That wasn’t the plan<\/strong><\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n The Trump administration, which has backed Mr. Guaid\u00f3 since he first challenged Mr. Maduro\u2019s authority more than three months ago, clearly thought the day would unfold differently.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n There is no official explanation why the Trump administration believed that the comical coup attempt by Juan Guaid\u00f3 and his master Leopolo L\u00f3pez would work.<\/span><\/p>\n There are signs though that the government of President Nicolas Maduro set a trap. Several people in the top echelon of the Venezuelan government gave false promises that they would join the U.S. proxy side. They snookered Guaid\u00f3 into launching his coup to let him fail.<\/span><\/p>\n Juan Guaid\u00f3 – bigger<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n A Washington Post<\/em> wrap-up<\/strong><\/span><\/a> says that everyone expected important people to change sides:<\/span><\/p>\n The chaos in Caracas indicated that, while a plan had been in motion, it may not have unfolded as anticipated.<\/span> Everyone in Washington believed that significant figures in the Venezuelan government would change sides. They did not do so. Vladimir Padrino rejected<\/strong><\/span><\/a> the coup within an hour after Guaid\u00f3 announced it<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. It seems that the Guaid\u00f3 side got played by the Venezuelan Defense Minister and several other officials and officers. They seem to have promised to support Guaid\u00f3 only to bait him into taking steps that would embarrass him.<\/span><\/p>\n A McClatchy<\/em> piece headlined “What went wrong?<\/strong><\/span><\/a>” seems to confirm this interpretation:<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.moonofalabama.org\/images8\/vencoupcallinghelp-s.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n…<\/span>
\nAnnouncements by senior Maduro officials that they were changing sides did not materialize<\/strong>, and the administration appeared increasingly concerned as it debated next steps.<\/span>
\n…<\/span>
\nEarlier Tuesday, Bolton had told reporters that Trump is watching political developments in Venezuela \u201cminute by minute.\u201d Bolton also put unusual public pressure on individual Venezuela government officials to renounce Maduro and embrace the political opposition.<\/span>
\n…<\/span>
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a very delicate moment,\u201d Bolton said. \u201cThe president wants to see a peaceful transfer of power,\u201d which he added would be possible if enough military and government figures switch allegiances.<\/span>
\n…<\/span>
\nIn an apparent attempt to divide Maduro\u2019s government, Bolton said senior officials, including Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino L\u00f3pez, had been in secret talks with Guaid\u00f3, and he called on them to \u201cmake good on their commitments\u201d to help oust Maduro.<\/span>
\n…<\/span>
\nBolton called by name for three officials in Venezuela \u2014 the defense minister, the chief judge of the Supreme Court, and the commander of the presidential guard \u2014 to support Guaid\u00f3 taking power.<\/span>
\n…<\/span>
\nA senior Latin American official said opposition talks had been going on with Padrino and the other two for \u201cthe last several weeks,\u201d<\/strong> and that the three had been promised retention in their current positions if they came out publicly in support of \u201cconstitutional order\u201d that would allow Guaid\u00f3 to take power. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the fast-moving and confusing situation, said those involved in the negotiations had no initial explanation for what went wrong, …<\/span>
\n…<\/span>
\nElliott Abrams, the administration\u2019s special envoy for Venezuela, told reporters Tuesday that the United States had expected<\/strong> Padrino, along with the head of the Maduro-appointed Supreme Court and the head of the national guard, to declare their support for the Venezuelan constitution, if not necessarily for Guaid\u00f3 himself.<\/span>
\n…<\/span>
\nHe said that opposition figures had held discussions with the three influential officials<\/strong> in Maduro\u2019s government ahead of those planned demonstrations.<\/span>
\n…<\/span>
\nCarlos Vecchio, Guaid\u00f3\u2019s ambassador to the United States, also said Monday that the opposition leadership had had \u201cconversations with part of the inner circle of Maduro\u201d and that \u201cthey know that Maduro is not going anywhere. That Maduro is the past .\u2009.\u2009. and that\u2019s why they want to look for a different future for Venezuela.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
