Venezuela raid is about the oil — keeping it from Russia and China

Published January 9, 2026 5:15am ET



While you were sleeping off your residual New Year’s hangovers the first wee Saturday hours of 2026, President Donald Trump started his military decapitation of Venezuela’s communist dictatorship. And while you were still sleeping, the president ended it, seizing and arresting accused criminal drug trafficker Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia in fewer than 2 1/2 hours. Without a single American life lost.

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