The Liberty Hawk

In Venezuela, on April 30, 2019, the United States-backed opposition leader and self-proclaimed president Juan Guiado put into motion his plan for an overthrow of Nicolas Maduro. This was the result of months of planning on Guiado’s part. The assumption worldwide was that Maduro would be swiftly removed from office. There were rumors that high-level military officers were prepared to turn on Maduro and support the new president.

That was five months ago. Maduro is still in power.  

The reasons for why the uprising failed to materialize are numerous. The military defections failed to appear in the numbers Juan Guiado had hoped for. Without sufficient support from the military, there was little hope of forcing Maduro to step down.  

The attempted coup was hastily begun before all of the proper plans had been made. The result was a continuation of the power struggle that has plagued Venezuela since the illegitimate results of the 2018 presidential elections.  

The most prominent reason for failure, however, is one that has been ignored and sidelined: the US failed to provide sufficient support for the uprising. US policymakers, afraid of a new Iraq, refuse to commit soldiers to a nation in desperate need of help. Donald Trump’s natural isolationist tendencies have only exacerbated the issue. Something needs to change.  

US foreign policy since the presidency of Bill Clinton has had some peculiar features. The attitude outside of D.C. has been bipartisan in its isolationism. Policy inside the Beltway has been bipartisan in its focus on the Middle East. Congressional support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan remain high, despite outside pressure. While Barack Obama and Donald Trump both promised removal of troops from those countries, the official policy has been a continuation of Bush-era thinking.  

These attentions, however, are narrow in focus, and the rest of the world has suffered because of it. Barack Obama famously refused to deal with the Ukrainian civil war in any decisive way. Donald Trump has remained silent on the current issues in Hong Kong and has even reached out diplomatically to the dictatorial regime of North Korea. Venezuela, however, remains the crowning jewel of US ignorance.  

It is no secret that the situation in Venezuela is dire. What is less clear, though, is the plan that the US has in place to deal with this crisis. We have increased the sanctions on the regime, sent humanitarian aid to the border, and the president has recognized Juan Guiado as the constitutionally-legitimate president of Venezuela. A red line, however, seems to have been drawn in the sand when it comes to military intervention.

Common sense dictates that certain criteria should be met before we should consider an intervention. These criteria boil down into a few major points;

1. The intervention has been deemed necessary both for geopolitical and moral reasons 
2. The intervention has a justifiable casus belli
3. There is a concrete plan of action to follow 
4. There is popular support within the place of intervention 

Sadly, conventional Beltway wisdom fails to take into account all of these reasons at once. In the case of Afghanistan, the third point was poorly developed. In Iraq, both the second and third points seemed to be missing at the time of intervention, and once Hussein was deposed the fourth point seemed vague as well.  

In Venezuela, however, all four points have been met. The US has a moral responsibility to help those people suffering in Venezuela, and it is geopolitically sound to remove such a pro-Russian regime as Maduro’s from power. The presidential crisis gives the US a legitimate reason to intervene, and the existence of a popularly-supported president in Juan Guiado satisfies the third and fourth points. The logical conclusion, then, seems to be a military intervention. Washington cowardice, however, has suppressed this conclusion. The people of Venezuela have suffered as a result.  

The United States of America has a moral duty to help spread our founding ideals around the globe and to protect the innocent from tyranny. This duty begins in our own backyard. For the good of both the world and innocent Venezuelans, military intervention against Nicolas Maduro is urgently needed.   

Scott Howard is a constitutionally-minded conservative freelance writer with a focus on fiscal matters and foreign policy. You can follow him on Twitter: Follow @thenextTedCruz

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Scott Howard

Scott Howard is a constitutionally-minded conservative freelance writer with a focus on fiscal matters and foreign policy. His Twitter handle is @theNextTedCruz.

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