Operation ‘Absolute Resolve’ – the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro

There have been celebrations in many cities, mainly across the West regarding the capture kidnapping of Nicholas Maduro of Venezuela. Hi, ho, the merry-o, the brutal dictator is gone. Freedom has returned to Venezuela! So the story goes. But is it the truth? In what Trump has called “one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history,” Maduro was seized by Delta Force and DEA operatives in Caracas in the early morning hours of January 3. But there is quite a bit more to the story than the theatre that has been presented to the Western public. For more, read on…

Before we even start, what did we actually just see in Venezuela? Was it an action to ‘liberate’ Venezuela from the throes of a supposed brutal dictator? Was the United States responding to the collective cry of the people in Venezuela for freedom? Note the wording, notwithstanding the largest part of the Venezuelan diaspora did celebrate Maduro’s kidnapping. Will ‘Absolute Resolve’ play a major part in ending the flow of drugs into the US, notwithstanding the demand for those drugs in the US is very high? Or was this yet another regime change operation against a country that was not toeing Washington’s and Wall Street’s line? Even further, was this just simply an act of revenge?

Probing further still with questions, why were the air defences in Venezuela not activated? Was there some kind of deal made that allowed the kidnapping of Maduro to take place so easily? Was the military told to stand down? Was the government of Venezuela compromised? And were the people in Venezuela really out in the streets celebrating Maduro’s ousting? And why does Maduro look so chummy with his captors, while he has declared himself to be a prisoner of war at his first appearance in a US court? There are so many questions about this operation. Confusion reigns and the fog of war has been thick. Perhaps the astrology of the event and the two nations involved will give us some clues.

Why would the Trump administration engage in such an act? As facts are emerging, the strategy can probably be explained in the following short clip, which some readers may recognize:

We will have a look at the charts for the event, Venezuela and the United States presently. But first, we move to the background in order to fully understand the charts. There is a specific timeline at work here.

In the immediate days preceding Operation Absolute Resolve, as the Maduro operation was called, Bibi Netanyahu paid a visit to Mar-a-Lago to see Trump regarding several issues. Bibi is in serious trouble in Israel and he needs something, anything to keep him in power. War is just about the only thing left short of a full pardon that he could pin his hopes on at the moment. Support for Israel is flagging in the US. The various fronts that the Israelis have created are all stagnant. The world economy, at least in the West is looking shakier by the day and Iran is rapidly rebuilding and improving its air defences as well as its missile capabilities.

In Washington there are concerns over threats to oil production there, a pending Supreme Court decision on Trump’s tariffs which could conceivably have to be paid back to importers, the Epstein files which still haunt Trump, and a host of other ills.

So, on the 28^th and 29^th of December, after his meetings with Trump, Netanyahu was assured of US help with Iran. A few days before that, the CIA had attempted to bomb Putin’s residence outside of Moscow, this on the very day that Trump met with Zelenskyy discussing a possible peace deal. But even before that, we saw the largest naval grouping since the Iraqi and Afghan wars in the Caribbean region, which was putting pressure on Venezuela.

Maduro had been negotiating with the Trump administration regarding oil rights, with the Trump administration knocking back every offer that Maduro had made. During this process, as we will illustrate later, the CIA was busy in Venezuela paying off officials and making deals behind the scenes. During all this, Maduro was oblivious to what was happening. As it turns out, the man was perhaps quite naïve regarding his security detail.

Maduro gave an interview to Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet just before his kidnapping, where he spoke of relations with the US, Venezuela’s openness to deals with American oil companies (Chevron has operated there for years), the social situation in Venezuela and the progress of Chavista socialism in Venezuela. You can see it on Telesur TV with English dubbing.

Sanctions have bitten by the US havde bitten hard on the Venezuelan economy for years, ever since the Chavez revolution and the nationalization of the oil industry in Venezuela. Washington has refined its regime change strategy to a fine art. The first step is to sanction a country until it is on his knees financially, as Nixon did to Chile in the 70s, just before the other 9/11 and the overthrow of Allende. At that point the CIA sends in its operatives to pay off officials and to make deals for the morning after, as it were. The next step is to cause unrest in that nation by paid provocateurs, as we see now in Iran and in so doing to destabilize the country. The final step, if the unrest does not unseat the government, is to send in special forces and take out the leadership. This is what we just saw in Venezuela.

