#coup-attempt-and-conviction

#coup-attempt-and-conviction

The so-called troika of tyranny in Latin America, the dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, was always a misleading oversimplification. Despite sharing some common elements due to their authoritarian resilience, 21st-century dictatorships were never a homogeneous bloc.

The U.S. mission to seize Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro has pushed the concept of regime change back into everyday conversation. "Regime Change in America's Back Yard," declared The New Yorker in a piece that typified the response to the Jan. 3 operation that saw Maduro exchange a compound in Caracas for a jail in Brooklyn. Commentators and politicians have been using the term as shorthand for removing Maduro and ending Venezuela's crisis, as if the two were essentially the same thing.

In May 2020, the Venezuelan government released photos and video footage showing a ragtag group of men who appear to have been captured by security forces in a village on the country's northern coast. The Venezuelan government said eight people were killed and dozens more were captured, describing the operation as an attempt to kidnap Maduro and remove him from the country. Among the captured men were two American former Green Berets, who were reportedly hired to train men for the operation in Colombia.