Public sentiment regarding the US covert operations in Venezuela is overwhelmingly negative, characterized by skepticism and criticism. Many commentators perceive these actions as imperialistic and aggressive, questioning the US government's motives and condemning the ethical implications. The discourse highlights a historical pattern of intervention in Latin America, driven by geo-political interests, particularly concerning Venezuela's vast oil reserves. While some support intervention against the Maduro regime, the predominant view is that these operations are reckless and serve ulterior motives rather than genuine humanitarian concerns.

US Government

Trump Administration

Venezuelan Government

Literally nothing new, it's the same game that's been played for a century

B_drgnthrn

The US surreptitiously meddling in the affairs of a foreign nation? Surely this is an unprecedented action.

bag-of-farts

Trump is ruling the US via fiat, performative politics at its worst.  He doesn’t qualify for a security clearance and shows it with his actions.

Black-Shoe

noejovyy

avewave_2

carry_the_way

The killing Maduro part is completely justified imo. It’s whether the cia establishes some puppet to the US as their next leader that’s the more concerning question for me. Such a poor track record lol.

gooch_bruiser_69

We’ve had an open bounty on Maduro for as long as I can remember.

Not surprised. Well deserved.

No-Adeptness357

They think they’re being smart, but like everything else they do they will screw Venezuela over, create more chaos and problems than before, and have nothing to show for it but more money in the pockets of rich people.

daven_callings

Guys, please remember that top level comments have to be **an actual attempt at answering the question**. If it's a one-line soundbite, it's almost certainly not going to be sufficiently informative to stay up.

Portarossa

[deleted]

Answer: It appears like the Trump administration is looking to start a war. They've been threatening Venezuela for months and have made major steps like moving B-52 bombers and warships off the Venezuelan coast and engaging in military actions against a "drug smuggling ship". 

The goal seems to be regime change but to me its unclear whether this will achieve any of his stated goals of stopping human/drug trafficking from Venezuela to the United states or make it even worse. Or if this is entirely posturing to appease his base of supporters.

donniedarko5555

Answer: Officially, this is an expansion of Trump’s attacks on supposed drug cartels that supposedly come from Venezuela. Trump blames the country for sending violent criminals and drugs into the US. Unofficially, I have no god damn idea.

go_faster1

Answer: Marco Rubio is the current Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. He has wanted regime change in Venezuela for at least 15 years.

The current government of Venezuela is incredibly corrupt and blatantly ignored the results of the last election to stay in power. Millions of Venezuelans have left the country over the last number of years because of how terrible the situation is there.

Another nugget to keep in mind is that the Venezuelan government has been threatening neighboring Guyana with invasion over the past number of months, claiming that virtually all of its territory should be theirs. Were Venezuela to follow through on an invasion, it would make it very likely that the U.S. would get involved.

Pragmaticus

Answer: Short answer, oil, and to paraphrase the Walking Dead to summarize the US's position towards Venezuela,  on behalf of oil corporations and their investors: "What we want is what you got. That's it."

Long answer: Venezuela has an estimated massive reserve of oil that could make them literally the top producer in the world if they ever developed their oil infrastructure at that scale. A few decades ago, Hugo Chavez took power and nationalized the oil industry,  angering the oil corporations and their investors, who got booted out of Venezuela. Since then, the US has been doing everything they can (Cia coups, destabilizing,  propaganda) to oust any leader who supports nationalized oil (Chavez,  and now Marduro).

The latest attempts are a bit unprecedented and are designed to goad Venezuela into a war with the US (which they would lose), so the US can regime change and install a head of state to privatize the oil industry.

Even longer answer is the US has always had an imperialist/colonizing and interventionist attitude towards South America,  subjugating and bullying them to our will.

jarena009

Answer: Venezuelan here. The Venezuelan government stole the elections last year as evidenced by official polls collected by the people. The US stopped all diplomatic options and is going for military ones.

Muted_Shape9303

Answer: The United States is using drugs as a pretext to start this generations "War on Terror", that perpetually puts America in another multi-decade long military war, against a stateless enemy that will add 10's of trillions to the US National Debt and will not succeed in the end... because none of it decreases the appetite of Americans for narcotics

Why??  Trump will use the war as a pretext to suspend national elections to keep him in the Oval office as a dictator for life, and perhaps a nepotism hand over to one of his idiot kids

lancer-fiefdom

Answer: according to The Rest is Politics podcast Ep 457, they put forward that it would enable Trump to deport thousands of Venezuelans if war was declared as they’d be considered illegal aliens, or words to that effect.

