Is the US about to militarily attack Venezuela?

[paxmao]

Very unlikely, the US will not engage without serious threat to themselves. I don’t think people from Venezuela have to worry at all. The US is probably just in the region for non provocative reasons.

The United States already set a prize / reward for the capture of our president and doubled it up to 50 million dollars. Don't you think that is somewhat provocative enough? Not even mentioning that after doubling the reward for the capture of the president, they started to mobilize war-vessels into the Caribbean sea. I would not call it a coincidence, there are trying to create fear among the people within this criminal administration, fear and uncertainty.

I doubt the USA will try to directly over-throw these criminals, but at the very least, there are seeking to create pressure on them.

Let's make thing clear: The US is there for the oil. How do I know? Because when the Republican Party is in charge they are always waging oil wars.

You want a regime change? I do not blame you. You want a regime change led by the US? Call Irak, they will give you a Tripadvisor Review on that.

BTW, I guess Maduro would be in his right to put a 50 million reward on Trump]s head on the basis of being ... a rapist or whatever they come up with.

You are talking as the Republican party is the only faction within the United States which has interest on the oil of this country, as a matter of fact, the democrat party would also be in favor a overthrowing the regime of this country, not only because the easy access to oil, also because there are many valuable minerals in this land and in order to keep the influence of Moscow at bay and do not allow the kremlin to influence over Latin america.
It does not matter whether the president of the USa is democrat or Republican, the establishment will always be against Maduro and his crooks, who are illegally holding the power in this country.

These criminals here are so desperate, that they are willing to force people to become part of the militia, there are barely any people genuinely supporting Maduro.

No, not the only. However it is basically the legislative and executive  arm of the oil industry. The reason why climate change is being ignored and will cause harm for centuries. The minerals and all... sure, the fries for the steak.

But just to the point: Maduro is crap, and US revolution and puppet government may not be any better.

[zenaku]

The United States won’t do anything, simply because its economy is busted. Is it viable to go in, remove Mr. Nicolay Madurai (Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela)?
– In the short term, yes, but in the long term, NO.

I don’t think Donald Trump would take that step, because China is intervening discreetly. China has interests in Venezuela, in Colombia, and in general, China is interested in Latin America.
With that in mind, what the United States is doing is spreading its wings, drawing attention, saying: “Look at me! I’m ultra-powerful, whoever doesn’t obey me I’ll crush,” but it can’t. People don’t believe it anymore, and the U.S. is in bad shape internally — it would be like shooting itself in the foot.

Let me give you some historical context:
In 1970 Venezuela was known as Saudi Venezuela, because it was the best country in the Americas. Everyone wanted to go there, especially after WWII. It was a cosmopolitan country that hosted many cultures and had a very strong economy. Look it up on Google: the Maracaibo Bridge.

But let’s land in the year 1999, when a military man named Hugo Chávez came to power — an opponent of the United States, of Israel, and with leftist leanings. A man who insulted the “gringos” more than once, he became known as the president of expropriations. Later, he would die of cancer.

Chávez was a president like all others, with successes and mistakes, but his greatest mistake was picking a fight with the U.S. Right after his death, Nicolás Maduro took over, but the United States took advantage of the fact that President Maduro lacks historical knowledge — Nicolás was a bus driver…

Then came the pressure, the worst inflation ever seen, lines everywhere, sabotaged healthcare, sabotaged economy — the same story that Pooya87 told…
So, the typical U.S. invasion “for freedom” — but it’s not going to happen.

The next scene: Petro throws Maduro a lifeline.
Petro is the president of Colombia, the first social democrat in 200 years, and he has strengthened relations with Maduro. It seems he will support him, but not economically or anything like that — he’s just showing solidarity, because it’s harsh that the U.S. keeps buying influence…

And so on, the U.S. pressuring, arming society for overthrows. But there’s something I don’t understand: if the minimum wage in Venezuela is 1 dollar, how do people eat? How do they pay for water, electricity? Or is the state paternalistic and subsidizes everything, even if the citizens don’t accept it?

[pooya87]

BTW, I guess Maduro would be in his right to put a 50 million reward on Trump]s head on the basis of being ... a rapist or whatever they come up with.

Well said. And he probably should have done that a long time ago, now there is one for $15 mil on their defense minister, general López!

BTW a good target for retaliatory strikes could be this. Reachable and effective.

