James Story, Washington’s former ambassador in Caracas, says a US attack once seen as unlikely now looks imminent
When Donald Trump started sending warships, marines and reaper drones to the Caribbean in August to torment Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, the US’s former ambassador in Caracas, James Story, suspected the deployment was largely for show: a spectacular flexing of military muscle supposed to force the authoritarian leader from power.
But in recent days, as the world’s largest aircraft carrier and its strike group powered towards the region and the US president continued to order deadly airstrikes on alleged narco-boats, the diplomat’s thinking has shifted.
“Facts on the ground have changed tremendously,” Story said as the USS Gerald R Ford headed west amid the US’ largest military buildup in Latin America in decades.
Two months ago Story, who was Washington’s top diplomat for Venezuela from 2018 to 2023, saw only a 10% chance of some kind of US attack on Venezuelan soil and an 80% chance that Trump’s gambit would come to nothing. Now, he said he is 80% sure things would evolve into some kind of military action and sees only a 20% chance the status quo would hold.
