In recent months, this narrative underpinned a dramatic military operation: a buildup of warships, aircraft and troops near Venezuela, strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific that the US says were operated by cartels, a covert strike on an alleged drug-trafficking facility, and a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers going to and from the country. Then came a series of airstrikes on Venezuela and the capture of Maduro and his wife on Jan. 3.