So, at 01:50 AM in Caracas, Venezuela, Operation Absolute Resolve was executed. Maduro and his wife were seized at their residence and airlifted out of the country in chains. The Trump administration, having no care for conventions, especially the Geneva Convention (Art 13), posted pictures Maduro and paraded him through the streets of New York.

The problem here is that there was no debate in Congress for this military action, in seizing the leader of a sovereign country. The message to the world is to watch one’s back when dealing with United States. And further, always have one’s military on alert whenever one is negotiating with Washington. Hamas, Iran, and Moscow can all tell you why.

So now we come to the chart of the event, which is below (bigger):

The immediate stand out in the chart is the square by Pluto from the fourth house to the Horizon axis. The 4^th house represents the opposition to the sitting government in a political chart, such as this one. It also represents land and infrastructure. Pluto represents subversion and underhandedness. It also represents treason. There are reasonable suspicions that Maduro and his wife were betrayed. The people of Venezuela, represented by the 1^st house, probably had no idea what just took place. That is just the beginning of the story, though.

The operation took place mere hours before the full moon, forming the full moon axis, and squaring Ceres, marking a turning point of some sort, to which we will return. But there was also a midpoint with the Sun and Venus at that point, formed with Uranus, showing the surprise element as well as the suddenness of the event. The Sun, Venus and Mars were in a stellium, with only a couple degrees of separation. The Sun with Venus and Mars is often found with marriages, and in this case Maduro and his wife were both taken. His wife, Cilia Flores, was roughed up in the process, suffering a black eye, cracked and bruised ribs and a laceration on her head.

There was also significant influence from two dwarf planets – Haumea and Quaoar – which adds depth to the chart. Haumea was at the Ascendant for the event. Haumea was a Hawaiian fertility goddess who constantly renewed herself by transforming from an old woman to a young lady who would then mate with her ancestors and give birth to new lineages. Haumea is one of the planets associated with rebirth, often through difficult circumstances, as well as the arising of important new leadership figures. She was also the mother of the Hawaiian god of war.

The other dwarf planet, Quaoar, is closely associated with the Los Angeles region and is conjunct the Sun in this chart. To describe its effect in a nutshell, Quaoar represents an energy that brings a new order out of chaos. The chaos in the chart is found in the following midpoint:

• • Mars=Saturn/Pluto: “Brutality, assault or violence, ruthlessness. – The necessity to fight for one’s existence or life, maltreatment.”

There was also the grouping by parallel of the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Pluto, equivalent to a powerful conjunction. That potent parallel went toward accounting for the strong fog of war with the event and the viral spin plastered across the mainstream and social media apparatus in the West.

What we see in the influence of these two dwarf planets is the possibility of a rebirth for Venezuela under new leadership, born from the present chaos and brutality. Rule by the United States would be a setback instead of a rebirth. The US has been trying to strangle Venezuela since 2019 when it imposed sanctions on Venezuela during the first Trump administration. At the time Tulsi Gabbard had tweeted that the people of Venezuela should decide their own fate without interference by the United States. Her tweet didn’t age well.

It was said that people were celebrating in the streets in Venezuela with the removal of Maduro. But fact checking has shown that most of the viral videos of celebrations for the ousting of Maduro were either fake or misattributed and all of them outside of Venezuela. We won’t go into all that here. What I have seen from inside Venezuela is anger at the United States for its intervention and Venezuelan affairs.

For all the people celebrating, and the people celebrating the celebrations of Venezuelans, we saw the same thing in Syria when Assad was toppled. We do not see a massive repatriation of Syrian expats. Perhaps they don’t want to go live in that bedevilled, unfortunate and fractured country. We saw it in Libya. There is a vibrant slave trade in Libya now, along with human trafficking. We saw it in Iraq in the 2003 war. Iraq remains a fractured and dangerous country, where Iraqis see no benefit from Iraq’s rich resources. But in fact, what Trump just attempted in Venezuela is a type of Syria redux.

What always happens with the US regime change operations, which Operation Absolute Resolve attempted, is that a government favorable to the United States is installed afterward. US style capitalism is enforced on the affected nation. Then the population suffers, while US corporations reap the benefits. Unless we are missing something here, the same thing was intended for Venezuela. That is unlikely to happen, though. Times have changed in Venezuela, which we will cover at the end of this post.

Trump gave an address to the nation about the operation after the fact, where he described it as “…a spectacular assault. And it was an assault like people have not seen since World War II.” Veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan might disagree. As is always the case now with Trump, it was a rambling address, full of lies and talking about how great and powerful the United States is. The truth is, the United States is very good at Delta Force type operations. But the United States is terrible at governing other nations after the fact. It would fare no better in Venezuela, and probably worse.

