Trump: Attacking Venezuela Is ‘Certainly Something We Could Pursue’

Pentagon Denies Receiving Orders Regarding Venezuela

Jason Ditz 

Posted onAugust 11, 2017CategoriesNewsTagsPentagon, Trump, Venezuela

President Trump would seem to have a lot on his plate, between wars in Iraq and Syria, daily threats to attack North Korea, and declaring Iran not to be complying with the nuclear deal. Still, he found his way around to talking up the possibility of attacking Venezuela as well.

Trump claimed to have “many options available for Venezuela, including a possible military option” against them. He offered no specifics on what this would involve, but said he would never rule such an attack out.

The lack of specificity is likely because no such plans exist. The Pentagon confirmed as much today, following up Trump’s comments by insisting they’d received no orders with respect to Venezuela, and suggesting reporters ask the White House about it.

Venezuela’s opposition has been resistant to even the hint of potential US involvement in their ongoing internal crisis, warning that any US comments would allow the government to try to present the opposition as in league with the US, and would likely split Latin America’s position, which at present is uniformly critical of the Venezuelan government’s recent actions to increase the ruling party’s power.

http://news.antiwar.com/2017/08/11/trump-attacking-venezuela-is-certainly-something-we-could-pursue/