On December 3, 2023, Venezuelans will go to the polls to authorize Nicolás Maduro’s government to invade neighboring Guyana. If the crisis seems to arise from the blue, it is only because Washington has not paid attention.
The roots of the current crisis are 15 years old. On September 10, 2008, Mario Silva, host of the La Hojilla program on Venezolana de Television, broadcast a videotape alleging that the “US Empire” was behind a secret plot to stage a coup d’état that would include aerial bombardment of the presidential palace. The next day, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez claimed that Venezuela was the vanguard standing against a larger plot sponsored by the “US empire, Yankee lovers, and the opposition” and gave the American ambassador 72 hours to leave the country. https://www.aei.org/foreign-and-defense-policy/could-venezuela-invade-guyana/
