Two months have passed since I got here and in that time, the possibility of an American intervention in Venezuela has been on everyone’s mind. President Donald Trump has generously sprinkled his speeches with heavy innuendo to that effect, including boasts about being ready to take on the Russians, but shows little sign of actually following through.
The Venezuelan people themselves are divided on the issue; some fear that American help to overthrow Maduro will end up becoming a permanent American presence in the country and a co-dependent relationship that doesn’t come close to the ideals they’ve fought for over the past two decades.
Others view American intervention as the only hope for a hopeless situation and are praying that the red lines drawn by Trump and his National Security Adviser John Bolton, finally will be enforced so that the end of this nightmarish tale of 24 Venezuelan states and two dictators, bloody as it might be, will be written.
There were plenty of people from both camps who thought that the international community’s near unanimous support of interim president Juan Guaidó would eventually break Maduro and force him out. But by adding Russian soldiers to the mix, mobilizing the paramilitary troops and radically amping up his anti-imperialist rhetoric he has disproved any rumor of a swift and painless transition.
