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Radio War Nerd EP #571 — Kidnapping Maduro (Emergency Episode) (Patreon)

Published:
2026-01-04 22:46:13
Edited:
2026-01-05 01:43:06
Imported:
2026-01
Tags:

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Recorded: January 4, 2026

A RWN emergency ep on Trump's military attack on Venezuela, kidnapping the country's president and murdering for kicks.

Total time: 1:11:25Direct link to this episode's mp3 here

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Buy & review John Dolan's new book, They Should Have Been Hanged: War Nerd Essays on the U.S. Civil War

Subscribe to Radio War Nerd at patreon.com/radiowarnerd

Sound production by Telescope Audio

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Comments

JacoB

First

Pádraic

Thank you for releasing this almost exactly when my lunch break started 🙏

Benke

When Donald attacks the nerd strikes back!

Sam Zeng

The war podcasting business is booming

Christopher Small

There seems to be a lot of people assuming that there must’ve been some kind of deal worked out behind the scenes. Because otherwise they just kidnapped a head of state while doing absolutely nothing about the rest of the chain of command, with no real follow up plan, but they still went ahead and told everyone they run Venezuela now. You NEED to assume something so that doesn’t look myopic and stupid… … and, like, knowing Trump, which do you think is more likely?

Ezra de Leon

The part at the end has reminded me that I still haven't read Stan Gough's Full Spectrum Disorder. I tried hard to find it but I'll give it another shot.

Alex

More like the lack of military resistance implies a deal was probably struck beforehand. Venezuela isn’t helpless, they have a fairly modern military that’s presumably capable of shooting down a helicopter in the middle of Caracas…

William Brame

Is it possible they are saying it was an inside job just to sew discord?

William Brame

I feel like not enough people talk about Bezos being a gusano

Elsie Hupp

You know who deserves to be appointed “Transitional President” of Venezuela? Hillary Clinton! Yes, Venezuela deserves better, but Hillary deserves her own bathetic Maximiliana!

Christopher Small

Ok, so, like, who exactly? Some insider high up in the government or just some guy who'd been bribed to give the where abouts of Maduro and not tip the air defenses? Or hell, maybe it was just that somebody who got cold feet at the prospect of starting a shooting war. The term "palace coup" is getting thrown around a lot, implies a plan of action that's gonna get rolled out. But what plan of action are we seeing here? Are Maduro loyalists getting purged? Is there some clamp down on the Venezuelan public? Wishy washy talk of a transition or trying to "find a solution?" Oh, they "picked" Delcy? Convenient she was already the next person in line. And convenient their plan for her is... the same thing they were already doing. This all just looks like they took a shot in the dark and hoped for the best.

Jonathan Whiston

I dont think it would have been so easy for them otherwise. No one seems to have even been firing at those US helicopters... You might be right though!

Hilary is Pant-suited Syphilis

I always think things couldn’t get any worse and then they do. I have a feeling one of the demands placed on the US coup government will be that the oil going to Cuba cease immediately ratcheting up the genocidal blockade.

CR

Pointing out hypocrisy is the laziest and most pathetic form of The Discourse.

CR

Trump is just playing the Better to be Feared card because it works. Only the most ideologically committed right-wingers want mass deportations; people who think Republicans and conservatives are traitors. Trump and the Republicans don't because they keep shit cheap and it's easier to keep them under control through fear, including those Sharpist, NGO diaspora losers (And you fucking know he thinks they are losers because they don't have actual power and they are stupid enough to think the way to engage him is to kiss his ass). On another notes, I'm sure there's a 100% correlation between people in the mainstream, legacy media who bitched openly or cowardly about Bari Weiss spiking the CECOT story and people who were directly involved in concealing this story or support concealing this story until after the fact just like when the NYT killed the illegal NSA surveillance story in 2004 because it might affect the election. As the right wingers say, no matter how much you hate the media, it is not enough.

