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If you're wondering WHY, good to read the Maduro indictment from 2020[1] and the press release at the time[2] [1] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/68195

If you're wondering WHY, good to read the Maduro indictment from 2020[1] and the press release at the time[2] [1] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6819579-Maduro-Indictment/ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6819579-Maduro-Indic... [2] https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/nicol-s-maduro-moros-and-14-current-and-former-venezuelan-officials-charged-narco-terrorism https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/nicol-s-maduro-moros...

jacquesm 10mo ago
[flagged]
- csolorio 10mo ago
  What a well reasoned take.
  - jacquesm 10mo ago
    Let's hear your well reasoned alternative take then.
    - FergusArgyll 10mo ago
      https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-N... Read the following section Western Hemisphere: The Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.
      - jacquesm 10mo ago
        Yes, oil.
        FergusArgyll 10mo ago
        Was it too long for you to read?
        jacquesm 10mo ago
        No, your comment history speaks volumes, you are also as of now muted.
        dredmorbius 10mo ago
        Oh, do tell how, please!
        jacquesm 10mo ago
        https://soitis.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news https://soitis.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news I got it through a comment that I wished that it existed and it turned out someone had already made it. Best thing since sliced bread.
- MPSimmons 10mo ago
  As far as I can tell from the narrative, Venezuela was basically serving as a puppet state for China, and if that's true, I would probably give that as the primary reason, but who knows. Maybe it's because Venezuela did poorly in the FIFA World Cup qualifier and this was action dictated by his recent peace prize award. On a slightly more serious note, the charges against Maduro were actually filed in 2020: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/nicol-s-maduro-moros-and-14-current-and-former-venezuelan-officials-charged-narco-terrorism https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/nicol-s-maduro-moros...
  - jacquesm 10mo ago
    Good call on the China angle. Maduro is a first grade asshole. But this is just one bully taking out another on a pretext. I'm thinking more along the lines of a gang war over territory than a goal of lifting up Venezuela to the point that they will be freely able to deal with whoever (or nobody) when it comes to their natural resources.
  - deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
- _yb2s 10mo ago
  You’re getting downvoted but your take is simply the truth. Trump does not think like a politician or leader- he does not listen to, care about, or consider things like facts or broader consequences. Insiders in his administration have repeatedly leaked that they are not allowed to communicate information or facts to him, and he never shares reasons for his orders, they have to creatively make that up after the fact for the media. He operates the presidency as a reality TV show, he is interested only in how an action will play with the public and his base in the short term- will it increase his power and help him shift public narratives the way he wants, or not?
  - jacquesm 10mo ago
    It gets better, the comment is now flagged, which is funnier still considering that Trump & Co are now on the record that it was indeed about the oil. I wonder how that will affect Maduro's court case...
- andsoitis 10mo ago
  > Trump loves ... drug dealers as long as they kiss the ring. I'm not aware of a specific example. Who is a drug dealer that Trump loves?
  - amanaplanacanal 10mo ago
    The one he just pardoned a couple weeks ago?
    - amanaplanacanal 10mo ago
      Sorry for not being specific enough: former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted of importing over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.
- _menelaus 10mo ago
  None of these things are the most likely reason. The national security establishment doesn't want a Chinese-allied socialist state with a regime perceived to be hostile in South America, especially if its resource-rich. But the timing is very convenient for burying the Epstein stuff.
mattmaroon 10mo ago
That’s not why, it’s just the official justification and the charges we’ll use to keep him.
monerozcash 10mo ago
I mean the real answer to "why" is probably going to be pretty boring considering the nature of this administration. That's not to say that the steelmanned "why" isn't much more interesting than the real "why".
plagiarist 10mo ago
Whoever is telling you it is about drugs is lying. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/02/trump-honduras-pardon-drug-trafficking-00672632 https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/02/trump-honduras-pard...
- _bypa 10mo ago
  Indeed: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jan/03/caracas-explosions-venezuela-maduro-latest-news-updates-live https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jan/03/caracas-e... Or in the words of DJT (quoted in article): > "We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it." May the liberation of Venezuelan oil fields commence!
- whoisthemachine 10mo ago
  Maybe Trump captured Maduro just so he could pardon him? This would be a joke but comedy died when that man was elected, and this might actually be the case.
rambojohnson 10mo ago
keep that american imperialism propaganda bullshit narrative to yourself.
magicalist 10mo ago
Also good to read the Hernández indictment from 2022[1] and the press release at the time[2]. > Maduro and Other High Ranking Venezuelan Officials Allegedly Partnered With the FARC to Use Cocaine as a Weapon to “Flood” the United States > Hernández Allegedly Partnered with Some of the Largest Cocaine Traffickers in the World to Transport Tons of Cocaine through Honduras to the United States [1] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21698603-us-v-juan-orlando-hernandez-indictment/ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21698603-us-v-juan-o... [2] https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hern%C3%A1ndez-former-president-honduras-indicted-drug-trafficking https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hern%C3...
lysace 10mo ago
I'm generally confused about how the US DOJ has jurisdiction in Venezuela.
- TrackerFF 10mo ago
  "Might is right", pretty much. I guess somehow the US will argue that Maduro was directly responsible for smuggling drugs to the US, and that he has broken US laws. Or acts of "drug terrorism". The second someone without US jurisdiction as much as investigates US servicemen abroad, or Israel for that mater, they are sanctioned by the US. See ICC judges that have been sanctioned for doing exactly those things. The US argues that ICC does not have any jurisdiction to do so. When it comes to US geopolitics, there's a wafer-thin line between taking the moral high ground, and straight up hypocrisy backed up by "who's gonna stop us?"
  - lysace 10mo ago
    Is this likely to meet any substantial legal resistance in any US courts?
- abigail95 10mo ago
  They don't have an extradition treaty so they took him. What Maduro was doing was illegal in Venezuela too. If you can give me an argument about why it's illegal or improper to try Maduro in a USA court for crimes he committed against the USA, like drug trafficking, I would love to hear it. If you think the extraction itself was illegal - under what law? What do you think a military is for? If you have a military to defend your country and capture a criminal who you then try for laws that he broke - this seems like a good reason to have a military. Under normal circumstances - diplomatic relations can solve this, but the consequences of breaking diplomacy is that the only way to get criminals into court is military/CIA. It's not diplomacy or nothing, that's not the world I want to live in, that's Neville Chamberlain theory.

