Try minors, you fucking freak.
Agreed! Who CARES if Trump raped 10 year old WOMEN? He was just a 50 year old CHILD then!
I hate my country. I hope class consciousness accelerates under Trump's shit management of the US so working class people can oust his ass. The US CANNOT be the world's bully for another century.
It's time for this empire to fall.
Is the oil safe? I stand with Washington! Someone please tell me what flag I need to put on my X account, thanks!
You forgot to mention grok.
I use this time in the morning to ease into my day. 5 am here in Western North Carolina. What the fuck is wrong with America? I am sick to my stomach right now.
Same as always. Not the first time you invade or sabotage a foreign country in order to hide your crumbling internal issues.
Good point.
No to that user. This isn't the "same as always". The US just Pearl Harbored a country, and the excuse was "drug smugglers".
This is what they were referring to though, and in that regard what is wrong with the us now is the same as with what was wrong with the us before.
But i do agree, the way the us did it this time is with a much bigger fuck you to international law and with much more idc what yall think to the international community.
Then do something?
Like what?
Congress please dear god grow a spine.
you don't get to be a politician if you have a spine
Trump wouldn't have won either election if congress had a spine.
(emoluments for example).
Congress was with him, even when they impeached him (and didn't actually convict).
Without congress, Trump wouldn't be possible. No functioning government would have him as President.
Grow a spine? They're entirely complicit. Democracy theater at its best.
It really doesn't make sense to me. So they kidnap Maduro and his wife .... and then what? What do they expect to happen in Venezuela? It will probably be chaos there.
Chaos until a Peace Nobel Prize winner takes the reigns and be Trump's puppet, giving all the resources to USA corps to stay in power.
Chaos is what they're likely striving for in my opinion.
USA is a terrorist country and must disappear. Theyve only killed killed and killed people since its inception. Fuck USA
So, another 20 year boondoggle like Afghanistan and Iraq?
It's trump. He'll find a way to f it up in months.
He’ll write an EO saying any troops will be out in 2029 so that IF Dems are in power then they’ll have to figure a way to clean up.
The MeidasTouch Network has footage of all of this on their channel. Fucking insane shit, Trump has started an invasion without the approval of Congress.
US has been manufacturing consent for this for 20+ years.
I bet it's a special military operation not an invasion
Dieses Fette orange Stück Scheisse
Al Jazeera live coverage
Well on the bright side, thank fucking Ares we no longer have to listen to Tulsi Gabbard's smug performative "end the forever wars" bullshit.
She will say this is the war to end all wars or some BS like that. Words mean nothing to these people.
True. But at least we don't have to continue to pretend like there's even a shred of credibility there anymore.
I wonder why we haven’t been read in via Signal yet?
There was also airplanes flying low over the city. I read that it was 7 explosions and that the area without electricity is near a major military base.
The schoolyard bully is at it again. He wants their oil and he's going to take it, from the weakest kids he can pick on.
Weakest? I thought he picked them because theyre the closest.
So officially the US is our enemy in the region, and of course the right is celebrating
Vaush has launched an emergency stream, wouldnt have got this news if I didnt get the notification. Just went live. Probably a lot more left than most coverage you'll see tonight.
https://www.youtube.com/live/Z4e1ta0qHRs
Is that the guy that had to make an apology video after accidentally showing his porn folder containing borderline illegal porn and being outed as sexually harassing his discord members? Is it that Vaush?
Vaush is not left.
"VaUsH BaD" 🙄
Okay? Yes. That’s what I said. He is a grifter that uses left wing talking points to gain internet clout. He is certainly not a leftist.
bro I don't know what is going on or how to feel. I am confused, shocked, annoyed. I really hope this world can pull through all the weird crap that is happening over the next few years.
I can't help but think that this is gonna be my home city of Montréal soon. Better prepare, I guess.
The best way to reconstruct something is to destroy it first. Isn't that what maintains the economy going since like always?
Seems like a rather clean and successful operation, not unlike Russia's similar attempt 4 years ago. Shows what a properly powerful military can do, I guess.
Maduro has supported Russia's illegal conquest in Ukraine, and is an oppressive dictator, so I'm not shedding any tears for him.
You're really begging for downvotes with this comment, but I'm curious: how do you see this situation playing out? Do you think a couple steps ahead, or just react?
My guess is that is going to go like this:
This won't happen. Venezuelans were incredibly tired of Maduro's regime. I know majority of people in US are enraged by this, because is an act of aggression and so on, but majority of people in Venezuela are not, because this is finally the end of Maduro and possibly Chavism.
We can agree that there will most likely not be a mass popular uprising for Maduro and Chavism.
I believe there will be a mass popular uprising against Trump and the puppet government of Machado.
Polls: 91% of Venezuelans Hold Unfavorable Views of Opposition Leader María Corina Machado
Fortunately I don't give a fuck about downvotes. I don't even see them so they might as well not exist.
Seems to me that Venezuela hasn't reacted in any way to this. So unless that changes, it seems to me that they're gonna just take whatever USA is going to do them.
The same would have happened to Ukraine if Russia had succeeded in what they tried to do there.
Why Machado? Genuine question here, I didn't realize she was a serious option for this. I would think that the person who actually won the elections in 2024, Edmundo Gonzalez, would be the more realistic option.
I think it's gonna be either
or
If we look at history, 6 happened to most eastern bloc countries and China, 7 happened to some eastern bloc countries and Russia itself. I don't know enough about Venezuela's internal politics to tell which is more likely there.
Venezuela has never been communist
Sure, and Elon Musk is not a nazi
I shed no tears for Maduro personally but I shed tears for Venezuela and I'm livid and absolutely outraged at Trump.
That is true, however if this is all the military action that happens there, the civilians are going to get off pretty easy on this one.
I know this is a big if at this point, but it is one possibility.
There is zero chance this is all the military action. Trump's already said that he's gonna run Venezuela and they've already said they're seizing Venezuelan oil. This is Vietnam/Iraq all over again.