The US is ramping up the pressure on Nicolás Maduro with a tanker seizure and expanded sanctions following threats and boat strikes
E
arly in his first term, Donald Trump mooted a “military option” for Venezuela to dislodge its president, Nicolás Maduro. Reports suggest that he eagerly discussed the prospect of an invasion behind closed doors. Advisers eventually talked him down. Instead, the US pursued a “maximum pressure” strategy of sanctions and threats.
But Mr Maduro is still in place. And Mr Trump’s attempts to remove him are ramping up again. The US has amassed its largest military presence in the Caribbean since the 1989 invasion of Panama. It has carried out more than 20 shocking strikes on alleged drug boats. Mr Trump reportedly delivered an ultimatum late last month, telling the Venezuelan leader that he could have safe passage from his country if he left immediately. There was already a $50m bounty on his head. This week came expanded sanctions and the seizure of a tanker.
Mr Maduro, who took over from Hugo Chávez in 2013, swore himself into office for a third term in January despite compelling evidence that the opposition candidate Edmundo González had easily beaten him in last summer’s election. But Mr Trump is not concerned about his dubious electoral credentials and authoritarianism. Nor do the administration’s claims to be tackling drugs cartels convince – though images of boat bombings may be viscerally pleasing to Mr Trump’s base. Venezuela is neither a significant producer of nor major conduit for drugs consumed in the US. And Mr Trump has just pardoned the former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández for major drugs-related convictions.