JoR

Can’t listen till tomorrow but my conspiratorial guess is Maduro himself made a deal to get snatched, unsure if the rest of the government knew or not. He seemed to be trying to capitulate for a while, and this is a method that trump would want for his base. Plus, they captured him and his wife, no issues? A little too clean, even if everything went perfectly

Nicholas Levis

Disappointed that you have so readily and going on such little evidence joined the speculations that the Maduro kidnapping must have been the result of a deal with the Venezuelan military or the vice-president. The death toll of Saturday's aggression, according to US estimate, was a minimum of 40 civilians and military killed in the surprise attack. [CORRECTION: Death toll now estimated at 80 people murdered at 8 locations, including 32 citizens of Cuba.] Do they count? Are we saying the VZ government made a deal to have them massacred by the invaders? In this case, I question whether a distinction between civilians and military should apply, as they were all targeted by a completely illegitimate and illegal surprise act of aggression. It's all murder. The speculation about a deal instead insinuates the Venezuelan government invited the US to come in and murder a random selection of eighty (or 400, for all we know at this point) of their people; just so that the insatiable Trump gets a face-saving achievement for a day, backs off for a few minutes, and then makes more arbitrary demands and threats and perhaps further attacks against Venezuela and several other nations; until their revolution and their country are destroyed. For this action, the US-Americans had total superiority in the air, overwhelming firepower, superior numbers and gear at any point of attack they might choose, and automatic initiative at any time they chose to attack. It's an old imperialist story. The outcome need not be the fucking mystery made out by those who want to pose themselves as smarter than the sheeple by treating a straightforward international crime as so complicated that everyone's somehow complicit and it's no longer clear who the obvious perpetrators are. Everyone's hands are dirty, everyone's the bad guys, so whatever happened it's okay. And you know what? Even a back-channel coercion, let's say via threats to kill thousands if the targeted state does not comply, is still coercion. It is entirely the act of the sole perpetrator, the US regime that fabricated a laughable casus belli and has been murdering hundreds of random people sailing out of Venezuela at sea for months. At this stage of pure speculation, the speculation of a secret deal to "surrender" Maduro (via the death of at least 40 Venezuelan citizens) is propaganda, even if part of it later turns out to be true. It serves to justify or at least excuse the announced US takeover of Venezuela as an inevitable, quasi-natural event, done with the assent and willing cooperation of the Venezuelan state. To be honest, it smacks of CIA or Trumpian disinfo designed to sow discord and chaos in Caracas.

Hugo

RWN always provides great coverage, although I don’t always agree with the perspective. However, I find a lot of people active here follow these events purely as a form of entertainment which is a bit depressing. The reality is that the hybrid warfare which has been waged against Venezuela for decades and culminated with the kidnapping of their president is a great human tragedy. Venezuela attempted the most radical break with the capitalist system in decades and has been punished for it ever since. Chavez Vive, la Lucha Sigue.

Greg

This is the best one I've ever seen

Alec

I don’t think killing the Romanov children was smart because the international coalition invaded Russia to restore feudalism anyway. To me, the lesson is you don’t actually have to kill the kids because they’re going to send a counter-revolutionary army to overthrow you no matter what you do

Telemechus

Mark your Trump impression around the hour mark was pretty good

Cameron Young

Nukes are the only sovereignty Going to war for chevron is this cool to people ? I think maybe the new president of Venezuela is playing it a bit slow and saying Yes to everything now and likely buying time a bit. But the domestic situation has to be her biggest focus. Get the refineries back running and try to gather alignment for the next steps. How terrible.

John

U guys should try and get seth harp on !

John

Or alan mcloud from mintpress.

John

Yeh plus killing kids is fucking awful no matter how u look at it. Utterly barbaric.

Lord-Admiral of the Pyrenees

Just admit it: America’s enemies are pathetic jokes and no matter how much the US blunders they always win

John

Yeh there’s no way u can just fly into a country in helicoptors and steal the president like that. Had to be some type of prearrangement.

A Dog

Genuine question: what is the evidence that Maduro stole the last election? The Venezuelan opposition is deeply divided and hate each other more than they hate the Chavistas. It seems entirely possible to me that they lost for that reason. Also why are people assuming that there was a top level colaborator just because Trump says so?

