Ramón Cuerda Riva
Former serviceman and Security expert
In military doctrine, the United States with respect to China, Russia and Iran, the latter assume that at least in the first half of the 21st century, and recognising their individual military inferiority with respect to Washington, they are expanding their area of confrontation and influence to new areas such as advertising on social networks, drug trafficking, the black market in oil and meddling in electoral processes in order to displace the US as the world’s superpower.
In the wake of the recent elections in Venezuela, and what appears to be a real coup d’état by Nicolás Maduro, a multitude of diplomatic sources report US pressure on the Puebla group and the countries that are closest to or most influential over Maduro, namely Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
The underlying message is not reassuring: ‘either you convince him or we intervene’.
Two leaders have taken a leading role in this issue. They are Gabriel Boric, president of Chile, who, since taking a stance against Maduro and not recognising the results or his legitimacy (he is first a democrat and then a leftist), has risen 15 points in the approval ratings of his citizens, and Daniel Ortega, president of Nicaragua, who is at the other end of the equation.
According to the Venezuelan opposition, Maduro now listens more to Ortega’s ‘resist’ and follows his pattern of repression (conditioning NGOs, marking dissident doors, repression in the streets, etc.) than to his former allies (Lula, López Obrador, Petro). And this is so much the case that it is increasingly heard in diplomatic forums that the US warning bell would be sounded in Nicaragua (Ortega) rather than in Venezuela.
Moreover, following reports of the incident-landing on the night of 12 August of a Russian-made Mi-17 transport helicopter in Eldorado, North Carolina, near the Fort Liberty (formerly known as Fort Bragg) military base, alarm bells have been ringing.
According to the local press, the aircraft had no identifying markings, and at least seven men with backpacks emerged from the aircraft and immediately disappeared into a nearby forest. According to other ‘witnesses’, the occupants spoke Spanish and the helicopter had a Nicaraguan cockade.
And what tension must have been generated in Caracas when other versions suggest that the helicopter ‘carried the Venezuelan flag and the initials 00764’, which according to the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) itself, correspond to one of their Mi-17s that crashed in 2022.
We already have the psychosis of CIA and Marine interventions mounted. We will see what happens in the coming days.