If US capitalism replaces the socialist system in Venezuela, there is one thing we can expect – a massive uprising over time, resulting in a guerrilla war that will drain the US, seeing it bogged down perhaps for years in that nation. There is a reason why the Chavez revolution took place, and it was precisely because the US controlled the oil and other resources in Venezuela. But the Venezuelans were seeing none of the benefit from it.

The Russians and the Chinese strongly condemned the US intervention in Venezuela as a matter of principle. But probably they are not too upset by it because they know it will further drain the US. Next we turn to the chart for Venezuela.

The chart for Venezuela with transits and directions is below (bigger):

The Sun for Venezuela is only 1° away from US Sun. On the day of the operation the transiting Sun and Venus were directly opposite the natal Sun, activating directed Neptune, with the transiting Moon and Uranus also activating the solar arc. The Sun rules the Venezuela Midheaven and the overall picture is one of a sudden operation to remove the leader of the country. The action was taken also at a moment’s notice, shown by transiting Uranus approaching the descendent of Venezuela’s chart.

In addition the directed Midheaven and Descendent of Venezuela were aspecting the natal Uranus with transiting Neptune activating the solar arc directions. We also see the directed Uranus square to the natal Pluto, showing the subversive activities and acts of violence against the nation. It also showed the shock to the nation. The intention with the operation was a shock and awe campaign aimed at destabilizing the country with the hope of regime change. Well, regime change has not happened, at least as yet. But we will come that back to that.

There is more to this with the astrology of Venezuela. The major standout for this operation is the dual emphasis by a solar arc of Neptune to the ascendant and Midheaven, showing the deception and weakness of the people and the government, as well indicating a period of great uncertainty for the nation. I did a rectification of the working chart for Venezuela when the whole Juan Guaidó saga was unfolding.

The information coming out now is that the director of the personal security detail for Maduro was paid off, along with the fact that there was a CIA recruit actually in the palace with Maduro, who would have given the signal for the go-ahead of the operation. The head of Maduro’s security was executed, along with the Delta Force killing the security detail guarding Maduro. Thirty-five Cubans were killed, probably Maduro’s security detail and Chavez’s mausoleum was destroyed in the bombing – a totally unnecessary and low act. All told, the raid and kidnapping now appears to be more an act of vengeance than one of a carefully planned regime change operation. There were also reports of an attempt at establishing a beachhead by American forces that was repelled.

Uranus/Pluto combinations often indicate something along the lines of putting a gun to someone’s head. We have seen this many times in past posts at this site. Then we move to the chart of the United States. The chart for the United States with directions and transits is below (bigger):

The main standout is much the same as that for Venezuela, in that the approaching full moon axis was on the American Sun. That axis also squared the US Saturn which was receiving a solar arc aspect from the directed Mars, with the full moon axis activating that combination. In addition, we see a rather interesting directed midpoint to the US Saturn, as follows:

• • Mars/Neptune=Saturn: “Instability, feelings of inferiority, misdirected energy. – Unfortunate consequences as a result of a weak will, lasting weakness or illness.”

Operation Absolute Resolve was a fateful act for the US. The Sun/Saturn square points to the Machiavellian nature of Washington, and in this action we see a supreme act of sabotage – self sabotage. The other nations of the West have meekly given tacit support for the operation, saying ‘they are closely monitoring the situation’. In other words, they will do nothing to oppose it. The wider world, instead, sees this action for what it is, which is that the United States has thrown all regard for international law out the window. It was an act of defiance in the face of increasing difficulty, typical for the Sun/Saturn square. The United States will double down on this type of action until it can no longer do so. The wider world is now challenged as to how to respond to it. There are options.

In addition to the combinations just described, we see the directed Pluto square to the US Jupiter, pointing to the influence of the American oligarchs. Pluto makes this square from the 10^th house near the Midheaven. This was an overt action to seize resources, to shore up the American economy, to satisfy the donor class, some of whom are ex-pat Venezuelans living in Florida.

And it is now known that Jewish billionaire Paul Singer confirmed the acquisition of the American Citgo oil operations in November, just before the attack on Venezuela. He was the father of ‘vulture capitalism’. He hopes to make an absolute fortune on the acquisition. It may also cost him. As well, we know that Trump had approached the oil companies days before the attack with the offer of a bonanza going back into Venezuela to recapture American influence over Venezuela’s oil reserves. It was a poisoned chalice.

