The Air Defense Systems That Didn’t Fire
We spent hours breaking down the Maduro capture operation. The anomalies kept piling up. By the end, the panel was shouting at each other about what America just witnessed.
At 2 AM Eastern, Delta Force helicopters flew straight into Caracas. Three hours and 34 minutes later, Nicolas Maduro was aboard the USS Iwo Jima heading to New York. Zero American casualties. No equipment lost.
That’s the official story. But the anomalies tell a different story.
The Stand-Down
I laid out the first anomaly: “The Russians have deployed the Buk-M2E air defense system. They have thousands of these in Venezuela. These are very good air defense systems. These are not the kind of air defense systems that would let something like this happen unnoticed.”
Venezuela had 5,000+ Igla-S MANPADS. Surface-to-air missile batteries. Pantsir anti-aircraft systems. Su-30 fighter jets. Russia had been shipping them armaments for months.
None of it fired.
Nick Paro—a veteran who knows military operations—confirmed what I was seeing: “They just went in. They aren’t moving in a pattern that would be avoiding air defenses. They just went in straight in in a straight line formation almost. They didn’t have the shock and awe that we saw in Baghdad because they didn’t have to knock out the air defense systems.”
American helicopters flew during a near-full moon—the worst possible stealth conditions—and dropped into the heart of Caracas unopposed.
Someone gave the stand-down order.
Who’s Running Venezuela?
this was a law enforcement operation, Maduro goes to trial and Venezuela’s government continues. Three people had legitimate claims to lead:
Delcy Rodríguez - Vice President under Maduro, acting president under Venezuelan law. She’s demanding “proof of life” for Maduro. Marco Rubio is talking to her - which contradicts Trump saying “we’re running it.”
Edmundo González - Won the July 28, 2024 election with 70%+ of the vote. The US State Department recognized him as the legitimate president in August 2024. The European Parliament called him “the democratically-elected president.” Trump bypassed him.
María Corina Machado - Won the 2023 opposition primary before Maduro barred her from running. Just awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. Trump’s response? She “doesn’t have the respect” to run Venezuela.
Trump said he’s running Venezuela. But Rubio is negotiating with Maduro’s VP. Meanwhile, the actual elected president and the Nobel laureate are sidelined.
The contradictions keep stacking.
Twelve Hours, Two Stories
At dawn, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced narco-terrorism charges. By noon, Trump was at Mar-a-Lago talking about oil.
“We’re going to be running it with a group, and we’re going to make sure it’s run properly. We’re going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars. It’ll be paid for by the oil companies directly.”
Nick called it exactly what it is: “This is a distraction to get oil and rare earth minerals and do a hemisphere-wide domination effort for the US.”
The operation went from “law enforcement arrest” to “we’re running Venezuela” in twelve hours.
The Perception Divide
That’s when the panel exploded.
Lev Parnas was on. He was Trump’s point person on Venezuela negotiations during the first administration. He brokered oil contracts for 2+ billion barrels. He knows these players personally.
“This was coordinated,” Lev said. He laid out the January 1st secret conversations—Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, Kirill Dmitriev. “Maduro was effectively handed over. That’s why Trump spoke with such certainty.”
A West Point history professor pushed back hard on the coordination theory. Academic skepticism versus insider knowledge.
Then Wajahat Ali jumped in with the political angle no one else was seeing: “There’s going to be a massive fissure. America first isn’t just white nationalism. America first is no military interventionism, no support to Israel, no $40 billion to Argentina, and no frigging world policemen and regime change.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene is already breaking with Trump on this. Thomas Massie too. The MAGA coalition that voted for “no more wars” just watched Trump invade a country without congressional approval.
The debate got heated. Voices raised. Lev apologized to the professor: “I did not mean to, we get passionate in debates, especially some of the stuff that’s going on because I haven’t slept all night. I’ve been on the phone with my sources breaking a lot of the stuff that’s happening.”
That’s the divide. Academics seeing historical patterns. Insiders reading chess moves in real time. Progressive analysts watching the MAGA coalition fracture over intervention.
What Nobody’s Asking
We covered it for hours. The air defense stand-down. The narrative shift from justice to oil grab. The democratic leaders Trump bypassed. The Cuban intelligence services still running Venezuela’s military. The potential trap American forces just walked into.
But the biggest story is the perception gap.
Half the country sees a successful operation against a drug lord. The other half sees a coordinated handover that Putin orchestrated, Trump executed, and the media isn’t questioning.
The helicopters flew unopposed. The systems didn’t fire. Trump said he’s running Venezuela now.
Those are facts. How you interpret them reveals everything about what you think just happened in the Western Hemisphere.
Thank you THE LEFT HOOK with Wajahat Ali, Lev Parnas, Lesley Jane Seymour, Caro Henry, Debbie Hupp, and many others for tuning into my live video with Nick Paro and Banner & Backbone Media! Join me for my next live video in the app.
