Ben Rhodes

That is obviously a good thing.

But again, I asked the question, if Marco Rubio is the viceroy of Venezuela, why aren't more out?

Seems like you should be able to get this done quickly.

The Washington Post notes that it could be a sign of a power struggle between Delcy Rodriguez and her brother,

and the powerful interior minister who actually runs these prisons.

Time will tell.

There was also some great reporting then about the operation to get Maduro

One thing that really jumped out at me was the Times noted that the pilot, the Delta Force, like, pilot of the first helicopter of guys that approached Maduro's compound got shot in the leg three times and had to, quote, struggle to stay aloft and deliver its troops to the target, the helicopter did.

But this guy managed to drop off these Delta Force troops and then return to safety, which is, again, a reminder of how, like, unbelievable these dudes are who are fighting, right?

They're courageous and professional and can, like,

gut out something that is unimaginably painful, but also how close this operation was to a complete disaster.

If that helicopter goes down and those guys all die, this is a very different conversation right now.

The Times also reported that Venezuela's Russian-made air defense systems ultimately didn't pose a threat to the U.S.

troops because they weren't even hooked up to the radar that night.

Did you see this story?

And then the Russian like S300 and book M2 systems that Venezuela bought in 2009 with all this fanfare just like weren't maintained.

Some of the parts were just sitting in storage still, even though they knew this was coming.

So it does seem like an interesting example.

Another example is.

of Russia being a pretty unreliable ally if they were supposed to be like the Venezuelan benefactor.