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Dear Reader,
Why did the president do it?
Why did he seize Venezuelan president Maduro by the scruff early Saturday… and pack him off to the United States for future trial?
The administration informs us that the dastard kingpinned a vast illegal narcotic apparatus that menaces the United States.
Yet I have interrogated the figures. Only a shrinking percentage of illegal narcotics breaching American borders ship from Venezuela.
Do they exist? Yes, they do exist.
Yet by all reasonable accounts they constitute a relatively junior menace.
My agents inform me that the bulking majority of cocaine shipping from Venezuela terminates in Europe — not the United States.
My agents further inform me that the vast majority of fentanyl present within American shores originates in locations other than Venezuela.
Was It Because of Oil?
Did oil motivate the president to turn the Venezuelan caudillo out upon his ear… so that he may seize the caudillo’s assets?
I myself have inclined towards the oil theory. And the president’s post-capture comments did nothing to incline me away from the oil theory.
Said the president Saturday morning:
- We’re going to have our very large U.S. oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure…
I remind you that Venezuela boasts the largest proven oil reserves on Earth. And I suspect strongly that the American president is keen to lay his hands on them.
Yet was Venezuelan oil the president’s true pursuit this past weekend? And was the armed caper even of his own design?
Look to the Pentagon
Renegade Resources is an outfit that trains its eyes on geopolitics and the world’s commodity markets. From which:
- Trump’s public statements about oil and his claim that Venezuela’s resources will benefit the United States represent the political narrative constructed to sell the operation domestically.
- Yet who — or what — was this weekend’s operation’s true author?
- The answer, says Renegade Resources, can be located within a five-sided concrete behemoth squatting in Arlington, Va.:
- In the American national security apparatus, the Pentagon does not await presidential direction on major military operations. The Pentagon assesses threats, evaluates strategic priorities, and determines when military action crosses from option to necessity. The president then executes what the military establishment has already decided is required.
- This is not constitutional theory. This is operational reality. When the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and theater commanders present a unified position that a specific threat configuration demands military response, civilian leadership approves or faces the political consequences of overriding the uniformed military on national security grounds.
Just so. Yet why did senior Pentagon officials deem Senor Maduro’s Venezuela such a cardinal threat to United States interests… in Renegade Resource’s telling?
The answer reduces to a trio of converging menaces.
The Three Menaces That Prompted U.S. Action
One menace has Chinese origins. The second menace has Iranian origins. The third menace has Russian origins.
Renegade Resources:
- The decision to strike was made when the Pentagon concluded that the convergence of Chinese resource control, Iranian weapons manufacturing, and Russian military integration exceeded acceptable risk parameters.
- Trump’s role was to authorize what had already been deemed militarily necessary and provide political cover through public messaging about drugs and oil.
Let us first consider the Chinese dimension.
Do you recall the furor over President Trump’s threats to annex Greenland?
I have speculated — in these pages — that behind the president’s snarls was the quest for rare earth minerals, so-called.
Greenland boasts them in relative abundance.
These resources are essential ingredients of critical military equipment. China runs a near corner on their production, and has restricted their export to the United States.
And so: Was rare earth mineral production at minimum partially responsible for this weekend’s caper?
Rare Earths Are Just as Important as Ammunition and Fuel
Renegade Resources continues:
- The timing… corresponds to when critical minerals became the Pentagon’s top priority, when China restricted rare earth exports (April 2025) demonstrating willingness to weaponize supply chains, when Chinese buyers achieved operational control of Venezuelan mining operations…
- The Pentagon’s stockpiling initiative targets the exact materials found in Venezuela’s southern mining regions. Tantalum, derived from coltan ore, received $100 million in procurement funding. Antimony secured $245 million. Cobalt warranted $500 million.
- These are not market purchases. These are strategic reserve acquisitions designed to ensure weapons production continuity during supply chain disruption. The fact that the Pentagon allocated this funding demonstrates that critical minerals have been elevated to the same strategic priority tier as ammunition and fuel…
More:
- The supply chain from Venezuelan mines to Chinese refineries operates through both formal and informal channels, with Chinese buyers exercising operational control at the extraction source…
- This laundering mechanism allows Venezuelan minerals to enter legitimate global supply chains, including those feeding US defense contractors. The result is Pentagon weapons systems potentially incorporating materials extracted under Chinese buyer supervision in Venezuelan territory, then processed in Chinese refineries controlled by Beijing…
- China has positioned itself to control Venezuelan critical mineral output at the source, ensuring materials flow to Chinese processing facilities regardless of sanctions or formal government policy.
China’s “Strategic Encirclement” of the U.S. in Its Own Hemisphere
More yet:
- China’s 2025 export restrictions on rare earths, imposed as retaliation for US tariffs, intensified global competition for alternative sources and demonstrated Beijing’s willingness to weaponize critical mineral supply chains when convenient. Western nations seeking to diversify away from Chinese processing looked to Venezuela, only to discover Chinese buyers already controlled extraction operations.
- This is strategic encirclement where China dominates both global processing infrastructure and alternative source extraction. Venezuela represents one of the few significant sources of coltan, rare earths, and related minerals outside direct Chinese territorial control, but Chinese operational presence at the mining sites makes these resources effectively Chinese-controlled despite Western Hemisphere location.
And so — under this theory — the United States is attempting to shatter China’s strategic encirclement… and end its near corner on strategic rare earth minerals.
My agents find the theory plausible. And I have instructed them to prod and poke the theory for holes, to give it a good going-over.
I expect a prompt answer.
The Iranian and Russian Legs of the Venezuelan Stool
Meantime, I have shown you the Chinese leg of the Venezuelan stool. I have neglected the Iranian and Russian legs, referencing them only briefly.
Here stand the Iranian and Russian legs of the Venezuelan stool:
- Iran has established drone production facilities within strike range of the continental United States. Russia has deployed military advisers and integrated air defense systems in the Caribbean. Venezuela represents the only location where all three adversaries operate simultaneously.
- The oil is secondary. Breaking Chinese supply chain dominance, eliminating Iranian manufacturing capability, and expelling Russian military presence are primary.
It’s Less About Profit Than Power
In conclusion:
- Capture of Maduro and key officials disrupts the corrupt networks that facilitated Chinese buyer access to mining sites, IRGC weapons transfers, and Russian adviser deployment…
- This is not about seizing resources for profit. This is about denying all three major adversaries access to strategic assets and removing their combined military presence from the Western Hemisphere…
- The Pentagon planned this operation… because generals understand strategic vulnerabilities in contemporary threat environments where China, Iran, and Russia operate as coordinated adversaries.
- The oil narrative is theater.
Once again, I believe there is justice here.
I cannot announce final verdict until my crackerjacks have submitted their conclusions.
I may be chasing a phantom case. I do not believe that I am… yet I permit the possibility.
Nonetheless: You will not find this case argued in The New York Times or Washington Post.
Nor will you find this case argued on the Fox News Channel or Cable News Network.
You will — however — find it argued here.
And I suspect that is precisely why you come here.
That is precisely why you are welcome here.
Brian Maher
for Freedom Financial News
