[Tsundoku]

Well, purely anecdotally and just from my sample size of 1 Venezuelan family I have known for about 5 years ... they are happy about it.
I texted them after it happened because I knew their family back home was near Caracas.
But apparently all's well, family back home is further away than I had thought. And apparently they were all very happy and so were their neighbours. So ... YMMV.

[the broken]

QuickTidal, on 05 January 2026 - 12:43 PM, said:

Briar King, on 05 January 2026 - 05:08 AM, said:

Abyss, on 03 January 2026 - 09:18 PM, said:

The interesting nuance to this is what seems to be a prevailing Venezuelan perspective that the US bad guy took out the Venzln bad guy.

From what I've been to able to see at least amongst the Venezuelans in exodus favor of it are around 2/3s of the population.

So the rich ones that left the country and have no real vested interest in it? Gotcha.

Actual real Venezuelans in country are mad as hell at this imperialist power grab.

Given that they're not free to speak out, how can you tell?

[QuickTidal]

the broken, on 05 January 2026 - 02:22 PM, said:

Given that they're not free to speak out, how can you tell?

Uh, video of them in the streets currently decrying it, that's on grass roots social media?

----


If any MAGAt's get on you about how this is good for Venezuela and how Maduro is a tyrannical authoritarian, ask them what makes him that...and then listen to them describe the things they've learned from Googling about it...and unknowingly describe Trumps second term.


And FFS, because it needs to be explained...Crash course on Venezuela:

Pre-1998: Venezuela had a huge oil supply, biggest in the world, and the biggest stakeholder were Exxon. Because of their stake in the oil in Venezuela, Exxon took it over. The vast majority of profit went to the USA, and Venezuela as a country got next to nothing. And becuase of that, their economy started to fail.

And as that economy started to fail, guess what? A Dictator waiting in the wings wanted to jump in to "save themselves from"....wait for it....the USA...make note that Venezuela being oil rich and hardcore capitalism is what led them to Chavez from having a healthy democracy and middle class...

1998: Hugo Chavez, was a democratically elected President of Venezuela, and once he got in, he started to push towards authoritarianism, started reducing the checks and balances of that democratic system (sidebar: remind you of anyone?). He also started to rewrite the constitution t osolidify his dictatorial power.

2002: A woman named Maria Marchado (stay tuned on her), created an organization. called Sumate, in order to overthrow Chavez regime (and three guesses who was funding her operation, and the first two guests don't count), yes GWB funded her through the NED (National endowment of Democracy; fuck they'll name anything anything won't they?). This attempt didn't work, and when it went south GWB said "Not my problem, I didn't know anything about it" and she was eliminated from all political life going forward as a result. Stay with me.

2007: Chavez, reinvigoarted with power in his authoritarian regime, decided to nationalize the oil in Venezuela. Ruh Roh. Ths meant that Venezuela took all Exxons money, oil, and access to oil away shifting the lions share of profits back to Venezuela. Sidebar: Exxon when sued and won a 1.4billion $ settlement...which no one could claim because the international police force that would go in and make them pay does not exist. Now after that huge shift in economic power, Venezuelan oil dropped from 3 billion barrels a day to 700k barrels a day, due to corruption and informal sanctions put on them by the USA because they "stole a bunch of their corporate money" (I'm using "stole" here from the US Imperialist view, not reality...it's their oil on their land after all).

2013: Maduro, former VP of Chavez, takes over and he builds an even stronger authoritarian regime. Obama calls the drug cartels and Maduro's regime a "threat to democracy" and national security of the USA.

2017: Trump puts economic sanctions on Venezuela.

2025: Maria Marchado, wins the Nobel Peace Prize, and who does she dedicate it to? None other than DJT. It's at this point that Trump begins attacking Venezuelan boats calling them drug cartels, talking about revitalizing and restoring democracy to Venezuela, and talking about how they are a threat to national security...and guess what "The US gotta go in and save some people/Donald Trump wants his oil back"

Why is Trump doing this?

1. He will claims he's going to liberate Venezuela (and always be skeptical of when the USA does Regime Change for liberation, as it usually has imperialistic reasons, not altruistic humanitarian ones), and he will install Maria Marchado as the president (formerly excommunicated from all political life previously, but she's going to serve a purpose.
2. Marchado will give the oil rights back to...you guessed it...Exxon, at something like 80% to them, and 20% back to the people...a new power is installed.
3. It's about oil, but as I said above it;s also about USD currency rates, and BRICS nations ect.

