"If This Isn't an 'Armed Coup,' Then What the Hell Is?" US Denounced for Backing Attempted Overthrow in Venezuela

As the Trump administration enthusiastically endorsed the so-called “military uprising” led by Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido but refused to call it a coup attempt, progressive critics and anti-war voices made clear that is precisely what took place Tuesday as violent clashes erupted throughout the Latin American nation.

“It looks like the United States is inching into yet another bloody conflict… The question is: Is this really the United States’ role to get involved in yet another war overseas?”
—Rep. Ro Khanna

“If this isn’t an ‘armed coup,’ then what the hell is?!” the peace group CodePink asked on Twitter after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), one of the most prominent cheerleaders of Guaido’s ongoing attempt to overthrow Venezuela’s elected government, denied that the opposition’s efforts amounted to a coup plot.

National security adviser John Bolton’s echoed Rubio’s insistence that Guaido’s actions—supported by group of heavily armed soldiers—”is not a coup.”

In response, Gerry Condon of Veterans for Peace wrote for Common Dreams, “And night is day.”

“[Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo and Bolton blame the Cubans and the Russians for supporting the democratically-elected president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro,” wrote Condon. “They threaten the Russians with consequences, but they save their bitterest bile for the ‘Cuban thugs.’ Thugs? Who are the thugs? Who are the punks? Who are the bullies?  Let me say their names again. Donald Trump. Mike Pence. John Bolton. Mike Pompeo. Elliott Abrams. Marco Rubio.”

Following a day of chaos sparked by the Guaido-led “uprising”—which resulted in dozens of injuries and at least one death—Venezuela’s elected President Nicolas Maduro delivered a speech late Tuesday declaring victory over the “coup-mongering far right.”

“They failed in their plan. They failed in their call, because the people of Venezuela want peace,” Maduro said.

“I truly believe… that the United States of America has never had a government as deranged as this one,” Maduro added, dismissing Pompeo’s unsubstantiated claim that the Venezuelan president “had an airplane on the tarmac” and was prepared to leave the country before “the Russians” instructed him to stay.