According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse. The “horse” stands for freedom and independence, while the “fire” stands for intensity and a desire for radical change. The prediction for 2026 as a whole is a year that favours bold decisions over hesitation, and movement over stillness.When I woke up to discover that President Donald Trump had just captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife, and spirited them out of Venezuela, I wondered if Trump had been reading those same Chinese predictions, because the Year of the Horse was certainly starting out with a bang. Here are some thoughts on where the “Fire Horse” might be galloping.Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, had pretty well run Venezuela into the ground. What had been one of the most prosperous countries in the southern hemisphere became a virtual basket case under their incompetent rule. Millions of the best-educated Venezuelans had fled the country, and Russia, Iran, and China had deeply infiltrated the country — with the express view of using their Venezuelan perch to cause as much damage to the United States as possible. Maduro, Chávez’s former bus driver, was their stooge..DEW: BC Conservatives' next leader must build, not burn.But Maduro took things even further than Chavez had. In the first place, he made Venezuela into what was basically a narco state. Mismanagement had ruined much of the American-built and owned oil infrastructure Chavez had illegally confiscated, so a lot of the oil revenue that had been available to Chavez was not available to him. So, he turned to cocaine. It was flown into Venezuela from Colombia on government planes, and Maduro’s “generals” were actually drug dealers in uniform. Much of the cocaine imported into America comes from Colombia via Venezuela. But, even more troublesome for the Trump administration was the infiltration of China, Russia, and Iran into Venezuela. The “axis of evil” threesome were up to nothing but trouble for American interests, and Trump was determined to get them out of what he considered America’s backyard. All efforts at convincing Maduro to either change his ways or leave failed. Trump acted. Just like his bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites, the incredibly complicated operation was carried out with no loss of American lives. Trump’s heavily criticized Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, carried out another flawless, textbook military operation. Where Obama and Biden had just talked, Trump acted..Venezuelans actually thought that they had finally succeeded in ousting Maduro in the presidential elections of 2024. Marina Corina Machado would have won the contest easily, but she was illegally banned from running by Maduro. In her place, respected statesman Edmundo Gonzales clearly won the election, but the Maduro regime claimed a win anyway, and both Machado and Gonzales had to leave the country for their own safety. What happens next isn’t completely clear, but we are getting hints. Although Trump stated that the US will “run” the country until Venezuelans are ready to do so, it is extremely unlikely that American troops will enter the country in any numbers. Americans learned that hard lesson in Iraq, when President George W. Bush decided to basically furlough Saddam Hussein’s entire security apparatus after deposing Saddam (who looks like Maduro’s twin). Iraq dissolved into chaos, and it took many years and many lives to restore it to a (barely) functioning state. Trump will not make that mistake.Instead, it is much more likely that he will rely on the existing government, now led by former Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. She initially showed defiance, but after Trump made it clear that he was “making her an offer she couldn’t refuse,” she changed her tone. Trump’s “offer” is to leave what is basically an American naval armada just off Venezuela’s coast to force the Rodriguez government to make decisions more to America’s liking. That will undoubtedly entail sending most of the Chinese, Russian, and Iranian interlopers home, allowing Chevron and other American oil companies back in, and generally acting in a much friendlier manner to America. This will also probably entail their agreement to hold American-supervised elections, as soon as practically possible — elections in which Maria Corina Machado will almost certainly be the leading candidate..GWYN MORGAN: End supply management — for the sake of Canadian consumers.It also seems likely that tankers carrying the heavy crude that Venezuela has in abundance will at some point be docking in the newly named Gulf of America to be processed at the same refineries that are now processing Alberta’s heavy oil. (What this will mean for Alberta is not clear.)But what also seems inevitable is that an America-friendly Venezuela will mean the downfall of the cabal now running Cuba. Cuba, like Venezuela, has been disastrously mismanaged and is also under the virtual control of China, Russia, and Iran. It was heavily dependent on a Maduro regime that has now disappeared. The agricultural, tourist, and other potential of Cuba will be available to America. The mutual benefits are simply enormous. .Trump and Marco Rubio are mainly responsible for this remarkable transformation in the southern hemisphere, and it is likely not done yet. The cartel-infested Colombian and Mexican regimes are probably sweating right now because they will probably be next to feel pressure from Trump. That pressure might take the form of attacks from the air and sea on the extensive drug operations in both countries.And once again, the losers in all of this will be China, Russia, and Iran.And speaking of Iran, at the time of writing, the evil reign of the mullahs seems to be finally coming to an end. Trump’s policy of economic strangulation and credible military deterrence, combined with Netanyahu’s savaging of Iran’s proxies, has finally created the right conditions for the downfall of the mullahs. And Trump’s warning that America is “locked, loaded, and ready to go” if the regime begins slaughtering its own citizens takes on new meaning with the Maduro capture. Trump means what he says, and Khameini must be shaking in his ancient boots. He knows that any large-scale violent suppression of the revolts will be met by an American kinetic response. The theocrats are on the ropes. Again, the losers will be Russia and China — and most dramatic loser of course, the evil Iranian regime itself. The ayatollah will probably end up in the same Moscow suburb that houses other failed dictators and puppets, like Assad and Yanukovich..BORG: Divided loyalties — Freeland has no business cashing a paycheque from another government .Son of the former shah, Reza Pahlavi, with America’s blessing, is waiting in the wings to form some kind of transitional government. Whatever happens next won’t be easily accomplished, but for the first time in 47 years, the Iranian people have a legitimate chance to take their great country back from the bearded mullahs who highjacked their country in 1979.If the mullahs go, that also sounds the death knell for their proxies. Hezbollah is currently trying to rebuild in Lebanon after being savaged by Israel. Without financing from Iran, they will be easy prey for an Israel that will not sit by as Hezbollah rebuilds. Expect Israel to enter Lebanon and Syria in 2026 to finish them off..And what about those troublesome Houthis? They also survive on money from the Iranian theocracy, and money they can blackmail from neighbours, most notably Saudi Arabia. Expect a lot of activity within Yemen to remove the Houthis, financed and organized by Saudi Arabia and America. 2026 will see the Middle East transformed by the very effective Trump-Netanyahu duo.And what about that Russia/Ukraine war that seems to go on and on? Remember, that’s the one that was supposed to take a week or less to mop up. Russia would march into Kyiv and install a government that was more to their liking — exactly as the Russians have done to dozens of other countries for hundreds of years.Instead, that didn’t happen. The Ukrainians fought back, and Putin’s “special military operation” has turned into a quagmire that has probably caused two million casualties, with no end in sight..MACLEOD: Alberta must leave a broken system.On the day they marched, it was assumed almost universally that the Russian military was an unstoppable beast. But after almost four years of their “special military operation,” they are struggling to take even the few blasted villages and towns in what has become a no man’s land. The Russians have been exposed as the “paper tiger” Trump correctly called them. Russia’s Syrian vassal is their vassal no longer. Their mullah friends in Iran seem to be fleeing the coup, and former troublemaking allies, like Maduro and the no-names running Cuba, all seem to want to buy Russia homes next to all the other tinpot dictators who have fled to Moscow. And a Trump-engineered oil glut has caused oil prices to fall to their lowest price in years. Considering the fact that Russian oil is already discounted by as much as $20 per barrel, Putin will find it increasingly difficult to continue his disastrous war.And China might have to delay any plans it might have to invade Taiwan, given the China-friendly, oil-supplying dictators who seem to be biting the dust.All in all, The Year of the Fire Horse seems to be living up to its name.
