By Capt Joseph R. John on February 10th, 2026

On January 3, 2026, Operation Absolute Resolve was initiated.  It was a surprise raid and flawlessly executed Law Enforcement Operation on Nicolas Maduro Moro’s compound at Fuerte Tiuna in Caracas, Venezuela.  The operation was initiated to facilitate the FBI’s arrest of Nicolas Madura Moros and his wife, Cilia Flores, on federal drug and weapons charges.  Maduro was a wanted international narco-terrorist with a price on his head.  He and his wife were extracted by helicopter from Caracas in an operation that took two hours and twenty-eight minutes.  Maduro and his wife were whisked to US Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and then flown to New York City, USA where federal drug and weapons charges were filed against them in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, New York City.  

Operation Absolute Resolve included the elite Delta Force’s 1st Special Forces Operation Detachment supported by over 150 U.S. aircraft and the largest US Naval Armada in the Caribbean in decades including the Ford Carrier Strike Group with the most advanced aircraft carrier in the US Navy including the USS Gerald R.  Ford (CVN-78) with US Navy units consisting of the USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81), USS Bainbridge (DDG-96), USS Mahan (DDG-72), USS McFaul (DDG-74), USS Mitscher (DDG-57), USS Roosevelt (DDG-80), USS Tulsa (LCS-16), USS Santa Barbara (LCS-32), USS Canberra (LCS-33); and a number of unidentified US Nuclear Submarines.  The USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7), an amphibious assault ship, was employed to support the Special Operation.  No US Military personnel were killed in the operation, however 32 Cuban military and intelligence personnel as well as 24 Venezuelan security officers along with 80 other Venezuelan military and civilian personnel were killed in the operation.  Intelligence sources reported that the Venezuelan Presidential Guard was largely eliminated in the operation by the Delta Force.

The operation was not initiated to focus on Venezuela’s vast crude oil reserves, at least, not the way media throughout the world have been arguing about it. The international press reports are still missing the point. The seizure of Venezuela’s crude oil reserves, production capacity, and shipping facilities eliminated Venezuela’s financial ability to extract, produce, and sell crude oil.  That crippled Venezuela’s ability to fund the development of the deadly drugs that had been smuggled into the United States for the last 12 years.  Those illicit drugs had been killing hundreds of thousands of America’s youth each year for the last 12 years.  

Venezuela sits on the largest crude oil reserves in the world.  There are over 300 billion barrels of crude oil reserves in Venezuela valued at 17 trillion dollars.  Here is the twist.  The United States does not need Venezuela’s crude oil. Its crude oil reserve rivals Saudi Arabia’s crude oil reserves.  However, Communist China does need Venezuela’s crude oil and has been buying 90% of Venezuela’s crude oil production. Operation Absolute Resolve has put the CCP’s Venezuela’s crude oil supply at risk.  Communist China also needs to purchase almost all of Iran’s crude oil production, but because of the popular uprising in Iran, the CCP’s Iranian’s supply of crude will soon be at risk.  The CCP is also buying a massive amount of Russia’s crude oil exports.  However, because of Russia’s refusal to negotiate an end to the Ukraine conflict, the US cautioned the world, that any country purchasing Russian crude will be hit with massive tariffs  which now puts the CCP’s Russian supply of crude oil at risk and India has ceased purchasing Russian crude.  Without the supply of crude oil from Venezuela, Iran, and Russia, Communist China would not have sufficient crude oil reserves to support its Navy’s invasion of Taiwan.  This is the goal of President Trump’s recent oil chess moves.

Power does not come from the ownership of crude oil.  A successful energy strategy comes from “dominance” and power comes from who actually controls access to crude oil.  The nation that controls energy will largely control the world as Communist China, Russia and Iran well know.

By Operation Absolute Resolve, the United States sent the unmistakable signal that it “will no longer” allow America’s adversaries to control the sale of Venezuela’s crude oil to fund the operation of an international drug cartel that has been poisoning and killing America’s youth for 12 years.  The arrest and removal of the “head” of Venezuela’s international drug cartel, who had murdered over a million young Americans for 12 years, was the primary goal of that law enforcement operation.  Maduro, a wanted international narco-terrorist, with a $25 million price on his head by the Biden Administration, and $50 million price on his head by the Trump Administration, was NOT the undisputed head of state. He lost his last election by 67% but refused to step down.  

Opposition leader María Corina Machado claimed that based on vote tallies collected from over 80% of polling stations, presidential candidate Edmundo González won by 67% to Maduro’s 30%, alleging widespread electoral fraud.  Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela, and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from a dictatorship to a democracy." Machado presented President Donald Trump with her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize Medal because of his support for supporting democratic rights and free elections for the people of Venezuela, and for the elimination of the 12 year dictatorship in Venezuela.

Operation Absolute Resolve was a carefully planned and a well-coordinated operation, executed to arrest and capture Venezuela’s wanted, international criminal, and narco-terrorist who was defeated in his re-election bid and was alleged to have no legal status in Venezuela as the Head of State.  The United States took advantage of its proximity to Venezuela and to the detriment of Communist China, Russia, Cuba, and Iran, employed its massive US Naval Force to execute Operation Absolute Resolve which reshaped alliances throughout the Western Hemisphere.  

For too long, US Presidents ignored threats from foreign countries and drug cartels operating in North, Central, and South America.  President Trump is restoring the idea of keeping the Western Hemisphere free from foreign threats and from drug cartels proliferating throughout the Western Hemisphere.  President Trump’s plan is not about remaking societies in the Western Hemisphere. It is about helping the people in countries like Venezuela, with a dictator, to reclaim its freedoms and rebuild its economies on their own terms.  

To listen to the below listed video recording’s, discussion of the carefully crafted Venezuela strategy, initiated to arrest and remove Maduro and his wife from Venezuela.

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DTTvAR-DYrX/

Copyright by Capt Joseph R. John.  All Rights Reserved.  The material can only be posted on another website or distributed on the internet by giving full credit to the author.  It may not be published, broadcast, or rewritten without the permission from the author.