Maciek

OPERATION: SOUTHERN BLOW

Christopher Small

There’s a huge difference between between finding some guy to point out where Maduro is a leaving the door open, which seems likely, and pulling off a full-on palace coup, which there seems very little reason to believe happened. But a bunch of people are making a bunch of prognostications based on the idea that it WAS a palace coup, and it’s maddening

Hugo

If Venezuela was a pathetic joke, they wouldn’t be able to maintain sovereignty after decades of hybrid warfare by the most powerful country in the world. It’s like Mark says, unfortunately the reality is that the US has military capabilities that no other country possesses. And even if there was some behind the scenes coordination between aspects of the Vz state and the US, that itself is result of coercion, threats, and that sabotage. Have you considered that maybe it’s not easy for a middle income country of a few tens of millions of people under a state of constant siege to compete with the largest empire?

JoR

If there was no collaboration or deal made, then that’s a much worse indictment on the Venezuelan government. It was way too clean and successful lol

Maciek

I think the entertainment comment isn’t quite right. I mean i cant speak for the entire audience but for me, there is nothing entertaining about war or human suffering. Its just, atleast from a previously viewpoint of someone who lived outside on the margin, grew and dealt drugs, anything to feel like I wasnt directly destroying peoples lives by participating in the great American international experiment, protested every police and military action because I felt like I had no other moral choice. Nothing changes and everything gets slowly shittier. Being able to make the occasional joke at the absurdity of the situation is all I get left keeping me sane. I cant even grow weed anymore because its become another avenue to shovel money into banker and bitcoin bros hands. This country beats you down until you either become homeless, crazy from your inability to affect any meaningful change against the empire or you use that craziness and become a cheerleader for empire. I think maybe, any making light of the situation you’re detecting is just people using gallows humor to stay sane in an insane country. I made a late in life career change because becoming homeless was not the kind of living on the margins life I could ever do, itd kill myself before that. But I now struggle with that decision because I wont be able to feign ignorance in my own actions regarding the empire. All I got left really is podcasts like this and a few others keeping me going, and maybe the feint idea that one day Ill throw my own life away to gum up the cogs of empire for atleast a little bit. Shits fucked brother.

William Brame

It’s coming out now that there was a fight. Venezuelans report waking up to it at 2am and we know of at least 32 Cubans were killed in the fight.

William Brame

Shooting down a U.S. helicopter from the distance needed to prevent the operation would also have been a PR failure and make the sanctions even worse. It would’ve justified a full scale invasion, where now they have to give Maduro his day in court.

Torgeir Tannenwald

I get that people don't want to believe backroom deals were made but I really struggle to understand why they haven't even come out with a death toll yet. Why not come out with preliminary numbers unless you want to tone it down? I'm not saying this proves anything at all for or against insider knowledge/help, but it points toward the direction the leadership want to follow for now.

Kevin Walsh

The evidence that Maduro stole the last election is that Venezuela's electoral commission didn't publish the proof that he won, which they did in all the previous elections.

grey

Its weird how much this is being celebrated openly and how violating norms is openly bragged about with language like 'we're strong. laws? Having a big stick is what really rules the world!'. The same guys that complain about Epstein, corporations, the elites and shadow government are celebrating like violating Venezuela is going to make their life better instead of just empowering who they complain about every day. The machine that they frame as Satanic or at least dystopian when its wielded against them is vicariously celebrated when pointed outward. 'Finally, the machine is working on my side!' even though they'll never see the benefits while paying all the costs.

David Haigh

Agreed on the backroom deals aspect, I don't see how this makes sense without their being a high degree of complicity from somewhere.

Aidan Coffey

Wonder if Cuba had any military assets in Venezuela. They're pretty good at kickstarting insurgencies...

kevin brannigan

The documentary mentioned at the top of the show is - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Not RTE made but made by Irish filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain. https://vimeo.com/513876099

Schaeffer Mallory

I think the plan to "run the country" is to assassinate, airstrike, and generally just terrorize Venezuela into submission. Who's gonna stop them?

