Turmoil in Venezuela

[Vicus]

The Imperative of a US Conviction in the Maduro Case

by Jacob G. Hornberger | Jun 26, 2026



Having illegally attacked Venezuela in an effort to kidnap the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and transport him to the United States to stand trial for supposed violations of US drug laws, US officials have placed themselves in a position in which they are now compelled to secure a conviction. After all, how is it going to look if Maduro is acquitted of such charges and walks out of US District Court a free man? What then?

Needless to say, Maduro’s defense lawyers are challenging the legality of the kidnapping itself. But they have an uphill battle because US courts have traditionally held that even if a foreign criminal defendant is brought into US jurisdiction illegally, the criminal prosecution can nonetheless continue.

Of course, I’ve often wondered what the response of US officials would be if agents of a foreign regime came into the United States illegally, kidnapped some high US official, including a US president, and transported him back to their country to stand trial for supposedly violating their country’s drug laws. My hunch is that US officials would scream like banshees for being hoisted on their own petard.

In any event, for political reasons alone, it is to be expected that US officials will stop at nothing to secure a conviction of Maduro. For example, when Maduro sought to use Venezuelan government monies to pay his defense lawyers, US officials said “No!” They said that US sanctions against Venezuela prohibited the use of such funds for Maduro’s defense, notwithstanding the fact that he was president when he was kidnapped and notwithstanding the fact that he was serving as president when he supposedly committed those drug offenses.

Ultimately, however, US officials buckled in the face of defense arguments that their ridiculous sanctions position was depriving Maduro of his right to counsel, which is one of the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

In fact, I can’t help but wonder why they didn’t transport Maduro to Guantanamo Bay rather than New York City. Since US officials have long alleged that Maduro’s regime was a narco-terrorist regime, they could have sent him to the Pentagon’s and CIA’s torture and incarceration center in Cuba, where they could have jailed him for life without due process of law and trial by jury and tortured him for the rest of his life.

Having chosen to use the criminal-justice system established by the Constitution, rather than the Pentagon-CIA alternative “judicial” system at Gitmo that was established after the 9/11 attacks, US officials have now effectively boxed themselves in. Given the enormous political ramifications of an acquittal, they are now compelled to get a conviction — much more so than in a standard drug-war case.

Of course, it’s possible that this will all be done fairly and justly through relevant and competent evidence that convinces a jury beyond a reasonable doubt of his guilt.

But there is also the possibility of nefarious, dark-side conduct on the part of federal prosecutors.

For example, when they attacked Venezuela and killed around 100 innocent people in the process, they didn’t settle for kidnapping only Maduro. They also kidnapped his wife and charged her with drug crimes also.

Sure, it’s possible that there is evidence that she too violated US drug laws while serving as the country’s First Lady. But there is another dark-side possibility as well: Use her as leverage to secure a guilty plea on the part of Maduro himself. In other words, an advantage of kidnapping and charging Maduro’s wife could manifest itself with the following type of plea offer by US officials to Maduro: If you’ll plead guilty, we will give you a relatively light sentence and, more important, let your wife go free. If instead you go to trial, we will do our best to convict her and have her sentenced to several decades in prison.

Thus, Maduro would be placed in the discomforting position of proceeding to trial and risking the freedom and well-being of his wife versus pleading guilty and protecting his wife from harm.

There is another dark-side possibility: that US officials will use perjured testimony, either wittingly or unwittingly, in order to secure a conviction. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that US officials have used perjured testimony to convict someone who they “know” is guilty of some drug offense.

Recently, US officials induced Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, who has been converted into a US puppet, to send to the United States a Venezuelan man named Alex Saab, who was a close ally of Maduro. Previously, Saab faced multiple criminal charges here in the United States when he was pardoned by President Biden as part of a prisoner swap with Venezuela.

