The divide on Venezuela: Who’s supporting Maduro, and who’s following the U.S. lead in recognizing Guaidó

Nations including The United States, Isreal, Canada and numerous South American countries are backing president Juan Guaido in Venezuela. Pressure is mounting as the current president Maduro will not step down or allow for a legitimate vote. Maduro gave the U.S an ultimatum for U.S. diplomats to leave the country as soon as possible. President Trump has not ruled out using military force to swing the presidency in Venezuela to a more favorable side for the United States. One potential problem with this is that Russia and China both back the current president Maduro. Many nations including Syria, Iran and Turkey have also voiced  objections to the U.S.-led campaign to recognize Guaido. To Russia, Venezuela has so far been a key cornerstone in its strategy to win over countries in proximity to the United States, both for military and economic reasons. Russia is willing to deploy aircraft over Venezuela if they feel like it is necessary.

These developments could potentially be very problematic for the United States in many ways. Getting involved with another country's overthrow of a government has not been super successful over the past 50 years and has consistently increased government spending on the military. If conflict truly does arise it will add more to the overall deficit and impact relations with world super powers. China and Russia seem stand pretty firmly with the current president and it would be silly to engage in a "must win" war over Venezuela and anger China and Russia. There are times for countries to flex their muscles but to me this seems like just another reason for world super powers to get angry at each other just so they can threaten war to try and scare the opponent. Venezuela is in pretty bad shape and is in dire need of an overhaul. But if history repeats itself, the Untied States will win and set up an unstable leader that the people do not back and will be overthrown in 10 years. Venezuela will then be worse off than they originally started.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/01/28/divide-venezuela-whos-supporting-maduro-whos-following-us-lead-recognizing-guaid/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.24cd2f5a3a89