Key Trump operation lacks 'coherent' strategy: ex-Army commander

A month has passed since U.S. forces, on order from President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas and transported him to a federal detention center in New York City. After the January 3 operation, leftist Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez — an ally of Maduro and his late predecessor Hugo Chávez — was installed as interim president. But opposition leader María Corina Machado, who formerly served in the Venezuelan National Assembly, is hoping to take over that position.

In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on February 3, retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling argues that the Trump Administration is flying blind in Venezuela and lacks a "coherent" game plan for the troubled South American country.

Hertling, who served as commander of U.S. Army Europe under former President Barack Obama, doesn't criticize the handling of the January 3 operation. But Venezuela, he laments, has been in "uncertainty" since then.

"One month ago, the United States launched a dramatic military operation in Caracas that ended with the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife," Hertling explains. "The military strike was fast, precise, and unmistakably American in its execution. Within hours, President Trump and various Cabinet officials stood before cameras to declare success, describe the removal of a criminal regime, and suggest the beginning of a new chapter for Venezuela."

Hertling continues, "They implied the end of Venezuela's longstanding authoritarian leadership…. Tactically, it was executed with precision. But the immediate aftermath revealed a strategic uncertainty. Even in the (Trump) Administration's first press briefings, it was unclear who was in charge in Caracas, what authority Washington claimed to exercise, and what political end state the United States was pursuing. That ambiguity has not improved with time."

Under Rodríguez, Hertling argues, the Venezuelan government "has behaved less like a coherent transitional authority and more like a political chameleon, adjusting its message depending on the audience." The interim Venezuelan president, he adds, "is paying lip service to reform, and liberalization, while doing little to nothing to change the structures of power in the country."

"Signals from the U.S. government have been equally mixed," Hertling laments. "Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently insisted there are no current plans for additional military action, while simultaneously reserving the right to use force if the interim government fails to meet American expectations. President Trump, in even less diplomatic language, has threatened Rodríguez with a fate worse than Maduro's —possibly assassination — if his vague demands aren't met…. All this is to say that one month after a militarily successful decapitation strike, the United States has altered the political landscape in Caracas without defining a coherent end state. Venezuela remains unstable. Its government lacks legitimacy and coherence. Corruption and oligarchic power structures remain intact."

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