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The return of the Monroe Doctrine

The end of an era?

At round 2am local time in the morning of 3 January this year, a force of some 150 US military aircraft used bombs and missiles to attack a series of targets in Caracas and outlying areas, clearing the way for approximately 200 Special Forces troops to come in by helicopter, surround a presidential compound at a military base in the capital, and capture President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Celia Flores. Despite armed resistance by his Venezuelan and Cuban bodyguards, Maduro surrendered; by 3.29 am he and his wife were extracted by aircraft and transferred to the USS Iwo Jima, part of a naval task force stationed in the south Caribbean. The next day Maduro and Flores were taken to a New York court where they were indicted on charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine trafficking, and possession of firearms, which they denied. The next hearing in the case is due in March. The operation to extract them from Venezuela, and bring them to a US court, codenamed Absolute Resolve, was widely deemed to have been a success.

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