Venezuela's opposition in talks with military and civilian officials to force out Maduro.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

CARACAS, Venezuela —The Venezuelan opposition is in talks with sympathetic military and civilian officials in a bid to force out President Nicolás Maduro, self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaidó said in an interview Sunday with The Washington Post.

Backed by the United States and a host of Latin American countries, Guaidó also said the opposition will test the socialist government by bringing in food aid to ease a crippling humanitarian crisis.

Guaidó and his opposition are locked in a high-stakes play to drive Maduro from power. In Caracas, Maduro’s top brass and defense minister have sworn their allegiance to him.

The new head of Venezuela’s democratically elected National Assembly — a body stripped of its power by Maduro in 2017 but still recognized internationally — Guaidó has argued that Maduro is illegitimate and must leave power. Maduro was elected to a second six-year term last year, but the vote was widely derided as fraudulent.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/venezuelas-opposition-in-talks-with-military-and-civilian-officials-to-force-out-maduro-juan-guaido-says-in-interview/ar-BBSOdyR?li=BBnb7Kz

[roamer65]

1. This could start a world war.

World War I started under lesser circumstances.

[Igel]

2. Lots of things could start a world war.

Except that we need some sort of treaty obligations that others would honor with declarations of war. War's tended to be either bombs-from-the-sky or very messy series of skirmishes. We haven't had a serious war in a long time.

I'm not sure that Putin wants Russian boys killed to defend Venezuela oil for Russia. That Turkey's so anxious about getting Venezuelan gold that he's willing to suffer a lot of dead Muslim Turks for atheist or Catholic Latinos. Or that Xi is so gung-ho on defending something in northern South America that he's willing to start a war and severely panicking everybody on his borders.

Once they defend Maduro, they own Venezuela ... with it's disaster of an economy, difficult-to-refine crude, and 3 million refugees.


I will say it's clever, though. The idea of having an opposition (who is still alive and walking about at liberty for reasons that I can't fathom) bring in aid, publicly, to help "their" people is rather intriguing. It undermines Maduro and would show that there's help possible beyond the confines of socialism in one country or juche or whatever he's calling it.

At the same time, it's a fool's gambit, because once the pattern's established, if the opposite gets control and the aid doesn't come pouring in and make the economy a paradise in short order a lot of build-up resentment's going to be unleashed. Dictatorships are most unstable and prone to go truly nasty when they're unstable and when promised hopes and dreams are unfulfilled.

[Blue_true]

3. The circumstance that started WWI was much, much larger.

The assination of a major figure in the last great European empire was a major event on that continent.

I am still trying to figure out whether the guy that is trying to force out a dictator is truly a good guy, or a snake in different skin.