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Maduro Captured

E. Kent Golding
@EKentGolding
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The USA has apparently captured Nicolás Maduro. The Venezuelan president clearly is a communist bad actor, and didn't give up power after losing a national election.

My question is: What exactly do we do with him? The White House is stating that he will face criminal charges in the USA. Not being familiar with the law, I do not know what US laws he could violate in Caracas. I sure hope the White House goes jurisdiction shopping and picks one where the jury pool and the judges are strongly right-wing. I think a better bet would have been to announce nothing and silently stash him in Guantanamo. Keep him off US soil. Or a drone strike? I sure hope this action doesn't unite Venezuela behind the communists.

How do you think this will play out? What do you think we should do with Maduro?

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Discussion (12)

  • Tex929rr@Tex929rr

    A shocking headline to see when I got up this morning. I wonder if there was collusion with dissident elements in the government. Kind of the opposite from Iraq in that snatching the head of state was the first thing we did.

  • Sisyphus@Sisyphus
    E. Kent Golding (View Post):

    I think a better bet would have to announced nothing, and silently stashed him in Guantanamo.

    I am as curious as anyone as to how this plays out. By all appearances, this will leave a problematic power vacuum in Venezuela that Maduro's goons are in the best position to fill. But it is not clear how this will play out or what measures have been taken to mitigate the end result. That said, the idea that Maduro should have been disappeared in some fashion by US forces is one that I cannot like. The renditions started under W were a mistake that did not leave us freer and postponed a reckoning regarding the authority and limits of Article III judges that are biting us in the tuchus with their overreach still. And they emboldened bad actors who since have cheerfully planned Russiagate and the Fedsurrection. But I do understand the urge.

  • E. Kent Golding@EKentGolding
    ReplyingtoSisyphus
    E. Kent Golding (View Post):

    I think a better bet would have to announced nothing, and silently stashed him in Guantanamo.

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    I am as curious as anyone as to how this plays out. By all appearances, this will leave a problematic power vacuum in Venezuela that Maduro’s goons are in the best position to fill. But it is not clear how this will play out or what measures have been taken to mitigate the end result. That said, the idea that Maduro should have been disappeared in some fashion by US forces is one that I cannot like. The renditions started under W were a mistake that did not leave us freer and postponed a reckoning regarding the authority and limits of Article III judges that are biting us in the tuchus with their overreach still. And they emboldened bad actors who since have cheerfully planned Russiagate and the Fedsurrection. But I do understand the urge.

    Thanks. I do not claim to know the best course of action on this one. I hope the White House knows the best course of action.

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