If president abductions are something that can apparently just happen how come Putin or Kim Jong Un aren't in some foreign prison right now?

Comments

• U7826391786239@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  how easy they kidnapped Maduro

  they made it look like they woke up one day and just decided to take venezuela, when in reality they’ve probably been planning the op for months. bombing the “drug” boats was just a test run for international response. of course people wagged their fingers, but nothing beyond that. so US moved forward, and guess what–more finger wagging

  expect a deluge of rhetoric about how “greenland citizens WANT to be ‘liberated’!!! we need to go FREE them from oppressive denmark!!!” the fact that it’s guaranteed people will still be surprised when they invade greenland is the reason i have no hope for the future of this country

  source

  • Depress_Mode@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The CIA first dropped a team into Venezuela in August, got an informant close to Maduro, and spec ops forces created a replica of the building Maduro would be in, which they drilled in repeatedly. So yes, months of preparation.

    source

    • KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I’m not doubting you in the least based on how successful this was but would be highly interested in reading a source for that

      source

      • -> View More Comments
  • Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Wouldn’t they need to kidnap the King of Denmark for that?

    source

    • murmelade@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Kidnap seize or captured, please.
      -BBC

      source
    • Zexks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      No. Just massively increaze military presence there. All europe will do is write letters

      source
• mlg@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  You forgot the part where they bribed some Venezuelan defense officials to stand down. Everyone saw this regime change coming, they just didn’t expect the US to get directly involved.

  That entire Chinook formation could have been shredded by a single infantry group equipped with some cheap stingers (or equivalents).

  Some of the local reporters even claimed that Maduro’s own security convinced him to leave by helicopter, where Delta was already waiting for him.

  They key note here is that Maduro was not well enough supported within his own circle. If you want a recent example, they could have done the same thing to Assad since he fled without even notifying the CO of his army.

  Countries like Russia and NK have a complicated internal political structure that revolves around the leader ensuring he can never be couped. The US wouldn’t be able to just buy them off to create such a situation.

  source

  • starlinguk@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It’s not a regime change. Venezuela still has the same regime, just with a different president. People are terrified because the government seems to be out for revenge.

    source
  • Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I didn’t actually catch the info that they managed to bribe officials to stand down so this is a pretty satisfying answer to my question. Thanks!

    source
• DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Maduro make a crutial mistake, he didn’t have nukes.

  Putin, Xi, and fat boy Kim, they all have nukes.

  DPRK is also supported by PRC, so there’s no way the US would touch it (I mean unless trump got crazy and started ordering nuke strikes to end the world)

  source

  • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    (I mean unless trump got crazy and started ordering nuke strikes to end the world)

    H-ok, so, here’s de Earth…

    source

    • cecilkorik@piefed.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      But I’m le tired…

      source
    • trd@feddit.nu ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Fkn Kangaroos…

      source
    • Whelks_chance@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      'bout that time ey chaps.

      source
  • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    another one is not bothering developing oil extraction early on, he got lazy, even if he has to hire international expertise, it wouldve been solely under his control.

    source
• longlivemysugardaddy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  [deleted]

  source

  • Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    They have nuclear weapons.

    …under the president’s pillow?

    (No, nukes do not prevent an abduction)

    source

    • snooggums@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      It is the threat of retaliation using nuclear weapons that keeps countries from doing certain things.

      source
  • Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    North korea didn’t have them for the longest time. None of the middle east countries have them to this day. I wonder if Rusia would even retaliate like that, I suspect not.

    source

    • U7826391786239@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      pakistan has nukes, and they never signed on to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. not that that matters anymore…

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • DrFistington@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I don’t think Russia would really give a shit, or the US for that matter, at least not with their current ‘leaders’

      source
    • Twig@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      It has had a lot of artillery pointed at South Korea for quite a while, so I guess that helps.

      source
• gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Because both of those countries have nukes and real militaries that could conceivably put up a serious fight against several CVN battle groups, whereas what the orangeboi regime did in Venezuela was basically a showy example of overkill. Putting aside how deeply fucking stupid and illegal the whole thing was, the mission probably could have been fully accomplished with a small surface action group centered around an LHD, plus an SSGN. The Ford being sent there was really just not necessary, especially considering the other airfields the USN and USAF have in the vicinity.

  source

  • KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Was watching bombs exploding in Venezuela while the helicopters flew in, basically live, with my girlfriend. And she’s like, “Holy Shit we’re invading Venezuela!” And I just told her, “…nah, whatever we’re doing isn’t that serious.”

