Regime change in Venezuela – a huge mess that Trump 2.0 may be about to make

The agitation and threats by the Trump 2.0 Administration is continuing with demands for regime change.

If and when the US invades Venezuela, it’s worth remembering how the regime change operation in Iraq in 2003 started out.

The International Crisis Group in a report on June 11, 2003 addressed the situation as of eight weeks of the US seizing the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Complete with the famous ritual toppling, organized by the US for its publicity value, of a Saddam Hussein statue:

Eight weeks after victoriously entering Baghdad, American forces are in a race against the clock. If they are unable to restore both personal security and public services and establish a better rapport with Iraqis before the blistering heat of summer sets in, there is a genuine risk that serious trouble will break out. That would make it difficult for genuine political reforms to take hold, and the political liberation from the Saddam Hussein dictatorship would then become for a majority of the country’s citizens a true foreign occupation. With all eyes in the Middle East focused on Iraq, the coming weeks and months will be critical for shaping regional perceptions of the U.S. as well. [my emphasis] (1)And it’s always good to remember what investigative journalist I.F. Stone had to say about wars: “All governments lie.” Those three words are often quoted. It’s not often quoted with the rest of the sentence in Stone’s 1967 book, In a Time of Torment: “All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.”

Given Trump’s own personal mental deterioration and the stunning incompetence of his diplomacy this year, an actual invasion and regime-change attempt in Venezuela is virtually guaranteed to be a major disaster.

Deutsche Welle reports in a report featuring warmongering ghoul Elliot Abrams and AP reporter Ellen Knickmeyer: (2)

Abrams was a leading adviser on Venezuela during Trump 1.0. Not at all to Joe Biden credit, he also picked Abrams as a member of a public diplomacy commission.

Abrams, who was assistant secretary of inter-American affairs from 1985 to early 1989, later pleaded guilty to two charges of illegally withholding information from Congress – including his role in soliciting $10m from Brunei – during two October 1986 hearings, one before the Senate foreign relations committee and a second before the House intelligence committee. (3)

Knickmeyer in the interview starts off her comments by referring to her experience during the Iraq War.

 

Notes:

(1) International Crisis Group (2003): Baghdad: A Race Against the Clock. Middle East Briefing 06/11/2003. <https://www.crisisgroup.org/sites/default/files/baghdad-a-race-against-the-clock.pdf>

(2) US' ‘next step could be to hit targets inside Venezuela’ to prompt overthrow of Maduro | DW News YouTube channel 12/03/2025. <https://youtu.be/TwVJwmc9xJc?si=5UoGeJogz4P6izzO> (Accessed: 2025-04-12).

(3) Yang, Mary (2023): Biden to nominate Elliott Abrams, who lied over Iran-Contra, to key panel. Guardian 07/08/2025. <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/08/biden-elliott-abrams-iran-contra-venezuela> (Accessed: 2025-04-12).