For anyone hoping 2026 would be less eventful that 2025, U.S. helicopters dropping Special Forces troops into Venezuela to capture and extract Nicholas Maduro probably wasn’t what you had in mind.But even with some details still coming out, the rapid success of Operation Absolute Resolve deserves a closer examination as does the now much more complicated open question…With Maduro in custody but the members of his Government still in place, what might be coming next for Venezuela?Today the focus will be on the op itself, with the tanker war, and more global implications to be the focus of a follow up episode.