After months of speculation, the US has captured Venezuela’s President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Operation Absolute Resolve will be severely scrutinized for decades. It is a return to the Divine Right of Kings when Britain attempted to reclaim the US Colonies from Canada between 1812 and 1815.
| Offensive | Key Objective | Primary Result |
| Washington | Political disruption / Retaliation | Captured and burned the capital |
| Baltimore | Economic damage / Halt privateering | British repulsed; US National Anthem written |
| Plattsburgh | Territorial gain / Control of NY | British retreat after naval defeat |
| New Orleans | Strategic control of Mississippi | Decisive American victory; war ended |
On this exercise in global piracy, Nicholas Maduro and Cilia Flores were taken from their home in Caracas. After complex military manoeuvres, the couple reached Stewart Air Guard Base in Newburgh just north of NYC and then to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where prisoners wait on remand before their legitimate trials.
The real culprit on remand at MDC Brooklyn is President Trump himself and his protection of SWIFT system (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) for the global supervision of financial transactions. The SWIFT system is the global postal service for the financial world. It is a secure, standardized messaging network that allows more than 11,000 financial institutions in over two hundred countries to communicate instructions for moving money and assets.
Multiple Central Bank Digital Currency Platform (mBridge) is a high-tech alternative to the SWIFT/Correspondent banking system. It is a multi-country platform that uses Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) to move money across borders instantly. While SWIFT is a controlling messaging system in the global economy, mBridge is a more decentralized settlement system. It can move financial transfers in local currencies independent of the current value of the US dollar.
The invasion of Venezuela creates a dilemma for other middle powers like Australia with a rhetorical commitment to rules-based diplomacy and national sovereignty in the troubled times of the Trump II era.
Surprisingly, there has been no public discussion about the value of some Australian association with BRICS+ Countries to consolidate our currently sound economic indicators.
Our leaders fear the wrath of the Trump administration whose antics are protected by agents of the US Trade Representatives (UTRs) at US embassies around the world. Here is an opportunity for Australian leaders to demonstrate their policy independence from the Trump administration. There are also legitimate fears from the backlash of an increasingly politicized mainstream commercial media which thrives on leaks from intel services to demand loyalty to the US Global Alliance.
The current crisis increases the possibility of a hard landingfor the global economy with extraordinary budgetary and national debt levels in most OECD countries. Australia maintains quite exceptional economic indicators because of its trading ties to the predominantly BRICS-oriented countries of Asia
Readers should note the contribution of the former Greek Treasurer in Yanis Varoufakis in anticipating these dilemmas facing Australian leaders with their historic majority in both houses of the federal parliament if a true uniting front can be forged with independent and progressive members of the Senate crossbench. This is an opportunity for a more independent policy resolve here before the global house of cards crumbles as predicted by Yanis Varoufakis.
Talking Up Independent Policy Resolve
Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building on the critical issues raised in each article. Your comments on this and related articles can be recorded on theaimn.net site.
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If this is the standard of journalistic excellence that our media regulators and politicians consider is acceptable then Dennis is correct on 2 points:
1. Neither the Australian media nor the politicians subscribe to what we once understood real democracy to be.
2. Both the media and politicians treat Australian citizens with absolute disrespect and contempt if they think that American aggressive domination is not actively interfering in Australia’s sovereign integrity just as America has done with multiple Latin American nations.
Australians need to learn more about the BRICS Trade Group and the return of the Gold Standard supported by PRC CHINA. The five founding economies have been joined by 100+ other economies, thus escaping the domination of the $US dollar as the currency for international trade, which generates significant profits for US bankers.
However, late 2025 trade figures quoted about $850 BILLION worth of international trade completed under the BRICS system, meaning a loss of profits for the US bankers.
Perhaps AIMN could sponsor an explanatory article for the benefit of the readers.
There are great pressures on Middle Powers like Australia to conform to the Trump agendas. On the issue of the capture of Nicholas and Cilia, support is more hesitant, even from Sir Keir Starmer. I do not underestimate the difficulties facing our Australian leaders when most developed countries are controlled by far-right parties. Australia, Denmark and Britain are the exceptions but their governments are in the loops of US financial controls, military leaderships sympathetic to President Trump and intel services with a capacity to leak stories to the media that accepts piracy and military aggression as the normal state of affairs.
Donald Trump is acting like a pirate chief – unbelievable!
Australia is not a “middle power”. We are a very small Nation, 27 million people, tucked away in the South Pacific. Our influence on the rest of the world is minimal. We should just shut up, sit down and wait for the USA Empire to destroy itself which it is doing at an alarming rate. Let’s just try to make Australia a better place to live which, really, is all we can do.
Well spoken, Garry Bates. However, Australia is so embedded in Trump’s financial and military empires which are crippled by debt and deficit. US allies from Japan to Germany share these structural weaknesses. Our leaders are wary of these influences which receive strong support from the LNP and the commercial news outlets like Sky News. This time Trump has gone too far and many NATO leaders are reluctant to support his piracy. Albo can afford to be more independent in his responses and has called for diplomatic solutions to the crises unfolding in the financial house of cards as more countries join the BRICS network.
The guy wasnt “detained”, he was kidnapped.
