On December 18, president and CEO of the Inter-American Dialogue, Rebecca Bill Chavez, spoke with DW News about whether the U.S. could remove Maduro from power by cutting off Venezuela’s financial resources.
COMMENTS FROM CHAVEZ:
“There is a lack of clarity around it [the U.S. endgame]. I see three potential objectives. The first is narcotics trafficking into the United States, although it’s worth noting that fentanyl is not coming from Venezuela and that most cocaine trafficking comes from the Pacific coast of South America. The second is regime change, which remains part of this strategy. What’s new is that oil has now been explicitly introduced as a goal of this policy, particularly in President Trump’s own statements.”
“What President Trump labeled a blockade in his tweet is a significant step in the escalation of pressure we’ve seen off the coast of Venezuela… oil is the Maduro regime’s lifeline, so I do think this could make a difference.”
“The United States has tried a maximum-pressure sanctions campaign on Venezuela in the past, and it didn’t work. Any policy that pushes toward economic strangulation requires other conditions: a fractured regime, military defections, and a credible negotiated off-ramp for the leader—in this case, Maduro.”
“There have been serious concerns about the legality of recent actions in the Caribbean. The seizure of the tanker Skipper was not a military action—it was a law-enforcement operation involving the U.S. Coast Guard. That distinction matters, particularly given President Trump’s use of the term ‘blockade,’ which implies a militarized action.”
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE:
