Trump’s careless talk about U.S. ‘military option’ in Venezuela is already backfiring

(Photo: Ariana Cubillos AP)

If you talk with Latin American presidents and top diplomats — as I did in recent days — you will conclude that President Donald Trump’s recent remark that he may consider a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela was a moment of monumental stupidity that is already hurting the cause of freedom in that country.

Trump’s reckless comment has already given Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro a magnificent propaganda victory. It has allowed Maduro to turn the conversation in Latin America away from Venezuela’s fall into a full-blown dictatorship, and toward the possibility of a U.S. military intervention.

Watching television in Peru and Argentina, I was amazed to see how Trump’s Aug. 11 remark that “I’m not ruling out a military option” in Venezuela has changed the conversation about the Venezuelan crisis in the region. Latin America’s most influential media, which until recently were focusing on Maduro’s break with constitutional law, are now talking about the history of U.S. interventions in Latin America.

And Maduro is making the most of it: He now makes his public speeches in front of a huge banner reading, “Trump, get out of Latin America!” And he uses Trump’s statement as alleged evidence that the Venezuelan regime is a victim of “U.S. imperialism.”

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