Trouble is brewing inside Nicolas Maduro’s inner circle.
The war on the Cartels has seen the largest US military deployment to the Caribbean since the dark days of the Cold War.
Approximately 10,000 U.S. forces deployed to support the operations, mostly stationed in Puerto Rico, while U.S. Marines are deployed aboard naval vessels.
At least 8 U.S. Navy warships operating in the Caribbean Sea, plus one nuclear-powered submarine deployed to the region.
Fighter jets and combat helicopters have been deployed for regional operations, and even strategic bombers have been upping the pressure on Socialist Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Several strikes targeted alleged drug boats off Venezuela’s coast, disrupting drug smuggling operations, claiming the life of over 27 suspected narcoterrorists
With this military escalation, and subsequent activation of the CIA’s covert operations and even lethal action, it’s no wonder many in the Bolivarian regime of Maduro are freaking out.
The buildup in pressure, is understood to be aimed at ousting Maduro through an overwhelming show of force and psychological coercion leading to a breakdown in his regime.
And NOT, it is imagined – to result in an actual ground invasion.
By now, the stranglehold around Venezuela has left top officials paranoid, and has sown discord within Maduro’s inner circle.
Financial Times reported (behind a paywall):
“Figures within the regime have taken to changing mobile phones, sleeping in different locations every night and purging suspected dissenters in a series of internal witch-hunts, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation.”
With an indictment for sanctions evasion and a R$50 million bounty on his head, Maduro has been presented to the world as a Cartel leader.
“’Trump’s strategy isn’t about putting boots on the ground, it’s about demonstrating overwhelming military superiority and using that power to achieve political ends’, said a Venezuelan opposition figure familiar with the discussions.
[…] ’The plan now is a capture of Nicolás Maduro. Capture-kill or capture-arrest and take him out, one way or another’, said Vanessa Neumann, a Venezuelan defense industry entrepreneur and former opposition envoy with close ties to the US security establishment.”
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