OPINION: Trump v. Maduro: from will “run” to optionality

Last Updated on Monday, 5 January 2026, 21:39 by Writer

By GHK Lall

Okay, so it’s for the ocean of oil in the Orinoco. If ever there was something that was wrongheaded, that one is. So, it’s for democracy, stability, and giving relief to the Venezuelan people. Since when does bringing that about through bombs and guns, rupture and premeditated insanity meet with approval, benign or otherwise? Hell, no! Not today. Not tomorrow. Don’t bother going beyond. When I first read that the US was preparing to “run” Venezuela, the first thought that came was that somebody didn’t have a clue, went off half-cocked, while shredding the American brand into irrecoverable fragments. I was right, because the word that now resides with the US Chief Executive is “optionality.” Must find some time to check Merriam-Webster. Thus, the conclusion about ambitions to “run” Venezuela caught the wiser heads at Foggy Bottom, the Pentagon, and across the US government flatfooted first, then flat out furious. What the hell is this? From where did this idea originate?

The same questions resided here from the moment that business about “run” was heard. That was more than a gut-check-and-reality-check moment. It was time for a serious head check. It was already bad enough that Maduro was extracted the way that he was, and not just he alone. It didn’t leave in the right frame of mind. Some situations, some circumstances, some developments are just plain wrong. Dead wrong. The author could be Pres. Trump, I don’t care. Or, Pope Leo XIV, and I stand in the same frowning, objecting place. If there can be doubt and difference, with those two names, then think of how much I have no hesitation, no consideration, when it is the fine Guyanese leaders present here, be they in govt, be they in opposition. All sections of it.

I wanted Maduro out, maybe more than my fellow Americans. But at the appropriate time, in the most acceptable way. Regime change should not occur in that ham-handed, bullheaded, manner. Go back and check what followed from Árbenz to Allende, with Cheddi Jagan sandwiched in the middle. Now, check how Guyana has been since the 1960s, and from which it has never recovered, notwithstanding the visions of social cohesion and now One Guyana. Regime change has happened in Guyana, but it has not been of the coup d’état kind nor this irresponsible, unilateral, go-to-hell kind that rained down in Venezuela. For those doubtful about regime change here by other means, I refer them to excellencies Donald Ramotar and David Granger. Hoyte and Jagan are gone. I am left with the two former presidents, and they are enough. For Mr. Trump, it must have been an 82nd Airborne moment. He just opened a Pandora’s box, and it is going to be inordinately strenuous to get those stray genies back in that case. Some of them may make a beeline to right here.

It would have been nice if Dr. Democracy, Mohamed Irfaan Ali, normally garrulous, had something persuasive to share with citizens about democracy, and not that piffle he served up as his main course. When Maduro was removed in the way that he was, and under some real flimsy pretexts, that was not a democratic insertion. Therefore, what democratic ideals can follow when the anarchic was employed to be rid of a sometime hysteric, often lunatic?

Many people swear that the man in the White House is ‘unpredictable.’ I strongly disagree. He full well knows what he has in mind, but only up to a point. After that, it is sheer spur-of-the-moment guesswork. Que será, será! The hired hands will pick up the smashed pottery. Secretary Rubio’s “retention of optionality” in the president is an example. Let us cross check that using Maduro. In the euphoria of Mission Maduro accomplished, the first thing that came to mind was the US will “run” Venezuela, without one thought about the implications of that small word (run) that has potentially huge global repercussions. Rubio, et al, must have come close to a heart attack. Or, I can hear them, rather colorfully: WTF? In more polite language: not a chance, skipper!

Regardless if a Venezuelan is put in, he or she will be seen as an American stooge, held as a traitor. I put before one and all, this commonsense consideration: the success of that US barbarism (what else is it, please?) and extraction had to have had some domestic assistance. Now that sets the stage for some more division and bitterness in Caracas, however the situation unfolds, whatever magic “optionality” yields. As always for me, some fallout has Guyana’s name on it. US friendship has its price.