Source: BBC
The US may want many of its foes gone from power. It doesn’t usually send in the military and physically remove them.
Venezuela’s abrupt awakening took two forms.
Its residents were woken abruptly to the sound of deafening booms: the sound of its capital, Caracas, under attack from US strikes targeting military infrastructure.
Its government has now woken up from any illusion that US military intervention or regime change was just a distant threat.
US President Donald Trump has announced Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, has been captured and flown out of the country.
This was a man who wielded a huge amount of power: his government controlled the electoral system, the judiciary, the military, as well as had the loyalty of powerful militia groups.
By the end of Saturday, he was pictured in a grey tracksuit, his hands bound, his eyes blindfolded, being transported to detention in the US. It was an extraordinary fall from power.
The US has long accused Maduro of leading a criminal trafficking organisation, something he strongly denies. It designated as a foreign terrorist group the ‘Cartel de los Soles’ – a name the US uses to describe a group of elites in Venezuela who it alleges orchestrate illegal activities like drug trafficking and illegal mining.
Maduro now faces a US trial over weapons and drugs charges.