![bigger<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\nA Washington Post<\/em> wrap-up<\/strong><\/span><\/a> says that everyone expected important people to change sides:<\/span><\/p>\nThe chaos in Caracas indicated that, while a plan had been in motion, it may not have unfolded as anticipated.<\/span>\n…<\/span>\nAnnouncements by senior Maduro officials that they were changing sides did not materialize<\/strong>, and the administration appeared increasingly concerned as it debated next steps.<\/span>\n…<\/span>\nEarlier Tuesday, Bolton had told reporters that Trump is watching political developments in Venezuela \u201cminute by minute.\u201d Bolton also put unusual public pressure on individual Venezuela government officials to renounce Maduro and embrace the political opposition.<\/span>\n…<\/span>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a very delicate moment,\u201d Bolton said. \u201cThe president wants to see a peaceful transfer of power,\u201d which he added would be possible if enough military and government figures switch allegiances.<\/span>\n…<\/span>\nIn an apparent attempt to divide Maduro\u2019s government, Bolton said senior officials, including Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino L\u00f3pez, had been in secret talks with Guaid\u00f3, and he called on them to \u201cmake good on their commitments\u201d to help oust Maduro.<\/span>\n…<\/span>\nBolton called by name for three officials in Venezuela \u2014 the defense minister, the chief judge of the Supreme Court, and the commander of the presidential guard \u2014 to support Guaid\u00f3 taking power.<\/span>\n…<\/span>\nA senior Latin American official said opposition talks had been going on with Padrino and the other two for \u201cthe last several weeks,\u201d<\/strong> and that the three had been promised retention in their current positions if they came out publicly in support of \u201cconstitutional order\u201d that would allow Guaid\u00f3 to take power. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the fast-moving and confusing situation, said those involved in the negotiations had no initial explanation for what went wrong, …<\/span>\n…<\/span>\nElliott Abrams, the administration\u2019s special envoy for Venezuela, told reporters Tuesday that the United States had expected<\/strong> Padrino, along with the head of the Maduro-appointed Supreme Court and the head of the national guard, to declare their support for the Venezuelan constitution, if not necessarily for Guaid\u00f3 himself.<\/span>\n…<\/span>\nHe said that opposition figures had held discussions with the three influential officials<\/strong> in Maduro\u2019s government ahead of those planned demonstrations.<\/span>\n…<\/span>\nCarlos Vecchio, Guaid\u00f3\u2019s ambassador to the United States, also said Monday that the opposition leadership had had \u201cconversations with part of the inner circle of Maduro\u201d and that \u201cthey know that Maduro is not going anywhere. That Maduro is the past .\u2009.\u2009. and that\u2019s why they want to look for a different future for Venezuela.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nEveryone in Washington believed that significant figures in the Venezuelan government would change sides. They did not do so. Vladimir Padrino rejected<\/strong><\/span><\/a> the coup within an hour after Guaid\u00f3 announced it<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. It seems that the Guaid\u00f3 side got played by the Venezuelan Defense Minister and several other officials and officers. They seem to have promised to support Guaid\u00f3 only to bait him into taking steps that would embarrass him.<\/span><\/p>\nA McClatchy<\/em> piece headlined “What went wrong?<\/strong><\/span><\/a>” seems to confirm this interpretation:<\/span><\/p>\nCont. reading: Venezuela – Guaid\u00f3 Got Snookered – White House Starts Beating War Drums<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are signs that the government of President Nicolas Maduro set a trap. And Juan Guaid\u00f3 and his U.S. backers walked right into it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=187699"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187715,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187699\/revisions\/187715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=187699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=187699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=187699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/www.moonofalabama.org\/images8\/vencoupcallinghelp.jpg\"){kind=link}