bombs

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun blasts Israel’s ‘policy of systematic aggression’ that directly targets civilians in Lebanon.

Israel said it attacked four crossing points on the Syria-Lebanon border, saying they were used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons, following earlier attacks on southern Lebanon that killed at least two people and injured almost 20.

The latest Israeli violence on Wednesday comes despite a US-brokered ceasefire, which ended more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon in 2024 and which Israel has repeatedly violated.

“Once again, Israel is pursuing a policy of systematic aggression by carrying out air strikes on inhabited Lebanese villages, in a dangerous escalation that directly targets civilians,” Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in a statement late on Wednesday.

“This repeated aggressive behaviour reaffirms Israel’s refusal to abide by its obligations arising from the cessation of hostilities agreement,” President Aoun said.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health said at least 19 people were wounded in Israeli air strikes on the southern Lebanese town of Qanarit.

The state-run National News Agency said Israeli warplanes bombed buildings in several south Lebanon villages and towns, including al-Kharayeb, al-Ansar, Qanarit, Kfour and Jarjouh, after the Israeli army issued warnings that it would carry out attacks on targets inside the country.

Earlier in the day, the Health Ministry said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the town of Zahrani, in the Sidon district, killed one person. The ministry also said that an Israeli strike targeting a vehicle in the town of Bazuriyeh in the Tyre district killed another person.

The AFP news agency said its correspondent reported seeing a charred car on a main road in Sidon with debris strewn across the area and emergency workers in attendance. A photographer with the agency was also slightly wounded along with two other journalists who were working near the site of a heavy Israeli strike in Qanarit, where 19 people were injured.

The Israeli military said on social media that it targeted four border crossings on the Syria-Lebanon border used for “weapons transfer” and that it had also “eliminated” a “key Hezbollah weapons smuggler” in the Sidon area of southern Lebanon.

A Lebanese army statement decried the Israeli attacks that targeted “civilian buildings and homes” in a “blatant violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty” and the ceasefire deal.

The Lebanese military also said such attacks “hinder the army’s efforts” to complete the disarmament plan for Hezbollah, which was part of the ceasefire agreement.

Hezbollah has rejected calls to surrender its weapons amid the ongoing Israeli attacks, which have killed more than 350 people in Lebanon despite the ceasefire signed in November 2024, according to a tally of casualties from AFP.

CARACAS, Venezuela — It was 1:58 a.m. on Jan. 3 when a thunderous roar made the windows of my apartment in downtown Caracas shake. Are the New Year’s celebrations still going on? Is a storm coming or is it an earthquake, I wondered. Despite multiple threats from the United States against Venezuela, I couldn’t believe that bombing was possible; not like this, not now. As people say in Venezuela, “It’s one thing to call on the devil, and another to see him actually arrive.” As the missiles began to fall one after another, my phone was inundated with the same message: “They are bombing us.”

Residents in the southwest of the city witnessed at least 11 helicopters entering Fort Tiuna, Caracas’ most important military complex, which is surrounded by dozens of civilian buildings jointly known as Tiuna City. Andrea Pérez, a resident of the area, heard the roar of the helicopters, followed by high-pitched whistles that ended in a massive explosion. The glare lit up her apartment, and the dense air tightened in her young son’s chest.

“We ran down eight floors, using our phone flashlights and we bumped into all our neighbors. Some were half-naked, running for their lives. Some of us got into our cars, but the traffic was so bad it took nearly 20 minutes just to get out of there,” she tells Truthdig.

Within minutes, the highway filled with people trying to flee on foot from whatever was happening. “There was no light. You could hear indescribable, terrifying noises. You didn’t know where they were coming from. We had no idea what was happening outside, but we had to get out. I carried my dog, which weighs almost 30 kilos and just had surgery,” Oleno León, another resident, says.

Later, we learned that a U.S. cyberattack had crippled a large part of Caracas’ power supply. This helped enable 150 stealth fighters, electronic warfare aircraft, bombers, assault helicopters, drones and intelligence satellites to penetrate the skies of at least four Venezuelan states.

Negotiation and betrayal: Does it matter?

Hours later, we knew there had been an incursion, but we weren’t certain if the objective — to abduct President Nicolás Maduro — had been achieved. However, later in the morning, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez established a phone link with the state television channel and confirmed the situation by asking the U.S. for “proof of life” for the president and his wife, Cilia Flores.

People hunkered down. The streets turned into deserts. A harsh quietness descended that was only broken the next day by desperate lines at supermarkets, pharmacies and shops selling drinking water. What followed is now well known: multiple and contradictory statements from various U.S. government officials, images of Maduro and Flores arriving at the Drug Enforcement Administration office and later the courthouse in Manhattan, and Rodríguez being sworn in as acting president in the National Assembly.

However, as the days passed, people had questions: What happened to the Russian air defense systems or the Chinese radar for detecting air attacks — including the 5,000 Igla-S missiles that Maduro himself claimed to have in October 2025? Why were there no air-to-air battles? Did everything fail? Would this amount to treason? Or, if it was a negotiation, was the now-kidnapped president involved or not?