Too-peopley

Answer: This has been a fever dream of a a part of the right wing for a long time due to Venezuela's nationalization of oil. Despite being "the president of peace",  Trump can appease this warmaking faction of his party and wrap it in his "hurrr durr fentanyl bad" story - as usual with zero evidence, zero justification and even if it *was* true, zero legality. 

The military gets their war, the arms dealers make more money, the president gets more power and ratings.


  Everyone's a winner apart from a few (or perhaps significantly more than a few) more dead brown people. Business as usual.

lalochezia1

Answer: it's standard authoritarian foreign policy to start a war to distract from failing domestic policy. If your country wins it also bolsters popularity ratings through jingoism.

P.s. don't forget what happened the last time Republicans tried regime change somewhere. We threw away 20 years of American lives in Afghanistan before betraying the Afghan people who sided with us and leaving them to the mercy of the Taliban. 

P.p.s. don't forget who negotiated a deal with the Taliban (without consulting the afghan government at all) to pull out our troops. The final collapse and Taliban takeover happened at the beginning of Biden's admin but blaming it on him is like starting a fire in the basement right before handing the keys to the next tenant, then saying, "Oh look what he did, he just moved in and the house burned down already!"

homingmissile

Answer: Trump wants war with Venezuela.

The pretext is regime change but let's be honest: He just wants to kill brown people and war with a dictatorship is a way to do it without too many people getting mad.

insane677


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Answer: It's a diversion to take attention off of the Epstein files just as the government shutdown is meant to prevent the release of the files.

bowens44

Answer: the dictator of Venezuela has been holding on to power through the last 2 elections 2018,2024. 
2024 was a big one because there was a lot of evidence that 70% of the country voted for the other party, not the dictator.  But he still clung to power, due to having control of the military. 
Venezuela has experienced massive inflation and government corruption over the last two decades, basically a horrible place to live for their citizens. The Trump admin is trying to change the regime there, but not directly invading the country. Everyone hates Trump so they want to label this as war mongering , but the current regime has been horrible to its people.  The right thing to do is to replace Maduro.  He also has the largest bounty on his head by the American government ($50 million) and all of his top officials also have huge bounties as well.

alaskanperson

Answer: donold wants a war to consolidate his control over the government, enrich himself + loyal family, and cancel elections.

jgoose132113

Trump next year: I don’t think it’s a good idea to have elections while we’re at war with Venezuela.

Just watch

chrisr3240

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ஜ۩☆۩ஜ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

   ☆★☆ 𝐄𝐏𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐈𝐍 𝐃𝐈𝐃𝐍'𝐓 𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐇𝐈𝐌𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 ☆★☆

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ஜ۩☆۩ஜ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

EpicSombreroMan

What is Trump targeting Venezuela? Tell me it isn't oil?

Least-Amphibian2538

Hey look, another war a republican is going to drag us into that a democrat will have to fix and then take relentless criticism for.

worksafe_Joe

Looks like the "peace president"  is starting another war.  Does he realize the troops aren't being paid because he wants to take away people's healthcare? 

aremarkablecluster

Starting a war as a pretext to cancel elections. 

Venezuela is an easy target.

El_mochilero

Being a dictator is no fun if you don’t start invading other countries.  I think if you buy enough of Trump’s meme coin you can save your country, but it will cost you $millions.  Canada and Greenland are still on the menu for Trump’s greed tour.

Basicyeti837

Nothing good (for Americans or Venezuelans) would come of war. 

Straight-Ad-20

Fun fact: Venezuela and Canada have the same heavy crude oil that refineries in the US use

CasherburyTales

I didn’t know Venezuela was part of the A in MAGA.

ECamJ

They've got this "sphere of influence" idea in their heads, aka Duganism. They want Canada, Greenland, central America, the Caribbean, and Venezuela to be under US control.

Pitiful_Hedgehog6343

He probably wants to waste 11 trillion in taxpayer money on a war, just like Bush did with Iraq.

PenImpossible874

Imagine being a US solider and being told to risk your life for absolutely nothing.

