US President Donald Trump's working to force Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro out of office.
Trump's warned airlines and travellers to avoid the country on social media - and says land strikes on Venezuela could come 'very soon'.
The Trump administration has pinned illegal migration and drug trafficking on Venezuela's Government - amid a crackdown on the issue.
Foreign Policy Institute Senior Fellow Jeffrey Price told Mike Hosking that it's hard to tell what the strategy is from here, but it's clear Trump wants Maduro gone.
He says it's not clear how he'll do this - but the US is willing to do it with force.
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Episode Transcript
The US Full Court Press on Venezuela continued out of
(00:02):
the weekends, which had told us in the last declaration
that the airspace should be considered close. So what's the
plan here. Jeffrey Price is the senior Fellow at Foreign
Policy Institute in the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Back with us, Jeffrey morning.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
What's the effect of the declaration?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, so the pressure is being ramped up really to
a very high level. The amount of military force that
we the United States have built up in the Caribbean
is really quite significant. We have a carrier strike Group
with our largest and most modern nuclear powered aircraft carrier,
the ford On Station in the area. There's been a
(00:41):
ramping up of threats as you mentioned, and they're also
ongoing strikes against boths coming from Venezuela. So the pressure
is a very high level. And the question you ask
is I think really the right one, which is what
is the strategy and the endgame here. Clearly I think
that Trump administration would like to remove Maduro, but it's
(01:04):
not clear exactly how that would be accomplished with the
amount of force that I think we the United States
would be willing to employ.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I think it was last week. Maduro City wouldn't mind
a word. Is that going to happen, do we think
or not?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
So Trump has spoken to Maduro, but nothing major seems
to have come from it. I think not unusual for
President Trump. There was talk of a meeting, but my
sense is that the meeting is not if it was
ever going to happen, It's not going to happen unless
there's something very substantial agreed between them. So meanwhile, you
(01:42):
know the rhetoric, and you know, as you mentioned, the
airspace has not been closed.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
What's the more effective aspect of it the aircraft carrier
that sits off the coast versus the half dozen Allians
that didn't come back and therefore got banned last week.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So Venezuela has been subject to a to a heavy
degree of sanctions. I don't think that's going to that's
going to change their calculus. Really. I think the thing
that's really going to change the status quo inside Venezuela,
if it does, is military force. And the issue is
what what could the United States do with probably air
(02:21):
strikes against a limited set of targets that would change
the regime in Madurea in Maduro's regime.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Exactly. While I've got your expertise, Jeffrey, this thing in Florida,
the talks at the moment, the war in Ukraine. Is
this going anywhere? Am I going to be talking to
you for the next six months?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
It has been going on for a very long time. Again,
this too has been ramped up to a fairly high level.
You've got Witkoff, who is the president's negotiator, is also
going to go to the Kremlin this week. I would
not bet the farm that this results in an agreement
for the reason that I just don't think that Putin
(02:59):
is going to agree anything that would be reasonable or
acceptable to the Ukrainians.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
All right, appreciate your expertise as always different Price, Who's
with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. For
more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks.
It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
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