Analysts: US mission in Venezuela is “regime change”
The Financial Times added: When the US ordered warships and fighter jets to the Caribbean more than 30 years ago, the mission was to fight drug traffickers. The raids were immediately launched to destroy boats that the US president said were smuggling drugs, but that focus has now shifted.
The priority now is to pressure Venezuelan government officials to leave power, preferably to force them to resign or cede power, and the clear US threat is to use targeted military force to arrest or destroy Maduro or his associates who are still trying to hold on to power.
An opposition official familiar with the discussions said, “Trump’s strategy is not to deploy military forces. He aims to demonstrate military superiority and use force to achieve political goals. Trump’s objective is clear: Maduro and his associates must go, somehow, and as soon as possible.”
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said of the US strategy: Trump is preparing to use every element of American power to stop the flow of drugs into our country and to bring those responsible to justice.
Deputy US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott also claimed that Maduro is not the legitimate president of Venezuela. He is a fugitive from US justice, undermining national security and poisoning Americans.
The Financial Times wrote: What is at stake is that Venezuela, as the world’s largest oil producer and with valuable reserves of gold, diamonds and coltan (black ore), has turned towards Russia, China and Iran under the Chavez government in the last century.
The outlet added that the US has now put a $50 million bounty on Maduro as Chavez’s successor, adding that for Trump, who has spent the past nine months paying more attention to the Western Hemisphere than any US president since Bill Clinton in the 1990s, Venezuela is a priority. Trump sees Caracas as unfinished business and tried to oust Maduro in his first term by imposing “maximum pressure through economic sanctions and recognizing an alternative opposition government,” but failed.
Ryan Berg, director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C., said: “It is clear that the US mission has now shifted to regime change or overthrow.”
The Financial Times, citing reports, claimed that “as pressure mounted, the Venezuelan government has tried to negotiate with the US and even hand over power from Maduro to his deputy, Delcy Rodriguez.”
However, Vanessa Neumann, a defense industry entrepreneur and former Venezuelan opposition representative with close ties to the US security establishment, said: “The US plan now is to capture Maduro, capture and kill him or capture and detain him and remove him from power.”
The Financial Times noted that the Americans are continuing to increase pressure, and images of ships and fighter jets have been widely shared on social media. This has led some analysts to say that Washington is waging a coordinated information war to disrupt the inner circle of the “Chavista” movement, or followers of Hugo Chavez.
Maduro and his team have responded by ordering military maneuvers and garnering support for what they say is a planned “foreign” invasion of the country.