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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Guaidó says opposition overestimated military support before failed uprising |
| 2019-05-05 |
| [WASHINGTONPOST] Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó on Saturday acknowledged errors made in attempting to stir a military uprising, and did not discard a U.S. military option in Venezuela alongside domestic forces ‐ saying he would take any such offer from Washington to a vote in the country’s National Assembly. After a dramatic week that saw a clandestine plan to oust President Nicolás Maduro fall apart on Tuesday, Guaidó conceded that the opposition had miscalculated its support within the military. In an exclusive interview with The Washington Post, Guaidó suggested that he expected Maduro to step down amid a groundswell of defectors within the military. Instead, Guaidó’s call for the rank and file and senior brass to abandon Maduro did not produce mass defections. Maduro’s security forces then quelled street protests and left Guaidó’s U.S.-backed opposition on its heels. "Maybe because we still need more soldiers, and maybe we need more officials of the regime to be willing to support it, to back the constitution," Guaidó said. "I think the variables are obvious at this point." Guaidó ‐ the head of the National Assembly who in January declared Maduro a usurper and claimed the legitimate mantle of national leadership ‐ did not back unilateral U.S. military intervention. He made clear that any American military support must be alongside Venezuelan forces who have turned against Maduro, but gave no further specifics on what would be acceptable. The Trump administration has said all options are on the table, and its hawks have pressed the Pentagon for possible military involvement. But the administration has not clearly signaled whether it would favor intervention against Maduro. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #13 I choose "over there" over "here" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2019-05-05 20:04 |
| #12 I have counted myself as a neo-con, being both Jewish and not originally aware of being conservative — a fault of the milieu I grew up in. Before that I thought of myself as a classical liberal, but Classical Liberal already held that nym. Dear Liberalhawk already had my next choice, so that, too, was out. Fortunately, the few trailing wives on the internet hang out far from Rantburg, so here I am. :-) I have also been known to describe myself as a war monger, because I prefer the wars that various expansionist, totalitarian idiots insist on fighting be fought far from home, destroying the idiots’ home turf instead of ours. Sadly, the only way to do that is to engage them before they are big enough to send men here with troublemaking in mind. I can see where it might strike some as unnecessarily putting our troops in harm’s way rather than as pulling weeds while they’re still small enough not to overrun the garden; I have no way to persuade someone holding the former view that the latter is less costly in the long run in men and materiel — since all that can be seen is the money and lives spent on the small wars rather than that not spent on a worldwide conflagration like World War II that was prevented. And so I choose to engage with Herb McCoy on those areas where I find his comments informative and insightful. For the rest, I am willing to agree to disagree, because I believe in his way he means as well as I do. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2019-05-05 19:14 |
| #11 When you start beating your wife and starving your kids HM, hope your neighbors intervene on their behalf... |
| Posted by: Ebbavirt Clunk4147 2019-05-05 18:45 |
| #10 You are receiving this message because you posted in defense of invading another country. I no longer provide individual responses on this matter. It has been my experience that neo-con warmongers are universally incapable of accepting verifiable truths about war, and, by extension, themselves, thus rendering discussion pointless and, therefore, a waste of time. I wish you all the best in your ongoing battle with reality. Yours respectfully, a logical person. |
| Posted by: Herb McCoy 2019-05-05 17:37 |
| #9 Suuuure you are. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2019-05-05 14:23 |
| #8 I'm not a fucking communist, you fecking moron. Are you on glue? I'm an American who thinks America should serve its own interest first and stop meddling in places that don't concern us. I'm right wing as fuck and you don't forget it. Do you know we have an economic blockade on Venezuela that is greatly affecting their ability to feed their people? Because we do. |
| Posted by: Herb McCoy 2019-05-05 14:10 |
| #7 It's not a coup if the government is an illegitimate Commie dictator, but you're a Commie symp who doesn't care if the VZ people are dying, eating garbage, no water or power. It's all Internationale, isn't it? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2019-05-05 13:45 |
| #6 So all this business with Guaidó is happening on its own, without any involvement by the US government? Seriously? Really? They just attempted a coup. "Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó on Saturday acknowledged errors made in attempting to stir a military uprising, and did not discard a U.S. military option in Venezuela alongside domestic forces" From the Washington Post, the mouthpiece of the DC Deep State. I just don't know how it can get more obvious than this. They tried a coup, and it didn't work, and now they're talking about a military invasion. Because that worked so well in Iraq. |
| Posted by: Herb McCoy 2019-05-05 13:26 |
| #5 Why is our government trying to overthrow foreign governments that never attacked us? Assuming you mean Venezuela specifically, are we? Aside from some boilerplate "all options are on the table" talk, I don't see America getting involved except in some humanitarian aid role. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2019-05-05 11:10 |
| #4 They wanted it to be true, and so they ignored evidence to the contrary. Why is our government trying to overthrow foreign governments that never attacked us? And that possess substantial oil reserves? It's like every tired leftist trope about Latin America come true. |
| Posted by: Herb McCoy 2019-05-05 10:34 |
| #3 Lad jumped way too soon. Prolly should have waited for more of the military to get on board before making a move. If you come at the king, you best not miss. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2019-05-05 10:12 |
| #2 #1 How come i guessed it would go splat? Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2019-05-05 07:48 ...Lad jumped way too soon. Interesting though that he hasn't yet been placed in durance vile yet, unless Maduro's waiting for something else to get our attention. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2019-05-05 09:10 |
| #1 How come i guessed it would go splat? |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2019-05-05 07:48 |