Going back to the midpoint just listed, the oil companies refused thus far to go back into Venezuela, citing concerns over lack of security, the costs involved in restoring the oil infrastructure, the specter of litigation from China, and the question of stability within the Venezuelan government and services. They would have also noted that the armed Venezuelan civilian militias have been activated.

Then we move to the directed Midheaven, which is now conjunct the combination described in previous posts regarding the combination of Uranus, Ceres and Mercury. We know from those past posts that this marks a turning point in American history. We don’t know exactly how that will work out at the moment, but soon enough it will become apparent. The directed Midheaven was on the natal Uranus – a sudden turn of events. Then we have transiting Uranus square the US Moon and by sesquisquare to the US Pluto, adding a further note of uncertainty and surprise, coming from the US sixth house (services and military).

We see the directed US Sun squaring the US Mars, with Pete Hegseth declaring “America is back!” and the overall militant attitude coming out of Washington. This is all threat posturing. And finally, we have the directed Saturn, which had been sitting on the US Mars, now currently squaring the US Neptune. The natal Mars/Neptune square is key to understanding the ability of the US to spin their initiatives. With the Saturn direction to Neptune we see that the American narrative about this operation fell apart in around 48 hours. This marks the loss of credibility in the vaunted ideals constantly rolled out by the US, which has been the guiding light of Western culture since the end of World War II. That too has been thrown out the window.

Where do we go from here then? The plan from the American side probably looks something like this:

Basically, there is no US plan for what happens next. They collected Maduro and want to move straight to phase 3 – profits. But there are quite a lot of potholes in the road ahead if Washington wants to impose American style capitalism on Venezuela, and that starts with China, who had met with Maduro mere hours before he was kidnapped.

If the US tries to interfere with any contracts and Chinese financed infrastructure with Venezuela the US had better have an army of top-flight lawyers at hand, because the Chinese will vigorously pursue lawsuits against the US in international courts. Quite a lot of very embarrassing and damning information would probably be made public by the Chinese were that to eventuate.

As it stands Delcy Rodriguez stands as the interim President of Venezuela. The Chavista government stands, and we will likely see purging and investigations into how and by whom Maduro was betrayed. Rodriguez’a first act after she was sworn in was to hug the ambassadors from Russia, China and Iran. That sent a message to the US as to where her sympathies lie. There is a rising disinformation campaign against her meant to sour the Venezuelan public on her presidency. She had no part to play in Maduro’s betrayal. And there are officials still in place in Venezuela with bounties on their heads. The risk of another attack on Venezuela is very high. Thus far Rodriguez is holding to the policies of Maduro.

In a latest development Gen. Javier Marcano Tabata has been arrested (in Venezuela). He was the head of Venezuelan counter-intel and the Presidential Guard of Honor. He stands accused of leaking Maduro’s location to the Americans as well as ordering the stand-down of the air defences during the kidnapping.

As for Maduro he faces 30 years-to-life if convicted, with Cilia Flores facing up to 20 years. But here is the sticking point: The charge for which he was demonized and ‘arrested’ has been shown to be false, with the Justice Department having to admit that the ‘Cartel de los Soles’ never existed. The case against Maduro is flimsy at best. A good lawyer could get the case thrown out in a normal court case.

For the US, it is back to square one in terms of overthrowing the Venezuelan government. The show is over. It is back to business. Except now Venezuelans see the writing on the wall, and with security tightened, along with a very angry populace.

Looking at Venezuela’s astrology into the near future confusion will likely reign there for the next year or so. This is to be expected. There will be elections in Venezuela, mandated by their constitution, in four months. There will be little doubt that the United States and other interested parties will seek to interfere in those elections. If someone is elected whose policies run counter to Washington’s desires, then the elections will be called illegitimate and the sanctions and the threats will continue.

We will also know something else very shortly regarding the threats the US is making toward Venezuela at the moment. When we see the carrier strike groups leave the Caribbean area, then we will know either that the US has given up or that there is a Vichy type of regime in place in Venezuela. Any celebrations about the ‘liberation’ of Venezuela from Chavismo may have to wait a very long time, if such celebrations ever take place again. The streets of Latin America are firmly with Rodriguez. It is doubtful, given the Syrian experience, that Venezuelan expats will be returning to Venezuela any time soon. Trump, egged on by his donors and neocons, has just walked into a trap of his own making.

Original horse drawing from Financial Times. Modified pic from X.

Featured pic from Islamic Republic News Agency