<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/12/trump-caribbean-warships-venezuela-conflict>
"When Donald Trump started sending warships, marines and reaper drones to the
Caribbean in August to torment Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, 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.
“I’d say [something is] imminent, without a doubt,” Story predicted as
observers in Venezuela and around the world battled to forecast what the
unpredictable US president’s next move might be."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