Less than 2500 km and that's just the distance if we start from the Cap. Manuel Ríos airbase... I couldn't figure out if the multipurpose Aripa drones capable of carrying air-to-surface missiles can fly that far but the Zamora loitering munition family should definitely be able to reach and they don't need an airbase to launch, they can launch from a lot closer as well, like for example from between the thick tree coverage in north of Falcón State

These "Wild Olives" would be delivered to Mar-a-Lago tariff free though

[Hispo]

...
✂️

As a Venezuelan, I can assure you, nobody in this government would dare to attack the United States, even if it is retaliatory. This administration is composed by crooks who just want to be left alone so they can continue to steal as much money as possible from the people and co tinue to illegally exploit gold mines in the south of the country, that is all.

The crooks who illegally hold the power in this country do not have an ideology, they just want to continue to have access to our good mines and also continue to traffick with cocaine, and accumulate more dirty money.

The ruling party of the country is called "Socialist" but they are all just crooks and thieves, violators of human rights, who do not struggle when comes to torture their policial adversaries until pushing them to commit suicide. That is the kind of people is holding us hostage here.

[Vod]

As a Venezuelan, I can assure you, nobody in this government would dare to attack the United States, even if it is retaliatory. This administration is composed by crooks who just want to be left alone so they can continue to steal as much money as possible from the people and co tinue to illegally exploit gold mines in the south of the country, that is all.

The crooks who illegally hold the power in this country do not have an ideology, they just want to continue to have access to our good mines and also continue to traffick with cocaine, and accumulate more dirty money.

The ruling party of the country is called "Socialist" but they are all just crooks and thieves, violators of human rights, who do not struggle when comes to torture their policial adversaries until pushing them to commit suicide. That is the kind of people is holding us hostage here.

The US has started - killing 11 people in a boat.   Hopefully this will lead to a quick regime change without much loss of life. 

[passwordnow]

As a Venezuelan, I can assure you, nobody in this government would dare to attack the United States, even if it is retaliatory. This administration is composed by crooks who just want to be left alone so they can continue to steal as much money as possible from the people and co tinue to illegally exploit gold mines in the south of the country, that is all.

So this means two birds with one stone of what US is trying to throw in there? They're there for the oil and at the same time might be in the jackpot for also digging up some mines in there. But if you say that it's very unlikely to happen and you're in the actual place, I just pray for your safety and all of the people there. There is no need to cause more wars when the other side of the world hasn't ended and moved on yet.

[pooya87]

As a Venezuelan, I can assure you, nobody in this government would dare to attack the United States, even if it is retaliatory.

If that's true then you are in for a lot of misery for many years to come.

Another page from history of these so called "quick regime change without much loss of life" that @Vod hopes for is Iraq.
Contrary to what you may think the invasion of Iraq didn't start in 2003, it started in the 1990's with sanctions (aka economic terrorism against civilians) and blockade.
Back in the 90's the US regime suddenly decided that one of their allies is a dictator (partly because he failed as their proxy in the 80's invading Iran with full support of NATO) and a "regime change" operation was started. During the 90's the US regime mobilized its navy and started carrying out various attacks/operations against Iraqis mainly trying to weaken Iraq's defensive capabilities. Then forced them to willingly disarm themselves, something they stupidly accepted. Similar to what they are doing to Venezuela today...

The Iraqis did not really dare to launch retaliatory strikes on this rogue regime either at the time.

After about a decade of this form of aggression, in 2003 the US regime with its coalition of barbarians invaded the weakened and disarmed Iraq and overthrew the "dictator Saddam" in less than a month. But the occupation and crimes this barbaric coalition committed in Iraq lasted for years:

• They murdered over a million Iraqi unarmed civilians (600,000+ women and children)
• They started human trafficking (kidnapped mostly underaged girls and sold them)
• They raped countless Iraqi women, usually underage like the infamous gang rape of 14-year old girl named Abeer al-Janabi on March 12, 2006 by US Army soldiers/terrorists in front of her family right before they slaughtered them all.
• They installed their most brutal proxy called ISIS in Iraq that murdered countless more Iraqi civilians.
• They executed Iraqi scientists and anybody with education or basically with brain who might have re-built the country after their invasion.
• They destroyed majority of Iraq's civilian infrastructure
• They stole Iraqi natural resources including their oil; and even to this day the money for any oil that Iraq sells goes to US regime's bank and only a tiny fraction is given to Iraq. They are even taking some of that money to cover the cost of their invasion!!!
• They created the torture house in Abu Ghraib and many other places where they regularly abducted regular people to take there and brutally torture.
• They used nuclear munitions against Iraqis and the people are still suffering from its health consequences
• They looted museums and stole anything of historic value and destroyed what they could not steal.

... and a lot more and Iraq is still under US occupation nearly 20 years later!

P.S. Maybe you are wrong though. Amassing power and such particular capabilities as I mentioned in my first comment is not for just show off...

