Posted by BW Actual on Dec 11th 2025
BLACKWATER USA | DAILY BRIEF
Venezuela
- Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado arrived in Norway half a day too late to collect her Nobel Peace Prize, which was presented to her daughter yesterday instead.
- Some reports suggest she was delayed by bad weather as she departed Venezuela by boat for Curaçao, while others imply she had the government's tacit approval - and perhaps even its help - to leave.
- Machado is due to hold a press conference later today and will seek to capitalize on the spotlight her Nobel has brought her to reinvigorate the opposition she leads. She says she has shared her 100-hour and 100-day plans for restoring democracy in Venezuela with U.S. officials, who she hopes will help depose Nicolas Maduro's authoritarian government that hers would replace.
- Meanwhile, Maduro's government will be looking for ways to bar Machado's return to Venezuela and hoping she fades into obscurity in exile like previous Venezuelan opposition leaders who left the country before her.
- Separately, Pres. Trump said that U.S. forces seized the unregistered oil tanker Skipper, which was carrying Venezuelan crude oil bound for either Cuba or Asia (and which previously carried Iranian oil to Venezuela). U.S. officials implied that more Venezuela-linked tankers could be seized in the coming weeks.
- Maduro called the Skipper's seizure "theft" and "piracy," but overall he's doing his best to project a calm and cool aura.
- For example, on Monday he danced awkwardly on stage while he described his weekly schedule to a supportive crowd as: "Monday — party; Tuesday — party; Wednesday, Thursday, Friday — double party; Saturday — triple party; Sunday — chilled party." But the fact that his motorcade had to change its scheduled route to that rally belies a deeper fear than Maduro's words conveyed.
- The NYT reported that Maduro has also been rotating cell phones and sleeping locations to avoid routines that could make him an easier target, and choosing to appear in public with his wife and lower-level officials instead of the higher-ranking ones he used to appear with, who are also potential U.S. targets. So it seems he is concerned for his safety, although he's strategically trying not to show it.
Yemen
- Aidarous al Zubaidi, who leads Yemen's UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), mused that his coalition of militant groups should aim to capture the Houthi-controlled capital of Sanaa next - either "peacefully or through war." [The Houthis are unlikely to hand Sanaa over to a bitter foe peacefully, so that leaves the war option.]
- Al Zubaidi says his ultimate aim is to revive a "south Arabian state" in roughly the same footprint as the one that existed as South Yemen from 1967 until unification in 1990 - but presumably less communist.
- To that end, al Zubaidi has been building a parallel state in Aden through symbolic moves like convening high-level meetings as a national leader would in meeting rooms that have been scrubbed of the (unified) national flag.
Ukraine
- Ukraine reportedly struck another Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in the Black Sea, marking the third such strike in two weeks. Like the other two strikes before it, Kyiv didn't officially admit responsibility for this one.
Economy
- As markets had anticipated, the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates yesterday. The 12-person Federal Open Market Committee was split between members advocating for a third straight cut and those concerned that lower rates will fuel inflation and unemployment.