Today, the self-declared interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, stated that he was instructing Carlos Vecchio to get in contact with the U.S. southern command. His goal in requesting this was to set up a direct communication with the U.S. military so they could discuss possible options up to and including direct military support. Guaido believes that this may be the best option to oust current president
Nicolás Maduro, who he views as illegitimate. Maduro has countered this by claiming that Guaido would make Venezuela a puppet of the U.S. government.
Last month, Guadio attempted a military coup which failed to gain traction after several generals indicated they would not be be supporting his claim. This wasn’t great as generally speaking, a military coup works best when it has the support of the military. President Trump has indicated in the past that he is “considering all options” when it comes to Venezuela and Guaido has interpreted this to mean that while military support is unlikely, it still remains a possibility.
I personally would be very surprised if Trump were to intervene in Venezuela. He does have quite the militaristic ‘big stick’ approach to foreign policy but he also has to contend with an America that is tired of getting involved in foreign conflicts. The common desire stems from the fact that the U.S. has seemingly made no progress in the wars in the Middle East. Sure, democracy has been brought to Iraq and Afghanistan but it is not seen to be stable and the region as a whole is still a hotbed for violent extremism. I agree with the majority of Americans that we should not militarily intervene in Venezuela, if we do, we may be stuck there for years to come.