 
[-snip-]the ultra fast Zolfaghar missile boats specifically designed to sink US naval units[-snip-]

And that's just one of the examples off the top of my head.

[Jet Cash]

The US is in a difficult position over oil. The stuff they get from fracking is too light, so they have to export it. They need the heavy oil from Venezuela to keep refining viable in the US. On the other hand, Venezuela is a massive exporter of illegal drugs to the US. The elite like this because it weakens the population, and reduces opposition to them. Donald Trump probably want to kill this destructive trade. Hopefully the war that is developing is against the trafficking of drugs, and not against the people of Venezuela.

[pooya87]

As a Venezuelan, I can assure you, nobody in this government would dare to attack the United States, even if it is retaliatory.

First signs?

Two armed Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets flew over the USS Jason Dunham on Thursday, according to multiple Defense Department officials who described the action as a "show of force."

It may be interesting to know that the guided-missile destroyer USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109) was part of the carrier groups deployed to the Red Sea to carry out the terrorist attacks against civilian targets inside Yemen. Because of Yemeni retaliatory strikes the majority of these vessels are already exhausted, heavily damaged and running low on ammunition (eg. Aegis BMD missiles). The two aircraft carriers they had deployed to Red Sea are already too damaged that they are under what Pentagon calls "multi-year maintenance". Some sources say USS Truman may no longer be sea worthy...

Did you know Yemen is the poorest Arab country that has been under Saudi coalition bombardment for the past 10 years? That's on top of US regime's sanctions and blockade.
Did you also they defeated US military this year (shot down dozens of US military aircrafts, bombed US navy, etc.) to the point where Trump literally begged them for a ceasefire?

Let me repeat myself:

What most people don't realize is how extremely vulnerable and fragile the US regime is...

[paxmao]

[...] Donald Trump probably want to kill this destructive trade. Hopefully the war that is developing is against the trafficking of drugs, and not against the people of Venezuela.

This is the dumbest thing I read in this post.

The US cannot win the war on drugs, because the "enemy" is their own citizens taking drugs. Nobody sells if nobody buys. If they kill one narco, another takes the place as simple as that.

But you are living in the 80s if you think that drugs need to be exported from Venezuela. Read about Fentanyl.

Trumps knows all this, as he perfectly understands what means to control oil.

The United States won’t do anything, simply because its economy is busted. Is it viable to go in, remove Mr. Nicolay Madurai (Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela)?
– In the short term, yes, but in the long term, NO.

I don’t think Donald Trump would take that step, because China is intervening discreetly. China has interests in Venezuela, in Colombia, and in general, China is interested in Latin America.
With that in mind, what the United States is doing is spreading its wings, drawing attention, saying: “Look at me! I’m ultra-powerful, whoever doesn’t obey me I’ll crush,” but it can’t. People don’t believe it anymore, and the U.S. is in bad shape internally — it would be like shooting itself in the foot.

Let me give you some historical context:
In 1970 Venezuela was known as Saudi Venezuela, because it was the best country in the Americas. Everyone wanted to go there, especially after WWII. It was a cosmopolitan country that hosted many cultures and had a very strong economy. Look it up on Google: the Maracaibo Bridge.

But let’s land in the year 1999, when a military man named Hugo Chávez came to power — an opponent of the United States, of Israel, and with leftist leanings. A man who insulted the “gringos” more than once, he became known as the president of expropriations. Later, he would die of cancer.

Chávez was a president like all others, with successes and mistakes, but his greatest mistake was picking a fight with the U.S. Right after his death, Nicolás Maduro took over, but the United States took advantage of the fact that President Maduro lacks historical knowledge — Nicolás was a bus driver…

Then came the pressure, the worst inflation ever seen, lines everywhere, sabotaged healthcare, sabotaged economy — the same story that Pooya87 told…
So, the typical U.S. invasion “for freedom” — but it’s not going to happen.

The next scene: Petro throws Maduro a lifeline.
Petro is the president of Colombia, the first social democrat in 200 years, and he has strengthened relations with Maduro. It seems he will support him, but not economically or anything like that — he’s just showing solidarity, because it’s harsh that the U.S. keeps buying influence…

And so on, the U.S. pressuring, arming society for overthrows. But there’s something I don’t understand: if the minimum wage in Venezuela is 1 dollar, how do people eat? How do they pay for water, electricity? Or is the state paternalistic and subsidizes everything, even if the citizens don’t accept it?

Yep, reducing China influence is also kind of a good reason. Telling China, you can invest in Panama, Venezuela, wherever... the moment we decide, we take it.