MooseJag

What is the point of this? What are trump’s actual motives? Law enforcement says fentanyl and meth not coming into u.s. via Venezuela. So then why is trump doing what he’s doing?

Ploppyun

Appetitus_Nihil_More

My god , how many kids did he fuck to think of this distraction?

AmandaBRecondwith

Get ready for the mid term elections being postponed or suspended because "we're at war" or that the results won't count because "Venezuela hacked voting machines" just like what they tried to claim when he lost in 2020.

Aedeus

All their abundant natural resources seem to need democracy

Opee23

And the USA takes a lead out of Russia's playbook. 


Time for a Special Military Operation? 

OldGroan

Brags about 8 fake wars he helped end, didn't end Ukraine on day one as as famously promised and about to get us in an actual war with Venezuela as he does everything he can to distract the country that he was deeply involved with epstein, rapes and sex trafficking.

Objective_Problem_90

Those guerillas are all currently getting their war-cocaine ready and making sure they have enough spools of fiber optic wire for their drones. Its gonna be a bloodbath. I am betting I will see troops burning in an MRAP after it got hit by an FPV from some random balcony by the 1st week of the invasion.

ChipmunkNational224

Best ways to create serious pro national sentiment in your enemy country... invade it. Doesn't matter how popular or unpopular Maduro is. If the US sends in troops all of Venezuela will unify to fight off the invaders

TyroPirate

\&gt;On state television, radio and social media, announcers are telling Venezuelans that the U.S. is a rapacious Nazi-like state that wants to dig its claws into the country’s oil wealth 

No lies detected though. 

As it stands - there is no reason for US to fuck with Venezuela and Trump administration is working really hard to manufacture one

veevoir

The USA did not learn its lesson in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan.

Mysterious-Coat-1215

&gt; Maduro says his country is ready for combat, though** its military is underfunded, ill-trained and no match for American firepower**

You mean, like Vietnam was?

Buck_Thorn

Tedsallis

Trump will start WW3 if he thinks it’s what he has to do to keep the Epstein files at bay.

Coondiggety

Chrono_Convoy

LeftLane4PassingOnly

Numerous-Process2981

There could be airstrikes or naval operations, but I don’t see a prolonged ground war happening. I feel like that could backfire on Trump.

PrometheanSwing

Reminds be of Saddam Hussein. Organizes an army over 1 million strong, which dissapitates around him within days of first contact.

Coastie456

Is anyone going to call out that avatar called this war out.

Samsterdam

To the why comments, the reason given is that Maduro leads a cartel and is responsible for a large chunk of drugs coming into the country. Whether any of that statement is true is up to debate but there are alot of drugs coming in

CalicoCapsun

How many times are we going to see this headline. I feel like this is the 6th time they've "mobilized forces".

U_GotaSmall1

America waged war in  Iraq , Reason - Oil , 

America waged war in Vietnam , Reason -countering Russian (USSR) influence.

Venezuela will be targetted for both Oil and countering Russian and Chinese influence.

Royal-Hunter3892

[https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets-economy/090516/10-countries-most-natural-resources.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets-economy/090516/10-countries-most-natural-resources.asp)

  
Y'all remember Iraq?

theweirdball

This will be trump's Iraq. Maximum distraction away from the Epstein files.

BrtFrkwr

More war crimes for America.The reputation of the military will be destroyed.

howardzen12

Oh good, because our track record with invading other countries has been soooo stellar in the last 80 years.

No_Worldliness643

https://preview.redd.it/6n2w8jnpy7tf1.png?width=1080&amp;format=png&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=03fc9314a2666e4e30bcd730fbdab11f6574b73c

Any_Caramel_9814

https://preview.redd.it/dljgao3nz7tf1.jpeg?width=1125&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=a661d4724107e5a9bda3ffe0bb5bd9fbb6d4a998

Look at #1.  Draw your own conclusion.

Indiana-Irishman

https://preview.redd.it/l1d1n0rh48tf1.jpeg?width=960&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=25758582032394a87cc2a30d8ae6c39dd60549b5

Stunning-Hunter-5804

"Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves, estimated at around 303 billion barrels, according to the US Energy Information Administration."

bsproutsy

Is Venezuela part of his Nobel Peace Prize scheme?

floofnstuff

"They have narcotics of mass destruction"

I_Stay_Home

gbot1234

Its giving our adversaries a great proxy on our back door.