Cameron Young

OPERATION : YOU KILLED KENNY YOU BASTARDS

CT

Diaz-Balart’s father was under secretary of the interior under Batista

JoR

This is a fair question. It’s hard for us to truly understand how they think. But, like John, I spend way too much time reading right-wing comments. Specifically, instagram, which is truly awful and a great way to get a pulse on what the everyday conservative thinks lol. I’ll try to hash out my amateur observations: 1. Yes, the crowd you describe are generally anti-Epstein (obvious), and in more vague ways anti corporate, and MAYBE anti intervention. But for their own reasons. It seems a lot of the anti corporate stuff is “there woke!” And, especially now: “they’re all run by Indians taking our jobs!” (Different topic but while the right is split on Israel and Jewish people, they seem to universally hate Indians.) same with the anti intervention stuff. They’re against what they perceive as “democrat” or neocon interventions. Iraq, Afghanistan, basically “winning” yet occupying a “third world shithole” where we slowly bleed out money and people. Now, Venezuela may eventually get to that point. But they relish the idea of a “quick and easy” win. Like Grenada, or this operation. 2. Regarding the love for the shadow government, military industrial complex, shady advisors actually running foreign policy, these are all things they may or may not care about. But Trump is great at PR for his base. This Venezuela operation has all of the PR points they love (again, so far). AirPower blowing up valuable targets, a perfect special forces operation, capturing a high value target alive, and no casualties . 3. This is sort of a separate point, but there is a decent chunk on the right who are truly “anti intervention” . They really were mad when trump bombed Iran, and reluctantly went along once it all ended. Same with this. But, I say this genuinely, the only real reason the seem to be anti intervention is “any time we do, it’s Israel and the Jews telling us to!”. Their logic for us doing Venezuela is two things: no Rothschild bank in Venezuela (only Iran and DPRK left), and cuz the opposition leader is a fervent Zionist and will move the Venezuelan embassy to Jerusalem . TLDR: there is a vocal minority of conservatives who are truly anti intervention. But overall, these people are really just average, “red blooded” Americans. They grew up on shit like, idk, John Wayne , winning all our wars, “not being PUSSIES” and, well, winning. If we go further into Venezuela and it’s a mess, maybe they’ll be grumblings of discontent. But hey, maybe all my rambling is irrelevant. All that truly matters is “Whatever trump did pisses off my liberal family members and coworkers, so it’s the right move)

JoR

Not to give the EU elites too much credit, but I think they’re cynically on board with trumps move. Not for any principled reason, not even because they’re “scared” of trump (although generally true). But I think they see an opportunity. This was trumps “special military operation” and it made russias look like child’s play. A stupid comparison, but, apparently trump is mouthing this talking point off. And he’s also been a bit more critical of Russia/Putin since then. Maybe this is too much thinking, but, they may want to butter up trump with the “wow, your invasion was SO much better then russias! Doesn’t this remind you of how bad Russia’s war is? Maybe we can win it now, Mr President” lol

etienne

Pakistan is an interesting counter-example to that, they have The Bomb but their ruling junta does what the US wants anyways, more or less

Cameron Young

Pakistan was the example I was thinking of for a bit. They kept Afghanistan as their backyard and supported the Taliban and hid bin Laden. And always took a bite of the us money flowing from the DOD- But aligned with US on rigging its own elections. Sadly a puppet / compliant gov in Venezuela is more likely Or a chaotic unstable one.

Alec

Agreed. Why defend the indefensible? The king and queen should go, yes. “Ending the bloodline” is behavior that deserves to be left behind in feudalism. It makes sense contextually that they did it, because everyone had feudalism brain at the time, so a bloodline “meant something” to them. But it shouldn’t mean anything to a socialist society.

Red Herring McGuffin

It's CIA propaganda (a bunch of western NGOs said they were concerned 😟 😨) and Mark is being a fucking rube and taking it at face value.

