#venezuela-oil

#venezuela-oil

American forces' surgical capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, carried out in a daring raid shortly after 1 a.m. local time today, had been planned and rehearsed for months. Informants monitored the first couple's movements, more than 150 aircraft provided cover starting late last night, missile strikes on military installations knocked out air defenses, and low-flying helicopters landed Delta Force soldiers in the center of Caracas.

Reality check: That last threat to "keep the ships" could be complicated in the case of one of the seized vessels, Centuries, which was not under sanction when it was boarded Saturday by the U.S. Coast Guard. Centuries was carrying at least 1.8 million barrels of Venezuelan crude estimated at more than $90 million. China's government condemned the interdiction of the ship, which is owned by a Hong Kong-based company but flew a Panamanian flag.

On September 2, United States President Donald Trump released grainy footage of a missile obliterating a fishing boat off Venezuela's coast. Eleven people died instantly. The administration called them narcoterrorists. Venezuelan sources identified them as fishermen. Since then, the US military has conducted at least 22 strikes, killing 87 people, with investigations revealing that the first attack included a second strike to kill two survivors clinging to wreckage a potential war crime under international law.