BrutusMcGillicudy

They don’t have to worry, it’s actually a staging ground to invade the US.

Das-Noob

Maybe sufficient to seize, but hanging on to them is a whole different story.

9millibros

Maliseet13

Well there you have it. Hitting the ships with missiles was a precursor to war.  And if the US does this, and Russia does it in Ukraine… what stops China from taking Taiwan?

128-NotePolyVA

We need to all stop working and occupy Washington

Trick_Judgment2639

Here is a starting point for those who dont know where to start. 


Call your reps.
[find your us reps here](https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative)



Sign petitions.

[petition to release epstein files](https://share.google/EGwoWTIfLAbpU7Oc1)

[Petition to release Epstein files #2](https://share.google/McxtpXmopUF98WhT8)

[petition to impeach trump ]( https://share.google/88qtRZS68wTU3U5z0)

[petition to impeach trump #2 ]( https://share.google/sXJC4YSzT3CndHC4n)

[petition to impeach trump #3]( https://share.google/N4EnFG9JlsvqPv2vK)

Get involved with protests or marches.
[protest against trump ](https://share.google/uj4KErIRgmG7nEDbk)

[And more info here](https://www.nokings.org)


[protest law tracker ](https://www.icnl.org/usprotestlawtracker/)


[know your rights aclu ](https://www.aclunc.org/our-work/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-free-speech-protests-demonstrations#:~:text=While%20regulations%20vary%2C%20here%20are,and%20place%20and%20manner%20restrictions.)


If you do go to a protest, please look up the laws for your area and be safe. Bring only what you need, just in case, i.e., id, car key, and wallet. and if the rest of the group starts to get violent, then leave and make it know you are not being violent. If you feel you need to protect yourself, please try to bring non-lethal protection, i.e.,mace, tazer, or something equivalent, and do not use it on police. Please be peaceful and civil.

twitchish

I hope their neighbors rally to their aid, but I doubt they will. 
Also hope the world will sanction America if they do invade.

retrobob69

potatoears

Kitarraa

TheSaltyStrangler

Somewhere in Venezuela:  
\- Is this the secret base of CIA?  
\- Not anymore!

arvigeus

Trump probably thinks he is being cunning for not to tell where exactly CIA is operating. He only gives up the name of the country. Such a smart boy.  /s

Head_Summer2052

This is why this incompetent fool can’t be told anything “secret”.

Kind-Objective9513

Very normal to pre announce covert cia actions

Charming_Beyond3639

He couldn't *not* say something. His need for attention from telling people about it outweighs the need to protect the operation... That's how much he gives a fuck about the safety of the operatives. 

And I'm absolutely not giving him credit for this being some sort of elaborate deception; his gang are not that competent. 

Anyone remember the brouhaha around the Valerie Plame scandal? Let's see what happens this time. 

BernardMatthewsNorf

I thought he did not be involved with America in more wars that's what he said to be elected .

OkMinute506

In short Trump, the "peace president," wants to start an illegal war with Venezuela without the approval of Congress.

Grave_Knight

And here’s the best argument against speaker Johnson’s claim that Trump was a FBI informant. The guy can’t keep his mouth shut about secret things.

Fly0nTheWall2001

Not covert anymore dumdum.

Why did people vote for this guy.

bahumat42

Imagine being the operative and this fuck whistle says that

Zen28213

robreddity

vctrmldrw

Good job putting a bullseye on every white dude wearing a polo shirt and sunglasses in South America.

steven_cornthrob

This is one of the faults I actually like about Trump… his ego makes him say the things he should stay silent about… out loud for everyone to hear. It is very ill advised for any President to be going on about what the CIA is up to, whether the New York Times is talking about it or not. He turned their speculation into facts.

Along the same lines is what he has been saying about Canada… I have no doubt the long term geopolitical strategic interests and plans of the US involve controlling the land that we call Canada, both for our resources and arctic access. Him saying it out loud has changed our country for the better in my view. Now we all know, and can respond appropriately.

Marvinatorplus

"Trump confirms CIA conducting *overt* operations inside Venezuela"

Tyllis91

Well, that was about as stupid as you can get. They’re not conducting covert operations anymore

wiseguy77192

The Trump administration has recently authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela, targeting the government of Nicolás Maduro amid ongoing regional instability.

US Covert Operations in Venezuela

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want