GWYNNE DYER: Should we worry Trump will declare war on Venezuela? |
Trump ordered blockades on Venezuelan oil tankers, an act of war, but he doesn't usually follow through. His Secretary of State, however, could be an issue
US President Donald Trump has ordered “a total and complete” blockade of all ‘sanctioned’ oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuelan ports, which is technically an act of war.
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How seriously should we take this?
Trump has certainly threatened war with Venezuela in the past. Former US National Security advisor John Bolton reports that Trump said during his first presidential term (2017-2020) that invading Venezuela would be “cool” because it is “really part of the United States.”
Andrew McCabe, former deputy director of the FBI, says that Trump told him in 2019 that Venezuela was “the country we should be going to war with. They have all that oil and they’re right on our back door.”
Gustavo Petro, the current president of Colombia, says that his predecessor, Iván Duque, was approached by Trump in 2020 with a plan to invade Venezuela via Colombia. (No need for an amphibious landing operation. Just disembark the US troops in Santa Marta and march them across the border.) Trump’s advisors talked him out of that........