jacquesm 10mo ago

[flagged]

csolorio 10mo ago
What a well reasoned take.
- jacquesm 10mo ago
  Let's hear your well reasoned alternative take then.
  - FergusArgyll 10mo ago
    https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-N... Read the following section Western Hemisphere: The Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.
    - jacquesm 10mo ago
      Yes, oil.
      - FergusArgyll 10mo ago
        Was it too long for you to read?
        jacquesm 10mo ago
        No, your comment history speaks volumes, you are also as of now muted.
        dredmorbius 10mo ago
        Oh, do tell how, please!
        jacquesm 10mo ago
        https://soitis.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news https://soitis.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news I got it through a comment that I wished that it existed and it turned out someone had already made it. Best thing since sliced bread.
MPSimmons 10mo ago
As far as I can tell from the narrative, Venezuela was basically serving as a puppet state for China, and if that's true, I would probably give that as the primary reason, but who knows. Maybe it's because Venezuela did poorly in the FIFA World Cup qualifier and this was action dictated by his recent peace prize award. On a slightly more serious note, the charges against Maduro were actually filed in 2020: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/nicol-s-maduro-moros-and-14-current-and-former-venezuelan-officials-charged-narco-terrorism https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/nicol-s-maduro-moros...
- jacquesm 10mo ago
  Good call on the China angle. Maduro is a first grade asshole. But this is just one bully taking out another on a pretext. I'm thinking more along the lines of a gang war over territory than a goal of lifting up Venezuela to the point that they will be freely able to deal with whoever (or nobody) when it comes to their natural resources.
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
_yb2s 10mo ago
You’re getting downvoted but your take is simply the truth. Trump does not think like a politician or leader- he does not listen to, care about, or consider things like facts or broader consequences. Insiders in his administration have repeatedly leaked that they are not allowed to communicate information or facts to him, and he never shares reasons for his orders, they have to creatively make that up after the fact for the media. He operates the presidency as a reality TV show, he is interested only in how an action will play with the public and his base in the short term- will it increase his power and help him shift public narratives the way he wants, or not?
- jacquesm 10mo ago
  It gets better, the comment is now flagged, which is funnier still considering that Trump & Co are now on the record that it was indeed about the oil. I wonder how that will affect Maduro's court case...
andsoitis 10mo ago
> Trump loves ... drug dealers as long as they kiss the ring. I'm not aware of a specific example. Who is a drug dealer that Trump loves?
- amanaplanacanal 10mo ago
  The one he just pardoned a couple weeks ago?
  - amanaplanacanal 10mo ago
    Sorry for not being specific enough: former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted of importing over 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.
_menelaus 10mo ago
None of these things are the most likely reason. The national security establishment doesn't want a Chinese-allied socialist state with a regime perceived to be hostile in South America, especially if its resource-rich. But the timing is very convenient for burying the Epstein stuff.