So, why have US officials brought him back to the United States? It’s a virtual certainty that they plan to have him bolster their case against Maduro with testimony at trial. But the question is: Can anything that Saab says be trusted, given the implicit threat that US officials will go after him with extreme vengeance on any charges that weren’t arguably covered by Biden’s pardon? Wouldn’t he have a tremendous incentive to say whatever US officials want him to say?

https://ronpaulinstitute.org/the-imp...e-maduro-case/

[Ravenlocke]

COMBATE |🇵🇷

In 2010, Chávez declared Haiti's earthquake was 'the clear result of a US Navy test'

Meanwhile Venezuela state TV cited a Russian Northern Fleet report backing the claim, and stating that the final objective was "the destruction of Iran" with a series of "engineered earthquakes"

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/2072001869954621712

[Ravenlocke]

dana

🇮🇱⚔️🇻🇪 Israeli regime forces were seen in a hotel in Caracas.

ResistanceTrench

https://x.com/dana916/status/2072719262108565679

Kentucky Statesman

Now you know why Trump kidnapped Maduro

Dima Khatib
@Dima_Khatib
·
16h
Israeli soldiers have been spotted in a hotel in Caracas today. This would be the first Israeli presence in Venezuela since Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez kicked out all Israeli diplomats from Venezuela before cutting all relations with Israel in 2009 because of its war on Gaza.

https://x.com/ky_statesman/status/2072494196900917499

[Ravenlocke]

Brian Berletic

🇺🇸🇻🇪 US Plunders Venezuela as Nation Suffers Aftermath of Earthquake (note: NPR is US gov-funded media)

▪️The US pledged a miniscule
$150 million in aid, then doubled it to $300 million;

▪️Estimated damage is up to $7 billion;

▪️The US has stolen over $8 billion in oil since capturing Venezuela in early 2026;

▪️As long as this is allowed to pass as "normal," it will continue

https://x.com/BrianJBerletic/status/2072577562019266587

[Ravenlocke]

Duopoly Destroyer

Venezuela has a massive earthquake hit the country right after their president is kidnapped. The U.S. sends its military, NGO’s, and the CLINTON FOUNDATION in to offer “humanitarian aid”…and suddenly thousands of kids go missing.

Disaster capitalism is setting up Haiti 2.0

https://x.com/realnikohouse/status/2072478232872354242

[Ravenlocke]

DD Geopolitics

🇻🇪 🇮🇱 Officials from Israeli army (Israeli Home Front Command officers) met with Venezuela's Minister of Infrastructure despite no diplomatic relations, offering 'support' after the earthquake.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/2072570723554779339

[Ravenlocke]

Francisco Rodríguez

Holding companies owned by President Trump have registered trademark rights in Venezuela covering a range of household-related goods and services, from construction services to towels, toothbrush holders, and candlesticks.

https://x.com/frrodriguezc/status/2072400652706496808

[Ravenlocke]

Venezuelanalysis

More meetings between Venezuelan officials and the delegation from the genocidal entity

https://x.com/venanalysis/status/2072694566222758054

[Ravenlocke]

Patricia Simón ✍️

Translated from Spanish
The former Al Jazeera director and current correspondent in Latin America explains that after 17 years of severed relations between Venezuela and Israel, the government of Delcy Rodríguez has restored them "under the cover of a humanitarian mission" for the earthquake.

While Israel advances in the genocide and prevents the arrival of humanitarian aid, it cleans its image by instrumentalizing Venezuelan victims.

Dantesque.

https://x.com/patriciasimon/status/2072563090520961167

[Ravenlocke]

COMBATE |🇵🇷

The same organization MI6 used to topple Syria just arrived in Venezuela

Alongside them: an IDF military delegation and 900 US SOUTHCOM troops

@KitKlarenberg

https://x.com/upholdreality/status/2073767641525682194

[Ravenlocke]

❀ N ✿

Jul 2
#BREAKING

Lots of beachfront property now free for redevelopment!

🇻🇪 Israeli soldiers terrorists have been spotted in a hotel in Caracas today.

