Posting as someone with direct family ties to Venezuela.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The latest is that Machado wants to return to Venezuela soon and is urging that the country hold elections. Trump has no plans to allow that anytime soon.

"I'm planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible," said Machado, 58, who escaped from Venezuela in disguise in October to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which she dedicated to Trump. "We believe that this transition should move forward," she told Fox News in an interview. "In free and fair elections, we will win over 90% of the votes."

Trump, however, has said the U.S. needs to help address Venezuela's problems before an election, calling a 30-day timeline unrealistic. "We have to fix the country first ... There’s no way the people could even vote," Trump told NBC.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/maduro-opponent-machado-vows-return-venezuela-wants-election-2026-01-06/

The US will either kidnap and torture her or just kill her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Grift is On!

Trump says U.S. taxpayers will reimburse oil companies for rebuilding Venezuela's infrastructure

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/energy/trump-venezuela-oil-companies-reimburse-rcna252434

no money for pediatric cancer research, but plenty for Big Oil.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife is Venezuelan. She desperately wants to be able to go back someday—to visit safely, to see family, to recognize her own country again. Right now, that’s not possible. Much of her family is current or former military, and they want exactly what civilians want: freedom from an oppressive regime that destroyed their country from the inside.

She does not like Trump. Let’s get that out of the way. But let’s also stop pretending Venezuela is a Democrat vs. Republican issue. It’s not.

Under Maduro, people were run over by armored vehicles. Protesters were shot. Elections were a farce. The country became a narco-state while ordinary people starved or fled. That reality didn’t change depending on who was in the White House.

And for those suddenly clutching pearls about U.S. involvement—Biden continued dealings with Venezuelan oil despite repeated warnings from human-rights organizations. So please spare us the selective outrage.

China and Iran didn’t embed themselves in Venezuela out of goodwill. They wanted oil, minerals, leverage. Everyone knows this. Acting shocked now is disingenuous.

Here’s what’s missing from most of these takes: the majority of Venezuelans want the regime gone, even if that comes with hard compromises. They understand the cost because they’ve already paid it.

This isn’t about loving Trump.
It’s about wanting Venezuela back.

Your wife and the 60,000 other Venezuelans in the U.S. should go home and set up the government they want. It's not the United States' job to police the world.

You do recall France, Spain and the Dutch all helped us during the US revolutionary war, right?

[Anonymous]

So it's been almost a week since the illegal rendition of a head of state of a sovereign nation. Two questions and a bonus question:

1) Where are all those "Venezuelans" in this country (Florida????) dancing in the streets because Maduro is gone and they can finally go home since I guess America isn't their home...???

2) Where are all those "Venezuelans" demanding that either Machado or the old guy González Urrutia be forcefully made president of this Maduro-less Venezuela?

Bonus: Where are all these "Venezuelans" protesting that situations 1 and 2 above are not happening, and in fact, it'll potentially be way worse before any hope of getting better??

Potential answer: All the "white" people are too busy protesting in Minnesota and other cities about a dead white woman.

Are there Venezuelan refugees in this country that want to go home? Sure. Are they happy that Maduro is gone? Sure. But the fantasy that portrayed that there were so many people in this country that were ecstatic about "freeing" a country that they can't even come within 1000 miles of pointing out on a map is just that. The lack of a protest against the resurgence of American colonialism (and the requisite human rights abuses that will inevitably occur) proves that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nobody argues that Maduro is a good guy. That doesn't mean we should address his criminality in a criminal way ourselves.

What your proposed plan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody argues that Maduro is a good guy. That doesn't mean we should address his criminality in a criminal way ourselves.

What your proposed plan?

Not criminal activity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Grift is On!

Trump says U.S. taxpayers will reimburse oil companies for rebuilding Venezuela's infrastructure

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/energy/trump-venezuela-oil-companies-reimburse-rcna252434

no money for pediatric cancer research, but plenty for Big Oil.

No money to provide health insurance subsidies for working Americans, but yet another money grab for the rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody argues that Maduro is a good guy. That doesn't mean we should address his criminality in a criminal way ourselves.

What your proposed plan?

Trump is not a good guy. He's committed crimes in the US. Yet, Rs won't impeach him.

I thought MAGA didn't want to get involved in other countries anymore. What happened to that?

The plan should've been to leave Maduro to the Venezuelans. Why did Trump feel the need to go in VE? Oh, that's right... oil, oil that the US oil execs are saying isn't worth it without billions of taxpayer money to back them up.

This is another Iraq, and we all know how that turned out.