Armed Conflict Between Venezuela and Colombia Is Now a Real and Terrifying Possibility

Washington Post ^ | 9/12/2019 | Francisco Toro

[MacNaughton]

BOGOTA, Colombia — Thinking up ways our all-encompassing crisis could get even worse has become a grimly popular parlor game for Venezuelans. For years, the go-to worst-case scenario was civil war between the political factions in our country. These days, an even scarier prospect has begun to displace that in the pantheon of Venezuelan nightmares: armed conflict with Colombia.

The reason? Venezuela’s increasingly tight alliance with the drug-running guerrilla armies waging war on the Colombian state, which has rattled Bogota so hard it’s now seeking a hemispheric response.

On Wednesday, Colombia, the United States and nine other countries invoked the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR), signed in Rio de Janeiro in 1947, which commits the countries of the Western Hemisphere to respond to military aggression against any one of them. The move came after Nicolás Maduro said he would deploy 150,000 troops to the border with Colombia. Invoking TIAR is an extreme measure in the region and an unmistakable sign that armed conflict is now a real possibility.

[MacNaughton]

Russians, Cubans, and ChiComs in Venzuela. Oh my! And with John Bolton out the door.

[Midwesterner53]

Is this what Bolton was talking about? A naval blockade of Venezuela would bring them down without setting foot on land there.

[Karliner]

Maybe it will get more news than the Mexican cartel war that has killed over 250,000 in the last decade and no one bats an eye. They’re all coming here to work and highly educated I hear. Maybe Bernie can be the new diplomat for Venezuela when he loses the presidency.

[livius]

I’d suspect this has a lot to do with Bolton’s departure. Possibly it’s because Bolton either misjudged or was lied to about the power of the opposition, since he thought the presence US troops nearby would empower the opposition to Maduro to rise up. I read, actually, that some of these leaders were arrested or seized by Maduro’s police early that very morning, so it’s also quite possible that the operation was betrayed by someone working on the inside or even by some treasonous communist sympathizer in US intelligence services.

But invoking this treaty is quite serious, and I am sure that, one way or another, Bolton’s departure was related to VZ.

[1L]

Any of this legit? So hard to trust a word WaPo says.

[rrrod]

Keep hearing this from friends in Colombia. I spend several months a year in Colombia and it’s getting a bit sporty along the border.
Iran, Cuba, Russia and maybe NORKs.

[McGruff]

Francisco Toro is a Venezuelan political commentator and contributing columnist for Global Opinions. He is chief content officer of the Group of 50.

No bias there.

[McGruff]

Francisco Toro is a Venezuelan journalist, political scientist and blogger. Born and raised in Caracas, he attended High School and College in the US. Covering Venezuela as a freelance foreign correspondent from 1999 to 2003, he reported for the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Financial Times, and was Editor of English Language Content at VenEconomy, Venezuela’s leading bilingual business magazine. Since 2002, he has run Caracas Chronicles, the must-read English-language blog on all things Venezuelan - (caracaschronicles.blogspot.com/) He holds a BA from Reed College (1997), and MSc from the London School of Economics (1999) and is currently a doctoral candidate in Political Science at the University of Maastricht, in The Netherlands.

[jeffc]

The Colombians will offer to feed the Venezuelan troops and win the war...

[bgill]

Who are we supposed to root for?

[rrrod]

I’m rooting for my friends and family..Colombia. Let the rest rot.

[Widget Jr]

Look at who signed the agreement: States Parties to the TIAR Approve Establishment of Organ of Consultation. Venezuela's government has too many enemies and not enough friends.

[Lurker]

It doesn’t terrify me in the least.

L

[Starstruck]

Venezuela set to become the new Cuba.

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be

Yeah, there will be an answer, let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

[PUGACHEV]

It’s odd that I didn’t see Ecuador anywhere on that list.

[VanShuyten]

So easy to win. All the Colombians have to do is put up a bunch of signs that say “Trade Your Weapons for Food and Toilet Paper!”. Two bags of groceries and TP for a rifle, and going on up to free food for a year at MickyD’s for one of their missile systems. Even the Cubans and Iranians there might go for that.

[Cen-Tejas]

.……..if we have to get involved let the combatants be Trumanized on day one...…………

Don’t let one of our kids get killed or maimed in that god for saken armpit of the world!

[robowombat]

Why is this terrifying? Provide training and second generation weapons for Colombia and raise a ‘Free Ven, Army’ and let the fun begin. If needed or simply to demonstrate what sea power and naval air can do send a carrier battle group and conduct an air campaign to destroy high value Ven targets. This boil is inside our zone of vital national interests by virtue of its location and the bast*rds need to be provoked and destroyed.

[cherry]

keep us up to date please.....we need to hear from your inside forces....media in America is corrupt and brain dead.

[ManOfLaMuncha]

Distracting wars worked for GWBush. It’s a successful ploy the world over.