This would be the first Israeli presence in Venezuela since Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez kicked out all Israeli diplomats from Venezuela before cutting all relations with Israel in 2009 because of its war on Gaza.

https://x.com/8zal/status/2072707611284156486

[Ravenlocke]

Venezuelanalysis

A horrifying sight. Officials from the genocidal zionist entity standing in front of a portrait of Venezuela's independence hero Simón Bolívar

https://x.com/venanalysis/status/2073857838904991794

[Ravenlocke]

Venezuelanalysis

The expanded US deployment follows the devastating June 24 earthquakes but also comes amid a broader increase in Washington's military footprint in Venezuela since the January 3 military strikes on Caracas.

https://x.com/venanalysis/status/2073843351606919203

[bojancan]

The U.S. Took Over Venezuela’s Oil Industry. Where Has All the Money Gone?

The American and Venezuelan people remain in the dark about how the Trump administration is controlling billions of dollars of Venezuelan oil revenue. Without accountability mechanisms or a clear democratic roadmap, the United States risks entrenching a corrupt successor regime.

Roxanna Vigil

In the first four months of the United States exerting control over Venezuela’s oil exports, almost one hundred million barrels of oil worth an estimated $8 billion have flowed through a process marked by no transparency and minimal oversight. While the Trump administration has repeatedly framed this control as benefiting both countries, it has not publicly disclosed how much Venezuelan oil it has sold, how much revenue it has collected, or how it has used those funds since seizing control of the country’s oil exports following the January 3 military intervention that deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

The Trump administration has shared some details with Congress. Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified in January that $300 million had flowed through a “short-term” account in Qatar and been disbursed to Venezuela, while another $200 million was “still sitting” in the account. He indicated the administration would conduct a retroactive audit on the funds that moved through the Qatar account. The following month, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said during a press interview that the full $500 million had been transferred to Venezuela and that the administration would use U.S. Treasury accounts going forward.

But the administration has yet to provide a public accounting of the Qatar account, including how the funds were spent or what safeguards were in place to prevent corruption and money laundering. In April, a State Department witness told Congress that the department had authorized the disbursement of about $3 billion to Venezuela, but the witness did not know how much money remained in the U.S. Treasury accounts. It is not clear if the balance in either the Qatar or U.S. Treasury accounts has been shared with Congress.

Same corrupt regime, different leader

Rubio himself told Congress in January that “what you have in Venezuela is a corrupt and broken oil company run by the government” and that “the glue that held the regime together was corruption and graft.” Five months later, nothing has changed on the ground with regard to the ruling elites who remain in power in Venezuela. Notably, interim President Delcy Rodríguez retains control over the different Chavista factions as she complies with the narrow economic concessions demanded by Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump appears satisfied with the arrangement and has praised Rodríguez for doing a “great job.” Rubio also told Congress that Venezuela has agreed to submit monthly budget requests for State Department approval to receive its share of oil revenue.

Rodríguez is getting much of what she wants in return, including diplomatic recognition and sanctions relief. The reestablishment of diplomatic relations with the United States has legitimized her position and opened the door for Venezuela to restore ties with the international community that were severed in 2019. The Trump administration has issued temporary sanctions relief in the form of waivers (general licenses) that authorize U.S. companies and individuals to do business in various aspects of Venezuela’s oil, mining, and financial sectors. These waivers can be revoked at any time and have been issued in a policy vacuum.

Unlike the first Trump administration, which issued a framework outlining concrete steps the Venezuelan government would need to take to earn lasting sanctions relief, there is no plan specifying the actions required for such relief now. For any transition plan tied to the full lifting of U.S. sanctions to be credible, it would need to be negotiated by Venezuelans themselves and meet basic democratic benchmarks; this would include releasing all political prisoners (more than four hundred remain detained in Venezuela), holding free and fair elections, and establishing an independent legislature, judiciary, and electoral authority.

However, there is something Rodríguez wants but has not yet received: $5 billion in Special Drawing Rights at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which Venezuela has been unable to access since 2019. The United States should condition this access on Venezuela taking concrete steps toward a democratic transition. Ideally, this would be paired with a broader plan linking further sanctions relief to political concessions—something the Trump administration has yet to produce.

