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Venezuela

sevenhelmet said:
Yayyy, another power vacuum for repressive warlords to fill…

How was this legal? Oh, never mind- we don’t care about that any more.
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Only President Donald J Trump has ever intervened in Latin America- wait, check notes, that seems to be ops normal for the last 130 years. Might want to check in with Major General Smedley Butler. At least we didn’t contuously blast “ Nowhere to Run” by Martha and the Vandellas like we did when President George HW Bush invaded Panama in December 1989. (Ironic that Noriego surrendered on January 3rd).


 
ChuckMK23 said:
Ok so we saw Maduro transported to Stewart ANGB in Newburgh, NY via DOJ operated 757.

He was transported via 2 helos to West 30th st heliport in NYC. The aircraft appear to be Bell 412 and Bell 407 operating as a 2-ship.

What agency would be operating these aircraft? Anyone? @phrogdriver ?
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I don’t know, those are popular aircraft. The FBI has a strong preference for Bells and we already know that HRT was with Delta on the raid.
 
sevenhelmet said:
These same people who couldn’t shrug off an obviously corrupt Communist dictator? Call me cynical, but I’m not exactly filled with hope for the people of Venezuela to suddenly rise up and create something better because the Big Orange Gringo arrested one dude and his wife.
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Big orange gringo made me laugh but Trump already has a nickname...

Pelos de elote

Corn hair ... due to his tupet style and blonde color.
 
Randy Daytona said:
Only President Donald J Trump has ever intervened in Latin America- wait, check notes, that seems to be ops normal for the last 130 years. Might want to check in with Major General Smedley Butler. At least we didn’t contuously blast “ Nowhere to Run” by Martha and the Vandellas like we did when President George HW Bush invaded Panama in December 1989. (Ironic that Noriego surrendered on January 3rd).


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And we’ve been out of that business for awhile now, and Latin America was much healthier than it had been for awhile.

This isn’t going to help. Trump’s policy of shitting on every Latin country except Argentina and El Salvador has been counterproductive, at best, and may end up being disastrous.

We’ve gained nothing, but have legitimized this type of activity—you don’t like the country of a small neighboring nation? Go ahead and take it over?

I’m sure Taiwan appreciates it.
 
It would be one thing if this administration was able to demonstrate meaningful, concrete results of these actions on the flow of narcotics, but they only seem interested in appearances. I don’t reckon that any of this affects the price or availability of cocaine in the US, and the fentanyl angle is a red herring as far as Venezuela is concerned.
 
phrogdriver said:
I don’t know, those are popular aircraft. The FBI has a strong preference for Bells and we already know that HRT was with Delta on the raid.
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THU flies UH-60 and Bell 429 helicopters now; their then-fleet of Bell 412 and Bell 407 aircraft were fully divested several years ago. Fun story: other LEO organizations fly several of their old 407s and at least one 412 made its way north of the border to be used by a logging company. THU really seem to like their new birds and I can say (having seen them fly in person day and night) that they are some of the best UH-60 pilots in the world, especially around the ship. Absolute professionals and very nice folks.
 
We also already had substantial forces in Panama pre invasion, that country is a lot smaller, and Noriega didn’t have as extensive ties to other larger, unfriendly actors that Maduro did. Much easier situation to get a US friendly government installed.

Hopefully it does turn out that way. Maduro being gone is great for the Venezuelan people, but I fear this notion that it’s magically going to turn into some pro US business haven is a pipe dream without the commitment of a large amount of US force.
 
ChuckMK23 said:
Ok so we saw Maduro transported to Stewart ANGB in Newburgh, NY via DOJ operated 757.

He was transported via 2 helos to West 30th st heliport in NYC. The aircraft appear to be Bell 412 and Bell 407 operating as a 2-ship.

What agency would be operating these aircraft? Anyone? @phrogdriver ?
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DOJ has five transport jets, a number of helicopters, and quite a lot of UAVs. They have an aviation operations office at HQ that manages the jet fleet (mostly for VIP transport) while the helicopters and drones tend to be tasked to DEA and FBI. I also imagine that the NYCPD air wing offered to pitch in as well.
 
CommodoreMid said:
We also already had substantial forces in Panama pre invasion, that country is a lot smaller, and Noriega didn’t have as extensive ties to other larger, unfriendly actors that Maduro did. Much easier situation to get a US friendly government installed.

Hopefully it does turn out that way. Maduro being gone is great for the Venezuelan people, but I fear this notion that it’s magically going to turn into some pro US business haven is a pipe dream without the commitment of a large amount of US force.
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So should we have a big time boots on the ground presence right now? Or things start going south should we put them in?

If we need to put them in, who should they be? Their primary skill sets?
 
I’m not saying we “should” do anything. I’m simply saying that if we think the remaining parts of the Maduro regime are going to do everything we want from here on out without more force, we are collectively smoking crack.
 
Secretary of State is making the rounds this morning and the message I heard is:

No regime change
Limited objective - sole objective was to arrest Maduro and his wife
Next step is to wait and monitor the remaining government that is in place and pressure these officials to align to US policy objectives
No US personnel on the ground.

No affirmation of the POTUS statement about "running the country"
 
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Griz882 said:
DOJ has five transport jets, a number of helicopters, and quite a lot of UAVs. They have an aviation operations office at HQ that manages the jet fleet (mostly for VIP transport) while the helicopters and drones tend to be tasked to DEA and FBI. I also imagine that the NYCPD air wing offered to pitch in as well.
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They come here to train, periodically.

20251120_143454(0).jpgPXL_20220928_154621330.jpg
 
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