Subject: Re: Venezuela - Who and How
Okay, you're right. The Russians, Chinese, Cubans, Iranians and Hezbollah are all mad also.
Great company for the democrats to be in!

And France, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay.

But most of Europe is also deeply upset by how the operation was conducted, even as they struggle with how to balance that with their support for the result. They're mostly trying to dodge the question:

https://www.theguardian.com/wo...

So you shouldn't go thinking that this is something everyone but the dictators support.

You're aware that Maduro wasn't the lawfully elected ruler, right? And that we were executing what amounts to a really big arrest warrant, right?

With military special forces and the support of the U.S. Navy, right? Conducted by the U.S. Defense Depar...excuse me, Department of War, right? The normal course for international law enforcement is for such matters to be handled by civilian authorities - not the use of military forces.

I was speaking generally. Removing Venezuela does everything I said.

It'll take some time.

Removing Venezuela (assuming you're speaking figuratively) would do most of that...but we haven't removed Venezuela. We've removed Maduro. Which doesn't remove Venezuela from anything.

What does that tell you about the grip that Rodriguez has on her country?

Nothing. I think you're misreading the quote. He wasn't alluding to the idea that the people who are running the airports are autonomous actors that are free from the control of the central government. He was saying that even though the U.S. didn't recognize that the Maduro government was the de jeure government of Venezuela, they were the de facto government of Venezuela - which meant that the U.S. had to deal with representatives of that government (ie. the guy at the airport) even while claiming that Maduro wasn't really the President. Because even though he wasn't really the President, he was the one who was actually being treated as the President by everyone in the country.