this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2026
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Chapotraphouse
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It signals to Russia and China that any investment in Venezuela will disappear and be a net loss. This keeps Venezuela in a position where no one will help them and the sanctions will eventually deteriorate their popular support until someone who is willing to work for the US is in charge.
It also signals to all of Latin America that if they choose leaders who are not US puppets, their country will be destroyed until they do.
Not only that, what comes after the beating is the dangling of the carrot - from WSJ Finance Industry Eyes Investment Opportunities in Venezuela:
Classic abuser tactic. It will place the new Venezuelan leadership in a bind: “you can keep on opposing us, and we will destroy your new leaders just as we did to Maduro, or you can come to terms with what we’re offering and maybe get some crumbs in return. Think about your own people.”
It’s going to be ideology versus economic reality.
Capturing Maduro is also a much more difficult endeavor than mere decapitation strikes. The US is sending the signal that we can take out each and every one of you, but chose not to. So, consider what we have to offer carefully.
Perhaps most importantly, it sends a clear message to the Global South countries that are having second thoughts: China and Russia are not coming to save you.
Any PSUV leadership that tries this will absolutely get merc'd. You don't create a rethoric device for decades about US imperialism and interventionism, as well as shine a light on Chavez and his influence only to try and sell out the country. That is an immediate mark for insurrection.
Maybe, but Venezuela is nowhere near as hermetic and defended as say Iran, that had been preparing for this scenario for decades. I would bet most countries' leaderships are just as vulnerable as Venezuela's. A kidnap might be hard but I don't think its extraordinarily hard, nor would the US pass up the propaganda win, even at the cost.
Only big Trvth nuke here. Although I think this is not planned with that ends, at least that explicitly.
Absolutely. We should not expect the new leadership to accept the US offer immediately. The goal here is to sow political division.
At some point, it will be ideology versus economic reality as I said. The government will have to address its people for the deteriorating economic situation. The staunchly ideological proponents will of course want to continue the resistance, but some will begin to be swayed. The US simply have to wait and monitor the situation and dial up the knob as needed.
After all, the empire can afford to wait. Look at how the US waited 10 years before carving up Syria in an instant last year. A superpower can always outlast a small economy, this is simply a reality we have to accept. Without assistance from other equally powerful forces, there is only so much that a small economy can do.
If this were an effective tool it would have already worked, don't forget Venezuela has been heavily sanctioned for decades now. This would have also been the case for Iran, or Cuba.
Syria's issue is a bit different, Assad played his hands wrong. Attacked his allies, went to bed with his enemies, and ended up not taking a particular side while maintaining his country in a terrible state. Venezuela is a marked contrast, they are as of today at their highest levels of economic growth in years, and the control over the military is much more solid than Assad had hoped for Syria.
Economic blockade has been the longest used tool in the US arsenal, it hasn't really worked in the big majority of cases. Venezuelaa went though the mythical hyperinflation and survived. That really counts for something.
All of these are different situations, but like you said it did work with Assad for various reasons, it worked with Burkina Faso, it succeeded with Ghana, etc.
It is not a sure thing, but I also wouldn't dismiss how fracturous this plan can be.
Maybe, the point is more that this is not a sure shot that will topple the regime and if anything has already been tried so there doesn't seem to be a clear indication that this time it will work.
This and the extended thread seems most likely to me
That is the nominal message. But the leaders in latam, especially those that matter (Colombia and Brazil) will not bend the knee.
They have also been under sanctions for literal decades and have started to pull through in spite of them.
Yes it might not work but I seems to be the point. Hopefully it has the opposite effect and teaches LatAm left to embrace the purge and steel their revolutionary spirits
I think that as of today this is the case, let's hope it holds
As one of the users closest to this situation, I wish you and your comrades all the best
Death to America
America getting the opposite effect than they intended through military action does have a lot of precedent. They just also tend to kill a lot of people as well
That does make the most sense out of any replies ive had
I guess yeah, banking off of a complete lack of international solidarity is playing the odds well, unfortunately.