mattmaroon 10mo ago

That’s not why, it’s just the official justification and the charges we’ll use to keep him.

monerozcash 10mo ago

I mean the real answer to "why" is probably going to be pretty boring considering the nature of this administration. That's not to say that the steelmanned "why" isn't much more interesting than the real "why".

plagiarist 10mo ago

Whoever is telling you it is about drugs is lying. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/02/trump-honduras-pardon-drug-trafficking-00672632 https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/02/trump-honduras-pard...

_bypa 10mo ago
Indeed: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jan/03/caracas-explosions-venezuela-maduro-latest-news-updates-live https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jan/03/caracas-e... Or in the words of DJT (quoted in article): > "We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we’re going to be very much involved in it." May the liberation of Venezuelan oil fields commence!
whoisthemachine 10mo ago
Maybe Trump captured Maduro just so he could pardon him? This would be a joke but comedy died when that man was elected, and this might actually be the case.

rambojohnson 10mo ago

keep that american imperialism propaganda bullshit narrative to yourself.

magicalist 10mo ago

Also good to read the Hernández indictment from 2022[1] and the press release at the time[2]. > Maduro and Other High Ranking Venezuelan Officials Allegedly Partnered With the FARC to Use Cocaine as a Weapon to “Flood” the United States > Hernández Allegedly Partnered with Some of the Largest Cocaine Traffickers in the World to Transport Tons of Cocaine through Honduras to the United States [1] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21698603-us-v-juan-orlando-hernandez-indictment/ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21698603-us-v-juan-o... [2] https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hern%C3%A1ndez-former-president-honduras-indicted-drug-trafficking https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hern%C3...

lysace 10mo ago

I'm generally confused about how the US DOJ has jurisdiction in Venezuela.

TrackerFF 10mo ago
"Might is right", pretty much. I guess somehow the US will argue that Maduro was directly responsible for smuggling drugs to the US, and that he has broken US laws. Or acts of "drug terrorism". The second someone without US jurisdiction as much as investigates US servicemen abroad, or Israel for that mater, they are sanctioned by the US. See ICC judges that have been sanctioned for doing exactly those things. The US argues that ICC does not have any jurisdiction to do so. When it comes to US geopolitics, there's a wafer-thin line between taking the moral high ground, and straight up hypocrisy backed up by "who's gonna stop us?"
- lysace 10mo ago
  Is this likely to meet any substantial legal resistance in any US courts?
abigail95 10mo ago
They don't have an extradition treaty so they took him. What Maduro was doing was illegal in Venezuela too. If you can give me an argument about why it's illegal or improper to try Maduro in a USA court for crimes he committed against the USA, like drug trafficking, I would love to hear it. If you think the extraction itself was illegal - under what law? What do you think a military is for? If you have a military to defend your country and capture a criminal who you then try for laws that he broke - this seems like a good reason to have a military. Under normal circumstances - diplomatic relations can solve this, but the consequences of breaking diplomacy is that the only way to get criminals into court is military/CIA. It's not diplomacy or nothing, that's not the world I want to live in, that's Neville Chamberlain theory.