Venezuelan opposition figures and exiles are calling on President Donald Trump to intervene militarily against Nicolas Maduro, as a growing U.S. naval presence in the Caribbean heightens speculation of imminent action.
“I will support anything that will free my country from the narco-dictatorship that constantly violates human rights,” Venezuelan journalist Melanio Escobar, based in Orlando, Florida, told The Telegraph.
“I think the U.S. operations are genuine. They’re not only intervening to put pressure on the regime, but to capture those who need to be captured.”
Seven U.S. warships, a nuclear-powered submarine, and 4,500 service members, including 2,200 Marines trained for amphibious assaults, are stationed in the region, according to the report. The USS Lake Erie, a missile cruiser, was seen crossing into the Caribbean this week, fueling comparisons to past U.S. interventions from Panama to Iraq.
“This is 105% about narco-terrorism, but if Maduro winds up no longer in power, no one will be crying,” one official in the Trump administration told Axios.
The U.S. raised the bounty on Maduro to $50 million, twice what it placed on 9/11 terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.
“He is one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world and a threat to our national security,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said of Maduro earlier this month.
The Trump administration has framed the deployment — the largest since the 1989 Panama invasion to knock out Manuel Noriega — as part of its campaign against drug cartels, including Venezuela’s Cartel of the Suns, which Washington recently designated a terrorist group.
“This could be Noriega part two,” an official told Axios.
“The president has asked for a menu of options. And ultimately, this is the president’s decision about what to do next, but Maduro should be sh**ting bricks.”
The military buildup might not be intended for a U.S. invasion, but the perception could make an internal overthrow of Maduro a new reality.
“Soldiers are loyal until they’re not,” exiled Maduro opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez, who some say was the legitimate 2024 presidential election winner, said in a video, the Telegraph reported, noting the similarities to the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
“I saw it on television,” he said of the Iraqi operation. “Before the first bombs were even dropped, the most battle-hardened elements of the Republican Guard were already running in their underwear through the streets.”
Venezuelan journalist Guillermo Farit Padilla echoed the “same vibes” sentiment on X.
“In a black bag or in orange overalls, he needs to go however possible,” he added.
“I want to see it, but it’s just not a certain thing,” said Venezuelan Jackson Fernandez, who fled the country and now sells coffee on the streets of Colombia.
“I know the United States could do it if they wanted to, but I’m worried it’s something else they’re looking for other than regime change.”
A defiant Maduro has rejected the U.S. show of force in the region and ordered 15,000 troops to the Colombian border.
“What they’re threatening to do against Venezuela — regime change, a military terrorist attack — is immoral, criminal and illegal,” Maduro said Friday, adding in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that the U.S. naval buildup is “serious threat to the stability of the hemisphere.”
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