As the Seahawks cemented an early lead over the Patriots, and the culture war conflict pitted the NFL’s halftime show against TPUSA’s counterprogramming, US forces in the Caribbean extracted from Venezuela the last of 5,000 Americans who had been evading bounty-hunting gangs still loyal to Nicolas Maduro.
As reported previously, US Special Operations Forces and the State Department began bringing Americans home after notorious pro-Maduro gangs–Tren de Aragua, the Sineola Cartel, and Colectivos Dominante—put “dead or alive” bounties on the heads of American citizens in Caracas. According to State Department spokesperson Kiara Kearney, approximately 13,000 US citizens lived in Venezuela prior to Maduro’s capture. Since his arrest on January 3, State has received 5,000 evacuation requests, most coming after Colectivos Dominate seized a television studio and broadcast the bounties to three million viewers.
“The gangs and cartels were bankrolled by Maduro,” Kearney said. “They’ve tons of cash from ventures—kidnapping, narcotics, trafficking—but that cash’ll dry up now that Maduro’s out of the picture. They’re vengeful, they blame the United States, and see any American there—oil worker, schoolteacher, diplomat—a threat to their income.”
While many evacuations occurred flawlessly, some had hitches and hiccups. For example: On January 21, an expat couple living in the outskirts of Caracas submitted an evacuation request for themselves and their 5-year-old child, suspecting their identities and location had been doxed and that Maduro’s forces would abduct or murder them. They’d been told to sit tight, that a Marine escort would arrive within 24 hours. But, for whatever reason, the couple succumbed to paranoia and fled their home on foot, the wife toting the kid on a child carrier backpack while the husband carried bags of food, water, and spare clothing. They had left a note taped to the refrigerator: “They’re coming for us, we had to leave.” Had the couple heeded the State Department’s advice to stay put, they would’ve been rescued within three hours of having abandoned their residence. Instead, the Marines who found the note had to engage in a protracted search, eventually finding the trio marching south, deeper into enemy territory, rather than east or west where US forces had commandeered airbases and ports to fly or ferry US citizens to safety.
“2026 and some people can’t grasp GPS or read a map,” Kiara Kearney told RRN. “In the time it took Marines to find and direct the couple to safety, they could’ve helped a dozen others.”
Despite setbacks, she added, the airlifts and ground rescues were monumentally successful, saving thousands of American lives.
“We pulled 60 people out last night, the last of the requests we’ve gotten,” she said.
Last night, SEAL Team 6 rappelled onto the rooftop a of besieged apartment complex, using night-vision goggles and suppressed weapons to neutralize sentries eager to abduct the building’s American citizens. Further south, Delta Force operators slaughtered Chavistas stampeding toward a US housing settlement in Barquisimeto.
A rescued US citizen called Caracas “a bounty hunter’s paradise.”
Kearney told us: “We’ve met the mission of getting our people who wanted to get out. We can’t force the rest, and there’s still thousands there, God be with them.”