AJ

That’s not accurate. This narrative is largely being pushed by Imran Khan’s supporters (I used to believe it myself) and by Indian commentators who have their own grievances with the Pakistani military. Pakistan’s electoral interference was an internal civil-military power struggle, not a U.S.-directed operation. There is no evidence that the United States orchestrated Pakistan’s elections. The military establishment acted to neutralize Imran Khan because he challenged entrenched domestic power structures, not because Washington demanded it. If Pakistan were truly a U.S. “puppet,” several things would look very different: • It would not have retained its nuclear arsenal. • It would not be strategically aligned with China. • Over 80% of its major weapons systems would not come from China. • It would not have stood firm during the May 2025 crisis, where multiple independent and third-party assessments concluded that Pakistan achieved its military objectives despite heavy international pressure to de -escalate. Reducing Pakistan to a compliant proxy ignores its consistent pursuit of strategic autonomy, often at the cost of strained relations with both Washington and New Delhi. Criticizing the military’s role in politics is fair, but projecting that grievance onto the U.S. is lazy analysis, not geopolitics.

Jay Sea

You guys should revisit the weaponized migrants/diaspora topic again. Lil Marco's wannabe Kissinger turn, and how successful he's been at Trojan horsing (barely) neocon ideas and tactics into MAGA-land, has made it pretty clear that we are in the zenith of weaponized diaspora power in this country.... with the insane state of Florida at the center of it all.

Cameron Young

Good morning Asad, Good points, I think I’ll clarify I believe Pakistan is its own actor and that the US did not directly interfere with the elections. The( I believe - )Biden appointed ambassador did approve of the election rigging, as was I disclosed through some leaked emails. Just alignment as mentioned. I don’t view Pakistan as a puppet. The comment of puppet or compliant is directed at Venezuela. I think that is a likely outcome. I think Venezuela becoming a Pakistan like state is less likely given its location, the minerals / oil it possesses and the general lunacy of the US elites about it. But who knows…

Jess

Latina erasure

AJ

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I appreciate the clarification, and I agree with you that Pakistan is its own actor and that the U.S. did not directly interfere in the elections. Where I continue to take issue is with how much of the war-nerd community tends to reflexively downplay Pakistan’s agency or performance, especially when it clashes with Indian narratives. During the May conflict in particular, it was brushed off as “routine,” despite multiple third-party and OSINT assessments indicating Pakistan achieved its operational objectives. Part of this, I think, has less to do with analysis and more to do with audience pressure. Openly acknowledging Pakistani success, or even criticizing India often triggers coordinated harassment campaigns, including rape and death threats, which Indian ultranationalist online networks are unfortunately known for. That reality absolutely shapes what many commentators feel comfortable saying out loud. There’s also a longer-standing imbalance in how the two states are treated. Even ostensibly “neutral” voices, like Aditya Velivelli in his episodes, consistently frame Indian actions with benefit-of-the-doubt context while Pakistani actions are pathologized or minimized. I’ve read John’s writing going back to the early 2000s, and that asymmetry has been there for a long time; it hasn’t fully updated with changes on the ground. One can legitimately criticize Pakistan’s civil-military dynamics and still be honest about battlefield outcomes. Pretending the May clashes were inconsequential isn’t neutrality, it’s selective analysis.

a clash of purple

It *is* entertaining, though. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. We're all part of the same hippopocrisy. There's no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism. Etc., etc.. I don't feel guilty because I listen to a podcast. The people who should feel guilty are Trump and all the people who directly carried out and enabled these crimes.

Doug Cartel

I'm so tired of hearing audio clips of these preening jackals. I only want to hear them when they're suffering

Elsie Hupp

I don’t think you understand: the goal here is for Hillary to erase *herself*… like Maximilian I of Mexico?

Elsie Hupp

To be fair I’m sure there are plenty of Latinas who equally deserve the same fate as Hillary Clinton… 😅

Jimothy Realname

Saving this one for the beautiful day when they lose

Jimothy Realname

You rehabilitate puyi and make his ass sweep - yes, that's the best case scenario.

Alec

The most effective punishment for the king is for him to be made a regular-ass guy. I completely agree. The thing capitalists fear most is being workers. Give him and his the same rights as everyone else in the new society, but no special privileges. They would rather die.

Hector Jaime

Does Trump have to appear in court and talk to Maduro? If so, would be hilarious if the meeting resulted the same way as the Mamdami one. “Maduro. He’s a great guy. I think he’ll do great things for Venezuela.”

Jackie Jump Jorp

Where is Stan Goff posting nowadays? I'm not finding his stuff where l used to look for it.