What ＂Unprecedented＂ Actions The U.S. Took In Venezuela In 4 Mins
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Summary
In the wake of President Trump's capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, politicians are coming out of the woodwork to criticize the military action as "unlawful" and "unprecedented." But when we examine the precedent, we find a lot of precedent.
Transcript
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In the wake of President Trump's capturing Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, politicians
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are coming out of the woodwork to criticize the military action as unprecedented and illegal.
00:00:11.440
Kamala Harris, the Democrat presidential nominee who lost to Trump, came out within
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A tough argument to make when Harris's own administration attempted the exact same policy
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a year earlier and even offered 25 million bucks to anyone who could help them do it.
00:00:28.720
Maybe Trump should call her up and try to claim his reward.
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In terms of law, not only had there been a warrant for Maduro's arrest for over five
00:00:35.840
years, not only did Venezuela steal American property and traffic drugs to the United States,
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but over 50 countries in the international community had not even recognized Maduro as
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the legitimate president of Venezuela after he stole the Venezuelan presidential election.
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Just about any way you slice it, the arrest was lawful and publicly defended, at least
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for a while, by both Republican and Democrat administrations.
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But how about the other claim, that Trump's intervention in Venezuela was unprecedented?
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I don't know if any of those Democrats are history buffs, I suspect they're not.
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But when we examine the claim that Trump's action in Venezuela was unprecedented, we find
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By my count, since the Mexican-American War in 1846, the total number of U.S. interventions
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in Latin America has been 88, which is coincidentally the number of minutes which elapsed from the
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time the U.S. troops reached Maduro's palace to the time they had completely evacuated the
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In the middle to late 19th century alone, the United States military intervened in Mexico,
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Argentina, Chile, Nicaragua, Haiti, Panama, Nicaragua again, and Cuba.
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But it wasn't until the 20th century that we really got involved, intervening in Guyana,
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Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Argentina, Paraguay, and Grenada.
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The United States, respectively, in Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, and Chile.
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Six times each in Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua.
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Even if you only count the successful operations that led to a change in regime.
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Since 1906, the U.S. has helped to swap out governments in Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, the Dominican
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Republic, Haiti, Guatemala, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic again, Brazil, the Dominican Republic
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again, Bolivia, Chile, Grenada, Panama, and Haiti again.
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Turn ahead to our own century, and we help to overthrow regimes in Haiti again, that's the
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And then, most recently, we arrive at the unprecedented action in Venezuela, which is unprecedented only
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in its efficiency, its legal predicate, and in how successfully it was carried out.