Our national sovereignty under the SWIFT system of financial transfers has real limits and staff loyal to the US Trade Representative operate out of US Embassies and related intel services to keep humanity tightly in the US Loop
Australia must speak out against the antics of the capture of President Madura and his wife Cilia
I keep seeing that false and deceitful claim that Maduro was “captured” when in fact he was fucking ABDUCTED! And if Australia is a “middle power” then I must be Lady Gaga! But whatever you do, don’t hold your breath waiting for “Albo” to rock the boat. https://open.substack.com/pub/maximgrosky/p/wag-the-dog-20?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
First, they came for the Chinese and we sent a gun boat up there to be a part of the game.
Then they came for the Russians and we said nothing because, well, we were told bolshy was bad, besides the mother country was a part of it.
Then they came for the Palestinians and we said nothing because we’d swallowed the Hasbara propaganda wholesale.
Then they came for Iranians and we said nothing, well, leftist government and it wasn’t our oil.
Then they came for Guatemalans, Cubans, Brazilians, Bolivians, Costa Ricans and Ecuadorians and we said nothing because our leaders and spy agencies didn’t like left-wing governments either.
Then they came for the Indonesians and we aided and abetted because our leaders didn’t want a left-wing government on our doorstep.
Then they came for the Chileans and we aided and abetted because, well, they elected a left-wing government, cheeky blighters.
Then they came for El Salvadorans, Bolivians and Brazilians a second time, Uruguayans, Argentinians and Paraguayans and we said nothing out of habit.
Then they came for the Vietnamese and we joined in on a lie from our leader who told us about being invited over there.
Then they came for Grenadians and we said nothing as it was another left-wing government.
Then they came for the Congolese and we said nothing because it was another third world leftist government.
Then they came for the Yugoslavians and we said nothing as it was in Europe’s backyard.
Then they came for the Lebanese and we said nothing because it was over there.
Then they came for Panamanians and we said nothing, well the aggressors said it was drugs and who are we to argue.
Then they came for Libyans and we said nothing because of Lockabee.
Then they came for Afghanistan and the Taliban and we said nothing because we wanted the USA as our ‘protector’ so we eventually joined in as well.
Then they came for Iraq and we joined in because of the ‘protector’ thingy, and our leader lied to us about weapons of mass destruction.
Then they came for Syria and we said nothing because we had been in Iraq.
Then they came for Iran again and our glorious leader said we are right there with you in spirit; ‘protector’ thingy again.
Then they came for Venezuela and our glorious leader said we support international law and I hope the transition is peaceful – bless his heart – ‘protector’ thingy again.
Then they came for Iranians again …..
Then they came for Greenlanders….
….
Then they came for us and there was no one left to speak up for us.
Suggestions that Australia should sit down and shut up about international matters are mistaken.
Historically Australia has been silent about Western interference and colonialism but vociferous in its condemnation of actions that breach international law by other countries – this is likely to continue in the future. Suggestions that we should not be critical of the USA breaking international law ignore the likelihood of a Lib/Lab leader in reality cheerleading US actions no matter what they are.
Liberal leaders have lied to us in the past in order to lead us into US wars of aggression and Labor is utterly subservient to the USA.
The USA is not just bullying, extorting and attacking other nations in breach of international law, it is dismantling both international law, the ICC and ICJ, and the United Nations itself – that does not serve Australia’s interests, nor worldwide interests.
Sitting down and shutting up is just tacitly endorsing the USA’s destruction of any chance of international cooperation towards peace.
As for waiting for the USA to destroy itself, don’t hold your breath. It has a population of something like 700 million and a history of brutish, self-serving disdain for international law. It may have to play second fiddle, but it isn’t going to destroy itself, and whatever is left after Trump is likely to pickup the pieces and continue in that mode as it is run by corporations (including its military-industrial industry) and supremacist lobby groups through AIPAC and not the people.
Well said Gazza (Gonggongche), what will we do when the US demands that we follow it into yet another losing war which is not about freedom for anyone but about bloated bank accounts for trump, his followers and the cancer called the military industrial complex? Will we fold as we always do, or will be find the spine that we need to say no to more illegal attempts at empire building by the US.
Thanks for an interesting article on Venezuala.
I always circulate my articles on Facebook. This current article earnt me a suspension for 180 days. I also subscribed to the digital Australian so that I have instant feedback on the opinion leaders from the Murdoch press. Reporting has been so bad lately that I have cancelled this subscription.
Topical and well researched…thank you Denis!
Yes Denis, short and sweet (as in well said).
I too have cancelled all my Oz msm subscriptions, rarely use Meta, Google and Microsoft comms and have tracing turned off (difficult to do properly), albeit some Oz agencies try to force you onto Google esp. I use alternate open-sourced non-aligned privacy assured comms products. I still get across all msm news via a built-in ‘News’ app on my smartphone.
But still I know big bro can read all my stuff (not just meta-data) and get at me if they wish. I know for sure they did once when I was working in international aerospace, but I retired from that very soon after 9/11. Since Trump II, I wouldn’t go to America in a pink fit.
Now I’m a fully retired age pensioner living via a reduced footprint up the bush. Not much use to anyone.
Yes, Gonggongche.. As said Pastor Niemoller, before the Gestapo picked him up
Hannah Arendt said, “the banality of evil”?
Perhaps folk get desensitized after a while
Too the rest: I am fed up with FB too.I haven’t been able even to get on just lately.
Zuckerberg is a chook.
Trump’s antics in Venezuela are weakening the appeal of the All the Way with the USA style of politics in Australia and other Middle Powers: Time to appreciate the fear strategies which are being used to threaten the global remnants of Labor Governments in Malta, Spain, Denmark, Norway and Britain. Let’s show some empathy for this global problem and not be too demanding.