U.S. officials make clear there will be no occupation force, only gunboat diplomacy, what Rubio called the largest armada ever assembled in the Western Hemisphere that's enabled 30 strikes on what the U.S. calls narco-terrorist drug boats, as well as the capture of two sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers and the chasing of a third tanker, which requested Russian protection and Russia asked the U.S. not to seize. And that's a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes that not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela. And, in that sense, the middle-of-the-night assault on a foreign capital, the military capture and public humiliation of a foreign leader, is a new day of American regional domination, complete with explicit threats across the region against Colombia's president.
Author: Nick Schifrin, Solveig Rennan
Published at: 2026-01-05 23:55:25
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