    She asked how I knew and I told her “look at the lights in the city. They’re still on. And these videos are being uploaded over the Internet. And there are explosions but relatively few. That’s not how the US does war. If we were invading we’d have hit energy infrastructure and telecommunications first, and all at once. So this is probably just us taking out anti-air batteries and maybe a few military assets. So it’s something else.”

    (Please don’t interpret this as minimizing how ridiculously illegal or pointless this was, because it’s definitely both. It was just my reaction at the time.)

    source

    • MITM0@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      communications were cut though, all those big tech companies did a temporary blackout.

      source
• zxqwas@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  It looked easy but It’s ludicrously difficult to do. Russia tried something similar in Ukraine and got bogged down in a war they still have not got out of.

  The fact that it worked and did not turn into another black hawk down scenario is like you say months of preparing, someone on the inside high enough to have information and dislike Maduro enough and a good batch of luck.

  source
• sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  They have nukes

  source

  • Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Venezuela would definitely fight back an occupation, that’s why they’re not invading. There are already Communist guerillas on the border with Colombia. Recruitment would shoot up under the banner of “stop the empire from bombing us and taking our oil”.

    source

    • sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Completely agree that they would I just think they are less equipped to do so. War with venezuela would be a guerilla war of attrition on Venezuelan soil but Russia and the DPRK could bring the war to us. Not very effectively but it is still a risk. I don’t think the US will invade Venezuela either but I find it likely that we will see bombings and maybe an attempt to arm Guyana and use them as a proxy to take nearby territory with oil reserves. America doesn’t have the political capital to use many US troops.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Nukes.

  If you don’t got nukes, you get Gaddafied

  source

  • AlDente@sh.itjust.works ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Gaddafi was working on getting nukes, but then actually complied with pressure to disarm. What did he get as a reward for compliance?

    Tap for spoiler

    We ended up backstabbing him and helped overthrow his government, which ultimately lead to him being raped in the ass with a bayonet.

    source
• gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  They kidnapped the prez of a country with a tiny military, that’s the whole reason

  NK and Russia have a huge military

  source
• Depress_Mode@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Since you asked and I haven’t seen anyone else answer, the most recent parallel to the Maduro situation is the capture of Manuel Noriega, the military leader of Panama, in 1990. All around, it was a pretty similar situation. Just like Maduro, Noriega was accused of using Panama as a drug shipping hub and of being a dictator by the US. Relations deteriorated until in late 1989, Panama declared they were “at a state of war” with the US, prompting George H W Bush to launch a ground invasion into Panama with one of the goals being the capture of Noriega, which was achieved within a few weeks in early 1990. He was then flown to the US to face a trial over his drug charges and was held in prison until 2010, though he was then extradited to France and later Panama, where he spent his final 6 years in prison.

  Like Maduro, while the capture was ostensibly over drug trafficking concerns, it was largely to further US interests in Panama and Central America as a whole. Namely, it was to gain outsized control over the running of the Panama Canal for the US and grant them special perks such as reduced costs to send goods through. Additionally, it allowed as many as 14 military bases to be established in the area.

  source

  • Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Crazy. Thanks, I couldn’t find similar cases when I looked. Considering all the other coups the US has done, this is just a time honored tradition for them.

    source
• lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The past week (months, years…) have taught me to not to believe anyone saying the US government “can’t”. It certainly can. It just doesn’t.

  source
• FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Nukes

  source
• SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Maduro and Trump are friends

  Maduro gets to escape his country and save face instead of being assassinated or executed.

  Trump gets to manufacture a conflict so he can start martial law and become a dictator, and to distract from us learning he came inside little girls.

  source

  • manuallybreathing@lemmy.ml ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    You have no idea what you’re talking about.

    source
  • Jumbie@lemmy.zip ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Who the hell is upvoting this obvious nonsense?

    source

    • SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      People who understand the relationship Trump has with dictators

      source

      • -> View More Comments
• FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Because you cannot just go into a country and kidnap the leader. With no declaration of war, no jurisdiction at all, not even a hint of a justification through the UN. That’s why it isn’t done. Americans ought to be on the streets protesting in force. Their children at the latest will rue this day. 47 just sealed the end of the rules-based international order. He didn’t start that fire but he dropped 50 gazillion barrels of Venezuelan crude onto it. This is not good bad very, very bad.

  source

  • Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    You see, I thought you can’t just go in a foreign country and kidnap the leader…

    source

    • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The country with the biggest military force on this planet can do many things. But it shouldn’t. Ability and legal justification are two different things. It isn’t done doesn’t mean they’re not capable. Abu Ghraib happened and shouldn’t have either.

