If the United States takes action in Venezuela to force out the Latin American country’s dictatorial President Nicolas Maduro, it will be akin to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a CNN guest.
With the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group being dispatched to the Caribbean as a part of a military buildup and President Donald J. Trump saying that he won’t rule out the use of military troops, the anti-Trump cable “news” network trotted out former National Security Council Senior Director for the Western Hemisphere Juan Gonzalez to suggest that the president is the equivalent of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Gonzalez, who served in both the Obama and Biden administrations, appeared on Monday’s edition of “CNN News Central,” where anchor Boris Sanchez asked the resident fellow at Georgetown University’s Americas Institute for his thoughts on the tense situation as well as Trump’s remarks that he’s open to talking with Maduro.
(Video Credit: CNN)
After Sanchez asked for his reaction to Trump’s leaving all options on the table, including discussions with the narcotrafficking dictator, Gonzalez warned that while the possibility for dialogue is a positive, the military presence in the area “opens the door for accidents to happen.”
“Well, I mean, any sort of channel for dialogue is positive because right now the force posture has gone from a symbolic presence to, as you mentioned, the carrier strike group having a credible threat posture just off of Venezuela‘s maritime that I think opens the door for accidents to happen,” he said.
“You know, any sort of mistake that would lead to escalation, I think, would be very dangerous in the absence of dialogue. The key thing here is what are they going to talk about?” Gonzalez continued. “Joe Biden has the saying that you never back a man into a corner where his only way out is over you. So what are the terms that they‘re going to actually offer the Venezuelans? That‘s going to be key.”
After giving his thoughts on whether it was possible for a deal to be struck that would allow Maduro to stay in power, the former official downplayed the role of the Maduro government and Cartel de los Soles, which has been designated as a terrorist organization, in the trafficking of drugs into the United States.
“What happens if the U.S. launches ground strikes in Venezuela?” Sanchez asked.
Gonzalez responded by stating that so far there have been “roughly 80 casualties,” and that it does “not meet the UN Charter or the international humanitarian law threshold for the use of force.”
” Just designating a gang as a foreign terrorist organization is not a license for the use of lethal force,” he said. “So now the next step, actually going onto land, puts us in a situation where actually the aggressor against the country.”
“And of course, this is a dictator. Maduro oppresses his population. But it takes us into the same territory as Russia invading Ukraine,” Gonzalez concluded.
“Wow,” said Sanchez before thanking his guest for the perspective.
“He’s done tremendous damage to our country,” Trump recently said of Maduro. “He has not been good to the United States, so we’ll see what happens.”
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