[Hispo]

As a Venezuelan, I can assure you, nobody in this government would dare to attack the United States, even if it is retaliatory. This administration is composed by crooks who just want to be left alone so they can continue to steal as much money as possible from the people and co tinue to illegally exploit gold mines in the south of the country, that is all.

The crooks who illegally hold the power in this country do not have an ideology, they just want to continue to have access to our good mines and also continue to traffick with cocaine, and accumulate more dirty money.

The ruling party of the country is called "Socialist" but they are all just crooks and thieves, violators of human rights, who do not struggle when comes to torture their policial adversaries until pushing them to commit suicide. That is the kind of people is holding us hostage here.

The US has started - killing 11 people in a boat.   Hopefully this will lead to a quick regime change without much loss of life. 

The regime here will never recognize loss of life, specially if people got killed in am operation to stop a boat carrying drugs to the United States, it would be foolish of this crooks to even acknowledge it. Actually, the regime has already gave it's version of what happened and has said it was all fake and the video was made through the use of artificial intelligence.

These crooks could get one hundred of their undercover people killed on a single day and in broad light and they would never recognize it as a fact, they prefer to ignore it all and try to find new ways to continue to traffick cocaine.

As a Venezuelan, I can assure you, nobody in this government would dare to attack the United States, even if it is retaliatory. This administration is composed by crooks who just want to be left alone so they can continue to steal as much money as possible from the people and co tinue to illegally exploit gold mines in the south of the country, that is all.

So this means two birds with one stone of what US is trying to throw in there? They're there for the oil and at the same time might be in the jackpot for also digging up some mines in there. But if you say that it's very unlikely to happen and you're in the actual place, I just pray for your safety and all of the people there. There is no need to cause more wars when the other side of the world hasn't ended and moved on yet.

I don't even know why I would like about my origin in this thread, it would be ridiculous.
Yes I am a Venezuelan living in Venezuela and I am pretty aware of the whole scheme which exist in the south of our country with the huge gold mines which are property of the government and it is not used to improve our country, but to fill the pockets of the corrupt crooks who keep this country and her people hostage.

[epsi1on]

I am from Venezuela. And it is pretty unlikely Trump will do something explicit against the regime of Maduro, honestly. There is much speculation going on here, but the truth those in power here (ilegitimately) will do anything within their power to stay untouched my justice and continue repress the people of the country while they build their empire of drug trafficking in the Caribbean and beyond.

If any one of you have questions about what is going on from the perspective of a Venezuelan civilian, I can try to reply any of your questions, as long as they are serious and not ill-intentioned.

Hi,
As an Iranian citizen, i just see that things are very similar between our societies.
I mean, many of people here had same vision about the government and president, like what you described.
Economy was kinda weakened, local currency got cheap, and many other things. I think same things happened here as well.

[Wakate]

The United States is imposing harsh economy sanctions on Venezuela because of the control of power seeing the country has the world largest oil reserve in the world. I don't think the sanction on Venezuela is to punish the country due to corruption and high drug trafficking but to reduce the influence of the country as the world largest oil reserves.

The United States has been known to assault countries that tried to be self dependent and this is why the US will keep attacking China that has been known to be among the world powers. If the Venezuelan people can stand on their ground the US would become weak and an attack on the country would trigger immense agitation which could affect the oil price.

[uneng]

If Maduro is removed from power, what is going to happen to Venezuela? Will it be like when Chavez passed out, so Maduro took place? Because the regime is quite strong in Venezuela, as it is in Cuba. Meanwhile, the population doesn't seem organized enough to stop those chavistas from ruling the country. At least, that is the impression I have after watching and reading news about Venezuela since 2014.

Key politicians from the opposition to the regime talk a lot and loudly year after year, but nothing for real happens in Venezuela.

[Hispo]

If Maduro is removed from power, what is going to happen to Venezuela? Will it be like when Chavez passed out, so Maduro took place? Because the regime is quite strong in Venezuela, as it is in Cuba. Meanwhile, the population doesn't seem organized enough to stop those chavistas from ruling the country. At least, that is the impression I have after watching and reading news about Venezuela since 2014.

Key politicians from the opposition to the regime talk a lot and loudly year after year, but nothing for real happens in Venezuela.

Most of the people have lost hope on a political change here in this country, in spite of the majority of the population wanting Maduro to be ousted from power. It is because there are cuban interest in the ruling of this country, as this is the country which continues to provide Cuba with cheap oil and gas, so their country does not go into a perpetual blackout. That is why we have an autocracy here, it is the interest of the east block versus the interest of the west, we being in the middle of them as the country with the biggest oil reserves on the planet.

