[d_theorist]

They haven’t removed the government. They removed Maduro. Very different.

[serial_dev]

While it's true that so far they only removed Maduro, removing a sitting president and his wife is a show of power, it's a "we do whatever we want". What is stopping the US to remove the next person, and continue doing so until as they find someone that they like? Or to organize an up-rising or a coup? The writing is on the wall.

[somenameforme]

This already likely was a coup. They knew exactly where Maduro was and were able to get in and out, with no air defense issues, no alarm issues, and all presumably with just a small commando group. This isn't like grabbing Osama who was relatively alone on a compound - this is the current President of a country, who was already probably quite paranoid, and who now was under active threat and certainly behaving accordingly. Doing all that as an outsider is basically impossible, so they must have had substantial amounts of insider help, which is essentially the definition of a coup.

And the media is already reporting that 'somehow' all of his inner circle seem to have survived.

[stickfigure]

Venezuela was a functioning democracy until a short number of years ago, when Maduro stole the election through clear and blatant fraud.

Not every country is Iraq or Afghanistan. At least here it's fairly clear that removing Maduro reflects the popular will of Venezuelans.

[adventured]

And it appears they did so with assistance from within the government, at least with assistance from the military. That's why the operation went so smoothly. It seems like it was unusually easy, precisely because it was.

[grufkork]

Any details/sources on this? I thought it was strange that the airspace seemed almost entirely uncontested. Scrambling fighters take a while of course (particularly if unmaintained and you're corrupt), but I had at least expected some ground-based air defences to be active. Maybe they were being blown up in the first few videos that surfaced? Unless they were disabled by other means, that's another catastrophic display of the Russian systems.

[VectorLock]

Thats what I'm most curious about right now, did they completely suppress Venezuela's air defenses or were they turned off?

[layer8]

Update from Reuters: ‘"We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," Trump told reporters. […] "We can't take a chance at somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn't have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind. We've had decades of that. We're not going to let that happen."’

[lynndotpy]

I'd like to stress that Trump not only said this during the conference from his luxury resort, but repeated and belabored the point several times that the United States would be taking over Venezuela.

(edit - whoops)

[Braxton1980]

"Trump says US will ‘run’ Venezuela until ‘judicious transition’ following capture of Maduro"

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/venezuela-explosions-car...

[jacquesm]

That might be a while then, it will take some time to get that oil out.

[kijin]

Equating a person with the government or the nation is a common trait among autocrats. L'État, c'est moi.

[lo_zamoyski]

Not quite...

Medieval kings were considered the embodiment of the government, but that didn't make them autocratic. Indeed, they were not only bound by a thicket of obligations and customs, but authority itself is only legitimate when it is just, a view that is traditional; it is modern legal positivism that roots authority in fiat, making it inherently tyrannical.

[sandworm101]

Not yet. Once the anger metastasizes into a new wholly anti-american government, new targets will emerge.

Trump is far from universally loved, but just imagine what the US would become if an outside nation swooped in and captured him. 100% of the american people would be screaming for blood.

[coldpie]

> 100% of the american people would be screaming for blood.

Absolutely not. I'd be out celebrating.

[macintux]

> 100% of the american people would be screaming for blood.

Honestly, at this point, I wouldn't be one of them.

[empthought]

I would not be screaming for blood. It is the world order he wants, and perhaps the only possible lesson in why we shouldn’t give him that world order.

[nwatson]

Capture might not be the aim. The coming decades will see anonymous effective asymmetric warfare with USA infrastructure and the USA political establishment as prime targets. That's the big concern.

[Applejinx]

Trump is Russia's guy. There is no way I'd be screaming for revenge over a horrifying complicated nightmare becoming even more toxic, even more complicated, and even more nightmarish. If anyone comes and gets Trump it ain't Russia: he is already theirs, and acting in such a way as to further all their aims and all their narratives.

[ycombinary]

Maybe, but from observing US politics from afar for a decade, 50% would be screaming for Trumps blood to lock in the win.