The picture became somewhat clearer when the United States government explained how its high-level technology managed to dismantle Venezuelan defenses, as well as the role played for months by several undercover CIA agents in Caracas. Rodríguez stated that “no one surrendered” and that “there was combat here.” The lives of at least 100 people “were taken in a vile, unequal, unilateral, illegal and illegitimate attack,” she said.

Maduro’s son, National Assembly member Nicolás Maduro Guerra, also stated that the U.S. neutralized the radar used for detection. “We were left blind; they attacked us with an aircraft that emits an electromagnetic wave that affects all defense systems,” he said. “It was impossible to get a plane off the ground, and most likely, if we had taken off, they would have shot it down. The technology they used was impressive. I believe this was a rehearsal for something bigger, and humanity should know about it.”

However, days earlier, Maduro Guerra had also hinted at the possibility of treason within the government. In statements to Truthdig, historian and Caracas-based commentator Álvaro Suzzarini notes that in catastrophes of this scale, the responses and actions of those under attack will inevitably range from betrayal and compromise to acts of heroism. However, he says, beyond the sensationalism and debates in the media and public generated by that dynamic, history will eventually reveal what role the key figures ultimately played.

Central University of Venezuela social psychology and criminology professor Andrés Antillano tells Truthdig that speculation doesn’t help while the situation is still so volatile. “The fact is that there is a negotiation with Trump; whether it happened before or after the military intervention and Maduro’s kidnapping is a matter of speculation, and perhaps it is not the most relevant issue right now,” Antillano says. “What matters more is understanding what comes after this brutal and ruthless intervention, which also served to intimidate the entire continent.”

Venezuelans worry about US role and economy

“I worry about losing power again or running out of water. Luckily, I have some food at home, but I also fear not being able to find what I need. I am also worried about safety, about the emptiness that takes over the streets at night and what that could lead to,” says Ariadna García, a young writer. She, like other Venezuelans I spoke with, isn’t sure what the role and reach of the U.S. in Venezuela will ultimately be.

Rodríguez has stated that the country “was attacked by a nuclear power but is not at war,” that “no external agent governs it,” and that it is entering “a new political moment” — one that has already included meetings with opposition lawmakers and the release of political prisoners.

But for citizens like university professor María Mercedes Cobo, national and personal fears have emerged. “First of all, I fear this aggression could be repeated, but I’m also terrified that we may no longer be a country with self-determination, and instead a colonized territory. Every time Trump speaks as if he were the president of Venezuela, it scares me. But I also wonder what will happen to our economy,” she tells Truthdig.

In the first week of January, the official exchange rate for the U.S. dollar against the Venezuelan bolívar rose by almost 10% , while the gap between the official and parallel rates is around 100%. This devaluing of the bolívar — through which most workers receive their income — reduces purchasing power, which was already very low. As of the end of last year, the monthly minimum wage in Venezuela was less than one U.S. dollar, and most income was received as bonuses.

Since Jan. 3, “In a context of deep political uncertainty, the economy has stopped being a priority. The failure to address this gap is causing a contraction in people’s purchasing power due to the breakdown of the pricing system,” economist Asdrúbal Oliveros tells Truthdig. He says that until the Venezuelan oil market stabilizes, the exchange rate will not stabilize either.

Venezuelan experts on the future

In purely political terms, what could happen in the coming months? According to Suzzarini, predicting outcomes with limited data under conditions of high uncertainty is risky, but he believes the emerging and most plausible scenario is the current one. “The continuity of Chavismo in power under the figure of Delcy Rodríguez, with at least the current 2025-2031 presidential term being fulfilled,” he says.

In his view, Venezuela is experiencing a “transition without transition,” where the U.S. has removed the president, but the governing party is the same, a sign that Washington did not and does not fully understand the phenomenon of Chavismo — the ideology embraced by followers of the late President Hugo Chávez — as a political movement. “This is not the kind of government, as calculated in the United States, where decapitating Maduro’s leadership would cause everything else to collapse,” he says.

“There are multiple converging leaderships and a political maturity of 30 years,” he says, referring to the decades of Bolivarian revolution and related organizing and movements.

The historian also points out that the right-wing opposition, led by María Corina Machado, will likely remain “outside the equation and the mathematics of power” because it lacks the capacity or support to sustain it, especially in such a delicate moment. Meanwhile, he says, Russia and China could still shift the global political landscape, with repercussions for Venezuela.

Trump is willing to receive Machado at the White House and she would like to award him her Nobel Peace Prize, but both know that the opposition leader could not run the country — especially not now. “She lacks the support and the respect,” Trump stated on Jan. 3.

However, the country is still essentially being held hostage by the U.S. and is under constant threat, Carlos Raúl Hernández, a political science professor at the Central University of Venezuela, explains. He says this makes acting President Rodríguez a sort of lifeline.

“Venezuela has a somewhat similar population and geographic size to Iraq [when it was bombed in 2003], so if the United States decided today to proceed with an invasion, it could … cause the deaths of 40,000 Venezuelans. It’s an extremely grave threat, one that must be avoided through agreements,” Hernández tells Truthdig.

