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Washington put a $50 million bounty on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s head.

The US military’s strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela does little to dispel speculation over President Donald Trump’s true goal in the region.

Officially, the deployment of the US Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit to the Caribbean is about narcotics interdiction.

But unlike Coast Guard cutters and speedboats that usually chase — rather than blow up — smugglers, these ships are built to strike targets on land.

Coming weeks after Washington put a $50 million bounty on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s head, some see it as a setup for a snatch-and-grab, or worse.

It’s also awakened some long dormant interventionist fantasies.

For many Venezuelans, the deployment revives memories of a botched 2020 coup attempt, when a group led by an American ex-Green Beret tried and failed to land on Venezuela’s shores, leaving several dead.

  • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.worksOP
    0·
    6 days ago

    So nobody has heard anything from Maduro since Monday, right?

    Last week, a journalist said he was planning to flee to Nicaragua with his family.

    Renowned journalist Jaime Bayly stated that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is allegedly planning to escape with his family to Nicaragua, following the military pressure the United States is exerting on the South American country and the threat of military intervention. According to the Peruvian journalist, based in Miami, various signs point to the possibility of an “imminent escape” by Maduro and his family circle to Nicaragua, a political ally of the Venezuelan government, amid growing U.S. military and judicial pressure on the leaders of Chavismo.

    On Monday Maduro said he “would constitutionally declare a republic in arms” if the South American country were attacked by forces that the United States government has deployed to the Caribbean.”

    Then on Tuesday morning, a tiny random cargo ship is attacked by a U.S. drone while heading to the Caribbean. We haven’t heard anything from Maduro in response to the ship being attacked. Why?