A foreign policy expert on CNN strongly condemned recent remarks by President Donald Trump expressing a willingness to invade Venezuela, saying that if the United States did so, “it takes us into the same category as Russia invading Ukraine.”
Over the past few months, Trump has ordered strikes on multiple boats the administration has claimed are “narcoterrorists” transporting drugs intended for the U.S., resulting in more than 70 deaths. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other Trump administration officials have offered several claimed justifications for the strikes, but they have been loudly criticized for lacking legal authority, as they are a sharp departure from past practices to interdict suspected drug trafficking boats and arrest the occupants.
The president has also ratcheted up his rhetoric against Venezuela, going so far as to say that President Nicolás Maduro needed to be removed from office and leaving the door open to even a land invasion by the U.S. military, which has recently moved key assets to the Caribbean, including its biggest aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Gerald Ford.
“Despite this buildup of about 15,000 military personnel, Trump still says he is open to direct negotiations with Venezuela as the administration has noted that Maduro’s days are numbered,” said anchor Boris Sanchez, before introducing Juan Gonzalez, a former National Security Council senior director for the Western Hemisphere and a resident fellow at Georgetown University’s Americas Institute to ask his reaction to Trump’s comments.
Gonzalez replied that “any sort of channel for dialogue is positive, because right now the force posture has gone from a symbolic presence to, as you mentioned, the carrier strike group having a credible, threat posture” off the Venezuelan coast, which he thought “opens the door for accidents to happen.”
“Any sort of mistake that would lead to escalation,” in the absence of dialogue “would be very dangerous,” he said, and openly pondered what Maduro could offer in a negotiation to stay in power — a question Trump declined to answer earlier in the day.
“What happens if the U.S. launches ground strikes in Venezuela?” Sanchez asked.
That “crosses an important rubicon,” said Gonzalez, noting the “unilateral strikes” by the U.S. had resulted in “roughly 80 casualties” but “do not meet the UN Charter or the international humanitarian law threshold for the use of force.”
“Just designating a gang as a foreign terrorist organization is not a license for the use of lethal force,” he explained. “So now the next step — actually going on to land — puts us in a situation where we’re actually the aggressor against the country.”
Maduro was “a dictator” who “oppresses his population,” Gonzalez noted, “but it takes us into the same territory as Russia invading Ukraine.”
“Wow,” Sanchez responded. “Juan Gonzalez, thank you so much for the perspective.”
Watch the clip above via CNN.
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