Trump’s remarks give Venezuela breathing space

Speaking on August 11, at a press conference at one of his golf courses, the US President, Donald Trump, scored the equivalent of a foreign policy own goal. “We have many options for Venezuela and by the way, I’m not going to rule out a military option”, he said, before going on to elaborate on US military capabilities.

With a few ill-conceived words, he set back not only his administration’s foreign policy, but also diverted hemispheric pressure on President Maduro’s government following elections for a partisan constituent assembly able to amend the country’s constitution and take other far-reaching political and economic decisions. The effect was to undercut US diplomacy which had been seeking a hemisphere-led response that was not attached to its name. This had as its objective, isolating Venezuela in the Americas, and encouraging condemnation or neutrality by much of the rest of the world.

Instead, President Trump’s words achieved the opposite outcome. They reminded the hemisphere and others of past US invasions and interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean from Chile to Grenada. They also appeared to affirm Venezuela’s view that Washington has been actively encouraging internal unrest and social disintegration in order to provide a basis for military action.