So none of this is cut and dried, and none of the ex-pat Venezuelans celebrating are in country. And most of the people on the streets in Venezuela are decrying this as the imperialist move that it is. It's like people forget how long the US was in Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan after unseating whichever leader they unseated in an afternoon.

Like go to Vietnam, and ask the general populace there what they think about US interventions to "save them" and bring them "democracy"...and see what answers you get. Most of the places this has happened to are now well aware that the "US was not the saviour, and anyone pretending that unseating one dictator and installing someone else more amenable to the US interests has never gone well in world history.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: Yesterday, 02:40 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 05 January 2026 - 02:30 PM, said:

1. He will claims he's going to liberate Venezuela (and always be skeptical of when the USA does Regime Change for liberation, as it usually has imperialistic reasons, not altruistic humanitarian ones), and he will install Maria Marchado as the president (formerly excommunicated from all political life previously, but she's going to serve a purpose.
2. Marchado will give the oil rights back to...you guessed it...Exxon, at something like 80% to them, and 20% back to the people...a new power is installed.

Her name is Machado, not Marchado.

Quote

Asked about María Corina Machado, the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, Trump was dismissive. "She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect within the country," he said.

Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, leads a movement whose presidential candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, received two-thirds of the vote in the 2024 election. Although the state-controlled media backed Maduro, and although Maduro's police and paramilitaries harassed, arrested, and murdered their supporters, Machado and González not only won; they collected documentation from polling stations proving that they had won. Maduro never produced any such proof. He declared victory anyway.

Trump's 'American Dominance' May Leave Us With Nothing - The Atlantic

OTOH if "documentation" collected by Machado's organization is all that what Western media outlets are going on in declaring Urratia the true winner of the 2024 election... that seems pretty flimsy.

There was a 2025 poll which claimed that Maduro was unpopular in Venezuela, but it was apparently released by a sketchy political consulting group rather than a well-established polling organization, and they failed to provide details about their methodology, so its validity is extremely questionable.

And there was a 2019 poll by a well-established polling firm which found that Maduro was unpopular then, but it relied exclusively on landlines, which many Venezuelans lack, so its population-level validity is also very questionable.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: Yesterday, 03:45 PM

[QuickTidal]

Azath Vitr (D, on 05 January 2026 - 03:43 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 05 January 2026 - 02:30 PM, said:

1. He will claims he's going to liberate Venezuela (and always be skeptical of when the USA does Regime Change for liberation, as it usually has imperialistic reasons, not altruistic humanitarian ones), and he will install Maria Marchado as the president (formerly excommunicated from all political life previously, but she's going to serve a purpose.
2. Marchado will give the oil rights back to...you guessed it...Exxon, at something like 80% to them, and 20% back to the people...a new power is installed.

Her name is Machado, not Marchado.

Okay. Feel good about correcting me?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 05 January 2026 - 04:26 PM, said:

Azath Vitr (D, on 05 January 2026 - 03:43 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 05 January 2026 - 02:30 PM, said:

1. He will claims he's going to liberate Venezuela (and always be skeptical of when the USA does Regime Change for liberation, as it usually has imperialistic reasons, not altruistic humanitarian ones), and he will install Maria Marchado as the president (formerly excommunicated from all political life previously, but she's going to serve a purpose.
2. Marchado will give the oil rights back to...you guessed it...Exxon, at something like 80% to them, and 20% back to the people...a new power is installed.

Her name is Machado, not Marchado.

Okay. Feel good about correcting me?

Well, I believe in Truth, Justice, and the empirical Way (wait... no, not that type of "empir")... but I'd suppose it would have been nicer to let you notice your minor error on your own. More to the point though---do you still predict that Trump will install Machado as "president"? His response when asked about her was, "She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect within the country". Granted, Urratia might be her male puppet, but the Trump administration reportedly declined to contact Urratia or Machado before the kidnapping and has expressed no inclination to install either of them. Perhaps because Trump prefers to work with shameless, brutal, and explicit dictators.

Also, I should probably mention that I do think Maduro was probably unpopular, although the flawed available polls are not dispositive. But that doesn't imply that most Venezuelans would have supported the US invading to kidnap him and his wife, much less declare that they're going to take control of the country and hand the oil over to US companies.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: Yesterday, 05:09 PM

[the broken]

I would expect the people supportive of the regime to be the ones decrying things in the streets, because in authoritarian regimes, loudly celebrating would be risky.


