Subject: Re: Venezuela - Who and How
Erm, okay. I outlined why this isn't true in my other post.

And I outlined in my other post why you were wrong. FARC hasn't been decapitated, because Maduro wasn't the head of FARC. Killing a few random Venezuelan soldiers is trivial, and doesn't materially affect anything in the country - no one of any importance whatsoever was killed in the raid. Which is why you had to characterize these things as a "step in the right direction," because they're of such small magnitude that they're utterly irrelevant to anything that's actually going on down there. There's been absolutely no change in the fundamental power structure of the country, no removal of anyone other than Maduro from power, and so there's no reason at this point to expect any change in Venezuela's political or economic policies or their capabilities.

Nothing has changed, apart from Maduro being removed - and Maduro's removal isn't going to change much, since the entire military and political structure remains in place. Granted, it's entirely possible that Venezuela's government might have trouble holding onto power given that disruption, and perhaps the country descends into civil war....but that's certainly not our goal, and it probably doesn't help us. This strategy seems to be predicated on the idea that Venezuela's antipathy to the U.S. solely stemmed from Maduro personally, and not the fact that the entire government and military regime was based on the Bolivarian revolution and resistance to U.S. imperialism as a fundamental pillar of their support.