What’s happening in Venezuela and what does it mean?

[theotherfossilsister]

I’m confused- has the US gone to war with them? What are the implications if so?

@MrsTerryPratchett Bosnia, Grenada, Panama, East Timor, Kosovo, Kuwait and Sierra Leone are all examples of successful western interventions.

WW3 slowly creeping in.

He's going to lose a lot of support at home from his voters and fanbase who specifically wanted an 'america first' president. He surely can't claim it's about drugs when he just pardoned Honduras' ex president.

Would be wonderful to see but I am convinced some MNetters would find a way to oppose that too, simply because it was DT enabling it 🙄

I don’t think they are currently bombing. From what I can see and understand from various reports is that since Maduro has been captured they do not expect any further intervention. It would seem as if the goal was to capture him or get him to surrender.

@EasternStandardwhat a mean, unpleasant and belittling response to the nuanced and intelligent posting here.

You can believe this is a step in the right direction. But please don’t pretend that people who very clearly care about the situation don’t. It’s nasty, and means people can’t talk to you in good faith. Because, and I’ll just talk about myself here, if I’ve tried to understand global politics and how it impacts the most needy and oppressed, and you just go “you’d skip past” that makes you ignorant, not me.

This politics of extreme, with no discussion that can be had in the middle, is ruining the world.

Many posts are not focusing on the people there and what their realistic options are.

If someone says how they can deal with their situation I’m ready to hear it. It’s been going on for years.

‘Western’ isn’t the same as ‘US’. They typically do a little better as part of international initiatives. Famously (and slightly inaccurately) they’ve never won a war alone. And, like in Sierra Leone, where local/African solutions are centred. https://www.mpil.de/files/pdf2/mpunyb_goldmann_9_457_515.pdf

And also, my list is much longer than yours and features mostly unilateral US intervention, which this is.

How many regimes have we seen toppled in the ME?

People always get excited that this marks the beginning of some new progressive chapter. Which never materialises. In fact things often decline rapidly as the prevailing power struggle ensues.

It’s far more complex than “dictator bad”. Removing the dictator does not ensure that Venezuelans will now flourish unfortunately. I wouldn’t be surprised if the cartels are celebrating.

Britain is shit in many ways but fuck me we are so lucky to have basic freedoms.

@MrsTerryPratchett and your list is not remotely analogous to what is happening in Venezuela.

Fentanoil ?

I agree re previous wars being nominally on political ideology, but Trump has blown that now. I reckon he has just lost the US any moral authority to act as the world police.

I agree and apologise.

They have a lot of oil but it’s poor quality and USA is self sufficient in oil. However a lot goes to Cuba and Rubio is obsessed with bringing down the Cuban regime.

When Donny stuck a pin in his map yesterday this is where it landed. It could be the Isle of Wight tomorrow.

It’ll probably be something along the lines of

‘well , GREENLAND. It’s a really great place. I love it , it’s great. It’s not green though. It’s very icy, very snowy, very white. We have to act and I’m the only one great enough to sort this out. The U.S will take Greenland but it’s not green that’s all fake. We need to step in for world safety Im the only one who can sort this out. When we achieve this JD can shout at the people to THANK US for our greatness in making Greenland WHITE’

@EasternStandard as someone with family in Venezuela I agree with your sentiment, the interests of the citizenry doesn’t seem to be much of a priority for some.

What do the Venezuelans want to happen next now that Maduro is gone? Will there be some sort of democratic process?

So now China can go into Taiwan and Putin can attack Kyiv, is it a free for all?
We also have the added thrill that we can guess exactly how much thought went into the preparation for this and the aftermath - zero, it’s just Trump’s whim, and you can bet no one will have dared to express any objection or point out any flaw… Which bodes so well for how it’s going to pan out…

They have always been like this.

Yep, this fully supports the theory that Trump genuinely sees the world as something that can be carved up by the Strong Men leaders :(

I get the concerns about any escalation hopefully not, and yes it’s about oil. But I can’t see what the people there could do to change how bad it is for them.

They have heavy crude, and guess who has the specialist refineries that need it ?

Refineries are oil specific, and the US gulf coast refineries were built for heavy crude. It's why oil producing countries still need to import oil. Because not all oil is the same.

Pedophilia and trafficking kids is illegal in China. Maybe the next thing is China will abduct Trump to put him on trial for those crimes.

@PandoraSocks there are great hopes for Maria Corina Machado, the recipient of the most recent Nobel Peace Prize. She has openly and repeatedly backed Trump in his efforts.

That's exactly my thought. Now any dictator can just invade as they like, cos Trump just chucked any last sliver of moral authority the US had in the bin.