But it will take more than just economic pressure alone to facilitate a lasting democratic transition. The Trump administration’s decision to exclude the Venezuelan opposition and civil society from discussions with Rodríguez over the country’s future is a mistake. A successful transition will require the United States to exert significant pressure on Rodríguez to make meaningful political concessions and include the opposition and civil society at the negotiating table. The Venezuelan opposition’s May 29 “Panama Manifesto” carefully endorses the Trump administration’s three-phase plan while explicitly calling for presidential elections, political negotiations, and broader national dialogue.

No accountability, no answers

Venezuela’s state-owned oil and gas company, known as PDVSA, has not published oil revenue figures since 2016, and the Trump administration has not publicly disclosed the exact figures it controls. It is also unclear who within the administration oversees those funds. Trump said he would control the revenue when he announced the first fifty-million-barrel tranche on social media just days after Maduro’s ouster. However, Executive Order 14373, which establishes Foreign Government Deposit Funds as property of the Venezuelan government held in custody by the Treasury Department, indicates that the secretary of state will give the Treasury instructions for disbursements.

Except for a few details shared with Congress and in Executive Order 14373, the Trump administration has provided almost no information on the system it has established to sell Venezuelan oil, collect the revenue, and use the funds. The administration has also not released the written agreements it has entered into with the Venezuelan government, traders, buyers, banks, and other entities involved in the process. Both Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent separately committed to Congress to share a copy of the written agreements governing U.S. control of Venezuelan oil exports, though it is unclear whether those copies were delivered to Congress, and no copies have been made public.

Despite Rubio’s insistence before Congress that commodities trading companies Trafigura and Vitol were a “short-term fix” to quickly sell the first tranche of oil, both companies—each of which has a history of bribery schemes related to oil sales—remain involved in Venezuela five months later. A third trader, GE Warren, has since entered the picture, and the Trump administration has offered no explanation for their ongoing role. In mid-April, the State Department witness told Congress that accounting firm KPMG would conduct quarterly audits of how Venezuelan oil revenues are being spent, to include a retrospective audit “from the beginning,” but said he did not know when the reports would be available.

The system’s opacity is not limited to oil. The Trump administration is also controlling Venezuelan gold and other mineral exports. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, after leading a delegation of mining executives to Venezuela in March, indicated that he secured “$100 million of gold” and helped broker a deal for Venezuela to sell up to one thousand kilograms of gold to trader Trafigura. Based on the restrictions in the waivers published by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control related to gold and other minerals, export revenue is also going into U.S. Treasury accounts under the same opaque system as the oil funds.

A closing window for change

Congress has raised concerns about the lack of transparency and the absence of a plan for a democratic transition in Venezuela. U.S. Democratic lawmakers sent a formal request [PDF] to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) asking it to audit the system the Trump administration has established to control Venezuela’s oil exports, and separately introduced legislation requiring an independent GAO audit of that system. While Republican lawmakers have largely remained silent on the issue, some have pressed the Trump administration for an election date in Venezuela and pushed back on Trump’s claim that Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado, does not have popular support. Washington will need to respond to the opposition’s “Panama Manifesto” with its own concrete plan or face growing pressure from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle who question whether it has aligned itself with Rodríguez at the cost of any real democratic process.

The United States has a narrow window to translate its influence in Venezuela into meaningful democratic progress by conditioning future sanctions relief and access to $5 billion at the IMF on concrete political concessions. Rather than Washington unilaterally deciding Venezuela’s future, the terms for a transition to democracy should be informed by U.S.-facilitated negotiations that include Rodríguez, the Venezuelan opposition, and civil society. In the absence of a clear plan that leads to a genuine democratic transition and includes transparency and accountability mechanisms, the United States risks propping up the same authoritarian regime responsible for the worst peacetime migration and humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere in recent history.

https://www.cfr.org/articles/the-u-s-took-over-venezuelas-oil-industry-where-has-all-the-money-gone

[Ravenlocke]

Venezuelanalysis

Regular briefings. Delcy Rodríguez and Venezuelan officials met last night w/ US authorities, including the recently arrived Southcom chief, to discuss "rescue and humanitarian aid operations." The fact that Interior Minister Cabello is the only one with a translator suggests these meetings are held in English

https://x.com/venanalysis/status/2074501668226392167

[Ravenlocke]

Anya Parampil

The first time I ever saw Delcy Rodríguez speak, she donned a Palestinian keffiyeh and was railing against Israeli apartheid.

