For Venezuela's fraudulently elected Nicolas Maduro, in Moscow to pay tribute to his patron Vlad Putin, yesterday was kind of embarrassing for both of them.

Way under the radar, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been busy, figuring out a way to make both of them look like weaklings, and with perfect timing, he succeeded:

According to Bloomberg News:

Five top aides of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado escaped the country after the US helped them foil a siege of the Argentine Embassy in Caracas where they had been holed up for 15 months.

The group is now on US soil after a “precise operation” to free them, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday evening in a post on X, without elaborating.

Machado, who has spearheaded the strongest movement to end Nicolás Maduro’s 12-year rule, praised the “impeccable and epic operation for the freedom of five heroes of Venezuela.”

Maduro’s government had placed permanent check points surrounding the embassy, while his security forces took control of a private house neighboring the residence. The timing of the operation is still unclear, but it was announced when Maduro and other senior officials were in Russia to attend a parade to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany by the Soviet Union and its allies.

So the U.S. probably sent the commandos in, Entebbe-style, and was able to secretly spirit the five hostages holed up in the Argentinian embassy to safety in the U.S., only announcing it after there was nothing Maduro could do about it. The Venezuelans had been trapped there for 15 months without water or electricity in a state of seige, the Maduro secret police and goons all around them, their only "crime" winning the July 2024 election as campaign workers for Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado, who trounced Maduro 70% to 30%. The enraged dictator then moved to arrest them -- and succeeded at snatching nearly 1,000 others to his torture-chamber dungeons -- at which point the five fled for the Argentinian embassy which promptly granted them asylum. (This is what real asylum cases look like.)

Maduro then threw the Argentinian diplomats out, and Argentina got Brazil to take care of the embassy. Then Maduro threw them out, and the hostages were left behind, desperately waiting for some kind of help as the goons closed in -- which as of yesterday came from President Trump and his stellar lieutenant, Marco Rubio, who had been working on this all along.

The hostages are now safe and sound in the states and the freedom-loving Venezuelans are rejoicing, expressing their deepest heartfelt thanks.

Google translate:

An impeccable and epic operation for the freedom of five heroes of Venezuela. My infinite recognition and gratitude to all those who made it possible. We will free each of our 900 heroes imprisoned by this tyranny and 30 MILLION VENEZUELANS! And with Freedom, will come irreversible change to a Venezuela of Prosperity, Justice and Peace!

Argentina is thrilled:

The photo below shows the hostages at the embassy earlier.

Two important pieces of fallout are worth noting:

One, all the talk that President Trump had abandoned the Venezuelans in favor of business deals with Maduro and considered the opposition "weak" was complete rubbish. Trump may have allowed that kind of talk to go on, but only to deceive Maduro. An operation of this kind takes intensive planning and practice, as it is highly failure-prone, and requires airtight secrecy. Trump never abandoned Venezuela's normal people.

It went off like clockwork and Venezuelans are reading it as a sign that their socialism-ravaged country will finally be free, thanks to President Trump. Some think Trump was deployed by God to answer their long years of prayers. For them, Trump is an answered prayer and they are heartened.

Two, Thor Halvorssen, a Venezuelan (despite his Norwegian-sounding name) filmmaker and full time human rights activist, outlined the brutal, humiliating implications for Maduro of this successful raid:

Here's the text of it:

Under the noses of Maduro’s feared intelligence services, several political prisoners slipped out of Venezuela in what appears to be a major exfiltration operation. This isn’t an escape… it’s a breach. A regime that tortures and imprisons thousands can’t even guard its own cells. The dictatorship is cracking and weak. If innocent people can be exfiltrated they can also seek the capture of those for whom there is a major reward. I think

@ConElMazoDando’s Diosdado Cabello has a $25M price on his head. Let alone Maduro and the other leaders of the Cartel de Los Soles and Tren de Aragua.

Image: Screen shot from X