These crooks have already showed they are not willing to leave this country through democracy, only force is left as an option and Trump is aware of it, in the end, this is a conflict for oil and liberty, since we have long lost our actual freedom, because of corruption and a corrupt elite.

[uneng]

These crooks have already showed they are not willing to leave this country through democracy, only force is left as an option and Trump is aware of it, in the end, this is a conflict for oil and liberty, since we have long lost our actual freedom, because of corruption and a corrupt elite.

As a Venezuelan, what would you like US to do regards the current situation of your country?

Do you think they can help you, or cause more harm than good in the end, just like the current regime is doing?

And is this view common sense in Venezuela, or do you consider yourself to be a dissonant voice among your countrymen?

[epsi1on]

As a Venezuelan, what would you like US to do regards the current situation of your country?

Do you think they can help you, or cause more harm than good in the end, just like the current regime is doing?

And is this view common sense in Venezuela, or do you consider yourself to be a dissonant voice among your countrymen?

These are very clever questions
My opinion is: fighting with bad guy does not make anyone good.
Here, U.S. is trying to fight bad guys in the power system of Venezuela (and Iran and Syria and ...). This does not mean that U.S. is the good guy, specially while this fight almost have ZERO COST to the U.S. army.

[Hispo]

These crooks have already showed they are not willing to leave this country through democracy, only force is left as an option and Trump is aware of it, in the end, this is a conflict for oil and liberty, since we have long lost our actual freedom, because of corruption and a corrupt elite.

As a Venezuelan, what would you like US to do regards the current situation of your country?

Do you think they can help you, or cause more harm than good in the end, just like the current regime is doing?

And is this view common sense in Venezuela, or do you consider yourself to be a dissonant voice among your countrymen?

There is a significant amount of people here who just want to current regime to be ousted and they would be willing to accept the consequences of a military action by the United States, if that meant to get rid of Maduro.
However, I personally would like to have a regime change without the help of the USA, become it would make the change more traumatic for civilians like me, though this regime is criminal and it is not willing to let us go and be free through peaceful means, that fact leaves violent options open, that is a consequence of them stealing the lastest presidential election.

The United States are not the impersonification of the goodness and their military are not saints, but the United States is at least and functioning republic which have more standing values than us.

[paxmao]

These crooks have already showed they are not willing to leave this country through democracy, only force is left as an option and Trump is aware of it, in the end, this is a conflict for oil and liberty, since we have long lost our actual freedom, because of corruption and a corrupt elite.

As a Venezuelan, what would you like US to do regards the current situation of your country?

Do you think they can help you, or cause more harm than good in the end, just like the current regime is doing?

And is this view common sense in Venezuela, or do you consider yourself to be a dissonant voice among your countrymen?

There is a significant amount of people here who just want to current regime to be ousted and they would be willing to accept the consequences of a military action by the United States, if that meant to get rid of Maduro.
However, I personally would like to have a regime change without the help of the USA, become it would make the change more traumatic for civilians like me, though this regime is criminal and it is not willing to let us go and be free through peaceful means, that fact leaves violent options open, that is a consequence of them stealing the lastest presidential election.

The United States are not the impersonification of the goodness and their military are not saints, but the United States is at least and functioning republic which have more standing values than us.

I am sure Maduro has made it from quite difficult to neraly impossible to have a life in Venezuela, now, you have to look at Afganistan and Irak to understand what happens after the US takes charge and what happens after they leave.

[BADecker]

The interesting thing is that all this is really about OIL. The US is going to get its oil out of Venezuela if we need to start a war with them.

BUT... Guyana, which is right next to Venezuela, has loads of oil, too. Some of it might be of the same batch as Venezuela oil.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/US-Jets-Deployed-to-Guyana-as-Oil-Boom-Raises-Caribbean-Stakes.html

The U.S. has deployed fighter jets to Guyana, drawing its military footprint into the world’s fastest-growing offshore oil province as tensions with neighboring Venezuela escalate, as Washington adjusts its regional posture to accommodate the changing balance of power in the south Caribbean due to newfound oil wealth.

The move comes as ExxonMobil and partners Hess and CNOOC continue expanding production from Guyana’s Stabroek block, which already exceeds 650,000 barrels per day and is forecast to reach 1.3 million bpd by 2027. That trajectory has made the country the hottest new oil frontier, with output rivaling OPEC members despite Guyana’s population of under 1 million. Any instability in its offshore zone has immediate global implications, with light sweet crude from Stabroek commanding strong premiums in Atlantic Basin markets.

Read More.


The question is, will the US help Guyana? Or will they simply offer help, but really steal Guyana oil from the people of Guyana?