Snip:
The Exxon CEO’s comments were echoed by Conoco’s boss, Ryan Lance, who said: “We need to be also thinking about even restructuring the entire Venezuelan energy system, including PDVSA.”
What that means is that Venezuela is far from under US control.
Maduro may have been abducted, but the Venezuelan government continues under interim President Delcy Rodriguez and the same administration as when Maduro was in office. Rodriguez and her top aides, including Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, have condemned the US aggression and are demanding the safe return of Maduro and his wife.
Venezuela has not collapsed, nor has its socialist government been overthrown. The scores of warships and 15,000 troops, as well as 200 special operations commandos, deployed at an estimated cost of over $600 million to kidnap Maduro, seem to have brought a Pyrrhic victory.