Obviously a range of opinions exist. I expect celebrating to be easier outside the country, rallying in support of Maduro would be easier inside the country. Seems like a good number of people are cautiously on board insofar as they are glad to see Maduro gone even knowing by itself it won't necessarily mean much change by itself.

[QuickTidal]

Azath Vitr (D, on 05 January 2026 - 04:57 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 05 January 2026 - 04:26 PM, said:

Azath Vitr (D, on 05 January 2026 - 03:43 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 05 January 2026 - 02:30 PM, said:

1. He will claims he's going to liberate Venezuela (and always be skeptical of when the USA does Regime Change for liberation, as it usually has imperialistic reasons, not altruistic humanitarian ones), and he will install Maria Marchado as the president (formerly excommunicated from all political life previously, but she's going to serve a purpose.
2. Marchado will give the oil rights back to...you guessed it...Exxon, at something like 80% to them, and 20% back to the people...a new power is installed.

Her name is Machado, not Marchado.

Okay. Feel good about correcting me?

More to the point though---do you still predict that Trump will install Machado as "president"? His response when asked about her was, "She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect within the country". Granted,

Yeah, he's never said one thing and done another in his life...oh wait. He hated Elon Musk, until he didn't, and then hated him freshly again later. Are we operating on the notion that Trump is not a mercurial POS who will change his opinion almost hourly?

[QuickTidal]

the broken, on 05 January 2026 - 05:25 PM, said:

I would expect the people supportive of the regime to be the ones decrying things in the streets, because in authoritarian regimes, loudly celebrating would be risky.


Obviously a range of opinions exist. I expect celebrating to be easier outside the country, rallying in support of Maduro would be easier inside the country. Seems like a good number of people are cautiously on board insofar as they are glad to see Maduro gone even knowing by itself it won't necessarily mean much change by itself.

It felt like (and I could be wrong) that they were in the streets decrying this as they may not like Maduro, but "American Regime Change" has a disastrous history that has mostly left countries they do it in, in much more dire straights than they were before...so they may not like their guy, but they know that US involvement means the same thing it meant in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan...occupation, and insurgency, and blood, and war....leaving them eventually as a destitute country while the US empire walks away with their resources and wealth. All they needed to do was look at history.

So yeah, you can see how the conflict is there...was Maduro the best thing for them? No. Are Trump and the Americans better? Perhaps in the short term...but not in the long one....FFS he's talking about installing Stephen Miller there to run the show...If they think that this'll all happen without an eventual blood-soaked insurgency inside Venezuela, they have not thought this through.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 05 January 2026 - 05:30 PM, said:

Azath Vitr (D, on 05 January 2026 - 04:57 PM, said:

More to the point though---do you still predict that Trump will install Machado as "president"? His response when asked about her was, "She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect within the country". Granted,

Yeah, he's never said one thing and done another in his life...oh wait. He hated Elon Musk, until he didn't, and then hated him freshly again later. Are we operating on the notion that Trump is not a mercurial POS who will change his opinion almost hourly?

You're right that willingness to change his mind is one of Trump's few cardinal virtues (a far better virtue than "faith" IMO).

But he usually does it when there's something in it for him, or someone appeals to his ideological leanings; I don't see installing Machado as president winning him over on either account. Her 2024 candidate Urratia probably has the advantage in Trump's misogynistic aspirational machismo eyes of being male, and elderly, and they're both pretty pale, but I don't think Trump will consider him authoritarian enough either---probably thinks he needs a very tough (as well as very corrupt) crony in charge. Though I'd suppose Rubio might be able to talk him into it, depending on Trump's mood and energy level, especially if Urratia actually appears to be the most popular choice among Venezuelans. But then maybe Trump will change his mind on a whim and kidnap him too (kidding---I hope)...

[QuickTidal]

Don't let conservatives gaslight you into thinking that Venzuelans on the whole support this. It's not true.

https://www.theguard...t-maduro-future

[Abyss]

it seems like as sweeping generalizations go, they're very happy that Maduro is gone and very angry that America did it.

[the broken]

"Few are celebrating" Of course not, this is a country that disappears dissidents! There's a reason no one wants to give their real names.


I would be very hesitant to say anything definitive about majority opinion because a lot of people will be keeping quiet.

