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Is Trump going to war with Venezuela? – podcast

On 2 September, the US government released grainy footage of a fishing boat ploughing through the waters of the Caribbean sea. Suddenly, after a flash of light, the boat is gone.

Andrew Roth, the Guardian’s global affairs correspondent, tells Annie Kelly that this US airstrike off the Venezuelan coast was only the first of a series of attacks on what President Donald Trump calls “narco-terrorists”. Now with US aircraft carriers and 10,000 soldiers being deployed to the region, Roth outlines what we know about US plans for Venezuela, the diplomatic breakdown that led to this moment, and who in the Trump administration is driving this policy of aggression.

Tom Phillips, the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, then evaluates Trump’s claim that Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, is the head of an organised crime syndicate. He describes the system of corruption that Maduro has constructed to protect himself, compares this moment to previous interventions made by the US in the region, and outlines how the rest of Latin America is responding to the US threat.

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