Hawks on both sides have warned the US dispatch of three warships to patrol off the South American coast may be part of a regime-change operation – but is it?
A
s US warships carrying cruise missiles and marines powered towards Venezuela’s coastline this week, supporters of the South American country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, warned a dastardly imperialist plot for an Iraq-style invasion was afoot.
“No one will lay their hands on this land!” Maduro thundered, calling on patriots to help repel the supposed regime change operation by joining his “Bolivarian militia”.
Donald Trump’s allies posted incendiary social media messages, warning the Venezuelan autocrat the end was nigh. “Your days are seriously numbered,” Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, proclaimed, urging Maduro to buy “a one-way ticket to Moscow”.