[Cause]

It’s easy to be happy when your oppressor falls. That doesn’t mean that it will benefit you long term. So far it’s business as usual in Venezuela and Trumps track record suggests this operation was done on a whim rather than with a long term strategic plan. Marco Rubio in interviews can’t answer questions about the legal justification for the attack or what tomorrow will even look like never mind next year.

It’s an opportunity for Venezuela but whether for it to fall further or to rise we have no means to tell.

In the meantime trump is the American president and he is also one who shows no indication of altruism for other countries. So his motives are suspect. It is another data point that suggests presidents use wars to distract from domestic policy problems. More oil won’t reduce prices. Threatening Cuba and Greenland just make him seem unhinged rather than political savvy. This is not a win for America. This won’t reduce fentanyl deaths.

[QuickTidal]

the broken, on 05 January 2026 - 07:05 PM, said:

"Few are celebrating" Of course not, this is a country that disappears dissidents! There's a reason no one wants to give their real names.


I would be very hesitant to say anything definitive about majority opinion because a lot of people will be keeping quiet.

Do you have an example of "American Regime Change" where the locals hailed the US as benevolent saviours?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 05 January 2026 - 07:46 PM, said:

the broken, on 05 January 2026 - 07:05 PM, said:

"Few are celebrating" Of course not, this is a country that disappears dissidents! There's a reason no one wants to give their real names.

I would be very hesitant to say anything definitive about majority opinion because a lot of people will be keeping quiet.

Do you have an example of "American Regime Change" where the locals hailed the US as benevolent saviours?

Vichy France, Kuwait... of course you might object that these were more external occupations than settled regimes, but Vichy France (not just Nazi France, with the German Nazis only occupying about half the country, but Vichy France as administered by native French Nazi collaborators) lasted for about four years. And Iraq did annex Kuwait:

Quote

After initially establishing the "Republic of Kuwait" as a puppet state, Iraq annexed the entire country on 28 August 1990; northern Kuwait became the Saddamiyat al-Mitla' District and was merged into the existing Basra Governorate, while southern Kuwait was carved out as the all-new Kuwait Governorate. [...] By 28 February 1991, the Iraqi military had been devastated and Kuwaiti independence was restored.

https://en.wikipedia...asion_of_Kuwait

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: Yesterday, 08:41 PM

[QuickTidal]

So you had to fudge Kuwait to fit it…otherwise you had to go back to the 1940’s? Not the flex you think it is dawg.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 05 January 2026 - 11:55 PM, said:

So you had to fudge Kuwait to fit it…otherwise you had to go back to the 1940's? Not the flex you think it is dawg.

lol you think you're more anti-American than me? I want to end democracy (and not replace it with MAGA or "Christianity"), destroy capitalism as we know it, abolish work, ban most cars in favor of public transit (the horror, the horror)...

And I'll see you your "flexing dawg" and raise you a "6-7" (and the devil is 6 / and Go* is...)

Seriously though, you asked and I provided, with appropriate caveats.

Now here's something more substantive:

Trump serious about wanting to take over Greenland, says Danish prime minister – as it happened | Europe | The Guardian

Quote

"If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops," [Danish Prime Minister] Frederiksen [said ...] "That is, including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War."

Denmark warns US Greenland takeover could end NATO

But wait, there's more:

Quote

Frederiksen's warnings came a day after she put out a statement directly urging Mr. Trump to "stop the threats" to take over Greenland, which he made in the fragile hours after the American raid on Venezuela. [...] just hours after their joint condemnations, Mr. Trump doubled down. [...]

"You know what Denmark did recently to boost up security on Greenland?" [Trump said]."They added one more dog sled."

Denmark's Leader Says Trump 'Should Be Taken Seriously' on Greenland - The New York Times

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: Today, 12:45 AM

[the broken]

Depends if you count the post Soviet states, but that's not really relevant.

Is there a definitive way to find out the sentiment of the majority of Venezuelans? Probably not. But if your metric only accounts for the opinions within the country, thereby excluding refugees, it's really important to remember that people in authoritarian regimes are not likely to be openly against said regime, because those people tend to have suspicious accidents if they're too open with their feelings.

Edit: Apparently more gunfire in Caracas?

This post has been edited by the broken: Today, 01:14 AM

[Briar King]

 QuickTidal, on 05 January 2026 - 12:43 PM, said:

So the rich ones that left the country and have no real vested interest in it? Gotcha.

Actual real Venezuelans in country are mad as hell at this imperialist power grab.

So if people leave/flee their countries they are no longer “real citizens” gotcha.