Washington cannot agree on how to label U.S. actions in Venezuela

Time reports Washington is struggling to find a word for recent U.S. actions toward Venezuela, with even officials briefed by the Trump Administration unable to agree whether the operation amounts to regime change, an occupation, or something else. Officials and foreign diplomats offered conflicting descriptions: Speaker Mike Johnson said after a closed-door session Monday, “this is not a regime change” but rather “a demand for change of behavior by a regime.” Venezuela’s leader Nicolás Maduro, appearing Monday in federal court in Manhattan, said he had been “kidnapped,” while U.S.

officials said he was arrested as part of a criminal case. Columbia’s Ambassador to the U.N. said the move “reminds us of the worst interference in our area, in our zone of peace,” the French representative said it “chips away at the very foundation of international order,” and U.N.

Secretary General António Guterres said the moves violated the U.N. charter. Scholars and U.S. officials offered divergent takes.

Key Topics

Politics, Nicolás Maduro, Donald Trump, Mike Johnson, Marco Rubio, Venezuela