Here we are in 2026. 🧐



Venezuelanalysis

Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez met with a delegation from the genocidal zionist entity on Tuesday. It was reportedly to discuss the removal of rubble following the June 24 earthquakes, and nobody knows more about turning things to rubble than these monsters. It's

https://x.com/anyaparampil/status/2074838769635926101

[Ravenlocke]

☀️👀

here's some recent photos of epic revolutionary radical socialist hero and definitely not CIA-Mossad puppet Delcy Rodríguez sitting with genocidal Zionist Israeli rape-soldiers. She's now getting puff pieces written about her in Israeli Zionist hasbara rags like the Jerusalem Post, which laundered the 40 beheaded babies hoax by claiming they verified photos of it. They note that Delcy personally requested the Israeli foreign minister and Netanyahu that they stay longer and map buildings and design a "reconstruction plan" for them.

Not only is this actively and intentionally doing PR for the genocidal Israeli death and rape-cult as it is mass murdering and raping across the world, it is also a de facto re-establishment of diplomatic relations with it which Chavez had severed in 2009 after the Gaza massacres at the time. It's a complete betrayal of everything Chavismo stood for, and the most disgusting and depraved part is that she is forcing it through under the guise of humanitarian aid so as to silence any domestic critics.

The Delcy CIA-Mossad regime had already de facto become an Israeli slave state by giving oil to them and defending it with "but it's being done by intermediaries!!!" which a lot of pseudo-radical ****ing morons in the West regurgitated to help launder it.

Delcy is a repulsive CIA-Mossad puppet scumbag piece of ****, and every pseudo-radical hack who laundered her regime is either a ****ing idiot, a deliberate liar, or a combination of both.

https://x.com/zei_squirrel/status/2074817581815304554

[Ravenlocke]

Sputnik Mundo

Translated from Spanish
🇷🇺🤝🇻🇪 "Symbol of our brotherhood": Russia highlights ties with Venezuela after sending humanitarian aid

The sending of humanitarian assistance to the Latin American nation constitutes, for Russia, an expression of the bonds of friendship and the strategic partnership relationship between the two countries, declared the Russian ambassador to Venezuela, Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov, to Sputnik.
🗣 "It is a symbol of our brotherhood with the Venezuelan people, it is the symbol of the strong and solid relationship between both Governments and both peoples, of Russia and Venezuela," he stated.
👉 Likewise, the diplomat highlighted the magnitude of the international assistance arriving in the South American country.

🔊 "We are like one part, a grain of sand in this great international aid that we see in recent weeks, as rescuers and everything arrive here. We are like the whole world, together with Venezuela. Venezuela is not alone," he specified.

Translated from Spanish
❗️🇷🇺🤝🇻🇪 First shipment with humanitarian aid from Russia arrives in Venezuela

Venezuela receives the first shipment with humanitarian aid sent by Russia to provide support to


https://x.com/SputnikMundo/status/2076005456250593447

[Ravenlocke]

Power to the People ☭🕊

Jul 10
Iran delivers 160 tons of humanitarian aid to Venezuela following the country’s devastating earthquakes that left 3,889 people dead.

This is what a better world looks like, where countries help each other instead of exploiting, sanctioning, bombing, and looting like the US does.

https://x.com/FUADH78666/status/2076007678480974037

[Ravenlocke]

Manuel Pedrero

Translated from Spanish
🚨OJO: THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN SENT A SHIPMENT OF 160 TONS OF HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO VENEZUELA

Iran sent 160 tons of humanitarian aid to Venezuela. The shipment arrived at the port of La Guaira with food, diapers, and essential items for families affected by the June 24 earthquakes


https://x.com/YosoyPedrero/status/2075779611947131347