I know we happen to have a global pandemic ongoing at the moment, which is killing thousands of people all over the world, but I still find it surprising that the news of an American-based attempt to pull off a coup d'état in Venezuela has been quite so muted.
Granted, it wasn't a particularly effective or well thought out operation, and it foundered at pretty much the first hurdle, as two ex-US special forces soldiers and a rag-tag group of locals were pick up by Venezuelan security forces as they landed in Chuao, on the Venezuelan coast, in a fleet of battered fishing boats. It is being compared to the Cuban Bay of Pigs fiasco of 1961.
But the fact that American nationals were integrally involved, and the whole thing was planned and orchestrated by a third American, former US army staff sergeant Jordan Goudreau (actually also a Canadian national), should have set all sorts of bells ringing, I would have thought. Hell, one of the two American mercenaries captured even alleged he was acting under Donald Trump's instructions, although Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of course deny any "direct" government involvement (and the video confession was apparently heavily edited, and I suppose could conceivably have been deep-faked). It seems that Juan Guaidó, the Venezuela opposition leader recognized by the US and several other countries, probably knew about the planned attempt, but was not integrally involved in it.
Don't get me wrong, the debacle HAS been reported in the press. I would just have expected a bit more outrage and drama. But then, I guess we're all a bit distracted at the moment.
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