      It’s not a perfect comparison but you could take your kitchen knife and stab a rando on the street. You can do that but you shouldn’t. Because we have rules. And we have rules because without them soon everybody be stabbing everybody else. And if you stabbed a rando on the street in Caracas you don’t exactly have the moral high ground when you want you tell your pals Vlad or Jinping not to stab randos in Kyiv or Taipei.

      source
  • TheLowestStone@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Americans ought to be on the streets protesting in force.

    Most of us are too busy trying to afford surviving.

    source

    • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      I understand that shit is hard. My projection for the future is just: it isn’t getting better. Much the opposite. So what are you surviving for? To watch your country spiral down the toilet? To be branded a playground bully and unreliable partner internationally? Economies don’t thrive on that, either. And economists are dot com bust Lehman crash level concerned about the single minded bet on so-called AI that represents pretty much the only GDP growth today.

      Meanwhile the great dealmaker hasn’t brought down cost of living because he thinks the word tariff is beautiful. He didn’t want another war, was so thirsty for the peace prize, and yet ordered the illegal invasion into Venezuela and the abduction of its leader on trumped up charges. Late night show hosts are your free speech canaries in the coalmine. Oh, and he’s a convicted SA felon and very much connected to that late pedophile who shall remain nameless here.

      If you don’t find a way to resist and oppose now, I think you will be sleepwalking into an even worse future. This will have been the good ol days.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • Hamartia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      That’s a design feature.

      source

      • -> View More Comments
    • Ghoelian@piefed.social ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Iirc that’s quite literally part of the plot of 1984, keeping the general populace poor enough so they have netter things to worry about than whatever the fuck the state is doing.

      source
• zbyte64@awful.systems ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  We tried to have navy seals plant listening devices in North Korea ahead of a summit, it did not go well. People say nukes, but I think their security is a whole nother level, like our government rarely knows where those leaders are at a given moment.

  source

  • Hathaway@lemmy.zip ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    If I remember correctly, the seals were compromised by a fisherman, not exactly high tech security.

    source

    • NannerBanner@literature.cafe ⁨48⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      The seals were approached by a fishing boat who had heard their ruckus, and murdered them. The us has a thing for killing fishermen.

      source
• MITM0@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Nukes plus an army that is willing to end Americans

  source
• Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  russia has tons of oil, but putin is pretty paranoid so its probably harder to capture him. and besides he politically financing all the gop, some of the OLD guard DINOs as well, plus providing propaganda to all MSMs and social media. they arnt going to bite the hands that feed them.

  source
• AlexLost@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Because they are actually illegal. Try telling that to the dictator in chief and his cronies. You have to follow laws for them to work.

  source
• bobo1900@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  • the US most likely had inside help, Venezuela being less hostile towards them than China or Russia it was probably easy to convince people
  • head of states of China, Russia and North Korea are much more likely to expect such attacks and have probably more resources to spend on personal protection and armies. Putin is notoriously paranoid and it’s difficult to locate because he spends a lot of reaources to hide
  • as others said, those countries have nukes

  source
• Rhoeri@piefed.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Because the Rest of the world is civil in comparison to that walking violation of human morality.

  source
• Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  worse world leaders have not had this happen to them

  They protect themselves better.

  Also, you should not think that Usa were leading in this regard. So you could ask as well why Trump isn’t in a Siberian jail right now (my opinion: he knew when to kowtow before the stronger man).

  source
• wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  You’re telling me the US had the capability to eliminate any of the worst ones in much more problematic countries and chose not to because there was no oil in it for them? That’s a grim thought.

  The call was always coming from inside the house.

  source
• leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  the us budget for wardefense is stupidly huge.

  i think the venezuelan budget is just way below 1% of us that we can easily say it is pure bullying. the other factors would be location and the lack of nearby potential adversity.

  source
• roserose56@lemmy.zip ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  If your country is corrupt and capitalist to the death, can you start a war with any country that produces oil and minerals?

  source
• ruuster13@lemmy.zip ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I think your premise that it was easy is misinformed. We likely used modern classified tech to pull it off. There are reports emerging of anomalies related to common router vulnerabilities in Caracas. We don’t know how the operation was conducted and probably won’t know any time soon. Kidnapping a head of state is unprecedented. The Trump admin would absolutely use new tech to do this in a show of military prowess.

  source

  • Depress_Mode@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Trump did make that cryptic statement “… the lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have.” It seems some kind of cyber or other electronic warfare was definitely used.

    source
• Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  They most likely made deals with the ones next in line to power, mostly generals, to ensure success. Good luck getting russian or north korean generals to “look the other way” when you want to 'nap their president.

  source

  • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    i think its the VP, shes willing to bootlick trump.

    source
• Ach@lemmy.world ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Why don’t you give it a shot buddy?

  source

  • Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Empty brain happy brain

    source
• mrdown@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  They have nukes

  source