Back To The Future: Trump Revives An Old US Habit Of Intervention

Maduro came to power not within a sectarian coflict but in the wake of a leftist populist movement promoted by the late Hugo Chavez. He won presidential elections in 1999 and died in office in 2013. Maduro had ruled ever since.

Trump is relying on a well-worn foreign policy tool – intervention and overthrow of
governments to undo“Chavismo.” Backers say the strategy“may help Washington find
its confidence and get over its Iraq-Afghanistan hangover,” wrote Matthew Kroenig, senior
director at the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

Critics counter that backers of the invasion ignore dangerous realities that can undermine
efforts to pacify the county.

“The risks of violence in any post-Maduro scenario should not be downplayed,” wrote the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based peace promotion organization.“Many [Venezuelan] senior military officers could resist regime change. Even with a deal on the terms of a transition, it is not inconceivable that parts of the security forces could rebel and even wage a guerrilla-type war against the new authorities.”

The analysis warned:“The plethora of armed groups operating across much of the
country would likely exploit any power vacuum to entrench or even extend their territorial
control.”

To avoid those disasters, Trump is trying to avoid a perceived blunder that doomed
American efforts to pacify Iraq: the exclusion of even nominal supporters of Saddam
Hussein from government work and access to other jobs that required membership in
Saddam's Baath Party.

During his Saturday press conference, Trump said that US officials would run Venezuela for
an unspecified period, but would also work with Maduro's hand-picked vice-president
Delcy Rodriguez and other Maduro-era officials. After Maduro's exit, Rodriguez was
quietly elevated by a Venezuelan judge to replace him. She then pledged to cooperate with
the US occupation.

Trump's decision surprised longtime political opponents of Maduro. They had expected to
dominate a new government. Maria Corina Machado, a popular politician whom Maduro
barred from running against him in 2024 elections, celebrated the America invasion and
called it the“hour of freedom.”

Trump didn't welcome her intervention. Instead, he verbally pushed her aside“I think it
would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn't have the support within or the
respect within the country. She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect.”

Trump added that he had not been in contact with Machado, who had publicly invited the
US to invade. She was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year.

Trump's attitude toward Machado roughly parallels his expressed disdain for Volodymyr
Zekensky in Ukraine. In peace negotiations that Trump is overseeing, the US President has
placed the Ukrainian democratic leader on a par with Russia's authoritarian leader
Vladimir Putin, who besides invading Ukraine has jailed hundreds of democraitc opponents
of his regime.

For a century, the US had specialized in overthrowing governments of small Latin American
governments – 40 since 1898, when Americans joined Cuban rebels to end Spanish
colonial rule on the Caribbean island.