To Hernández, Rodríguez is in a difficult position because, “theoretically or practically, the oil fleet linked to Venezuela has been seized, and of course that leaves no alternative but to negotiate. The tankers are in U.S. hands, so moving the oil requires U.S. approval. Another factor is China’s oil exploitation, which is also very important for the Venezuelan nation at this moment, as it represents 70% of exports. On the other hand, the United States is a key importer for China, and China is a major market for the United States.”

However, he believes that Rodríguez’s government could last a couple of years before new elections are held, “Until there is no longer a risk of confrontation, civil war or a process that destabilizes the world’s largest international oil reserve. Trump is interested in making sure this gigantic mine operates without setbacks, and that’s why he negotiates with the Chavista government — because it’s the only force with a real structure and control of the state apparatus.”

Hernández also thinks that if these agreements break down, new forms of invasion could follow. “But predicting it is difficult because everything that is taking place is unprecedented — astonishing in a civilized world like the one we thought we had.”

It would not be the first time a U.S. government chose to invade first and think later. But, at least for now, it seems that U.S. action will focus on coercing authorities through measures like those we experienced on Jan. 3.

Democratic U.S. senators, along with a small bloc of Republican senators, delivered a rebuke to Trump by voting in favor of advancing a resolution that would limit the future use of U.S. military force in Venezuela without congressional approval, but the resolution failed after two Republicans changed their votes and Vice President JD Vance voted to break a tie. Either way, Trump rarely respects U.S. legality, and he still has three years left in his term. Meanwhile, his next target could be Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, Greenland … or once again, Venezuela.

The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Source: Truthdig

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Israel’s military launched attacks on what it described as Hezbollah and Hamas “targets” in Lebanon after issuing ⁠evacuation orders for four villages in the ​country’s east and south.

An ‍Israeli army spokesperson said earlier it was planning air strikes on Hezbollah and ‍Hamas “military infrastructure” ⁠in the villages of Hammara and Ain el-Tineh in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley and Kfar Hatta and Aanan in the south.

An AFP news agency photographer in Kfar Hatta saw dozens of families flee the village after an Israeli warning was issued with drone activity in the area. Ambulances and fire trucks are on standby.

Israel and Lebanon agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire in 2024 ending ​more than a year ‌of heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah. Israel has repeatedly violated the truce with bombardment and continues to occupy five areas in the country.

‌Lebanon ‌has faced growing pressure ⁠from the United States and Israel to disarm Hezbollah, and its leaders fear Israel could escalate strikes.

Lebanon’s army was expected to complete the disarmament south of the Litani River – 30km (12 miles) from the border with Israel – by the end of 2025. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Sunday called the disarmament efforts “far from sufficient”.

The Israeli military has spent the past 24 hours expanding the so-called “yellow line” in eastern Gaza, particularly in eastern Gaza City’s Tuffah, Shujayea, and Zeitoun neighbourhoods, according to Al Jazeera teams on the ground, squeezing Palestinians into ever smaller clusters of the enclave.

The Israeli army’s actions on Monday are also pushing it closer to the key artery of Salah al-Din Street, forcing displaced families sheltering near the area to flee as more of them come under intensive threat, as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza shows no signs of abating.

Israel now physically occupies more than 50 percent of the Gaza Strip.

Since the ceasefire took effect, Israeli attacks have killed at least 414 Palestinians and injured 1,145 in daily truce violations despite the ceasefire deal mediated by the United States on October 10.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said, “The ongoing Israeli attacks on the ground, the expansion of the ‘yellow line’ are meant to eat up more of the territory across the eastern part, really shrinking the total area where people are sheltering.”

“Everyone is cramped here. The population here not just doubled but tripled in many of the neighbourhoods, given the fact that none of these people is able to go back to their neighbourhoods. We’re talking about Zeitoun, Shujayea, as well as Tuffah,” he added.

“It was not until the past few minutes that the sounds of hums, the drones buzzing, faded away, but it had been going on for the past night and all of yesterday. Ongoing explosions that could be heard clearly from here,” Mahmoud said.

Intense artillery bombardment and helicopter fire also resumed on Monday in the areas south of the besieged enclave, north and east of the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.

On Sunday, Israel launched more attacks into parts of Gaza outside its direct military control. At least three Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli attacks in Khan Younis, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

A five-storey building belonging to the al-Shana family in the Maghazi camp in central Gaza collapsed. It had been subjected to Israeli bombing at the end of 2023.

Civil Defence teams are searching for missing people under the rubble. The Wafa news agency reported that at least five people were injured.

Israeli push to make Rafah crossing ‘one-way exit’

Expectations have heightened around the possible reopening of the Rafah crossing, fuelling both desperate hope and deep fear.

For many in Gaza, there is some hope it could offer a lifeline, allowing the sick and wounded to access medical care, reuniting separated families, and giving some people a rare chance to move in or out of the Strip. Some also see it as a potential sign of easing restrictions.

But fears remain strong. Many worry the opening will be limited and temporary, benefitting only a few. Others fear it could become a one-way exit, raising concerns about permanent expulsion, effectively Israeli ethnic cleansing, and whether those who leave will be allowed to return.

“Until this moment, there’s nothing on the ground other than the headlines we’ve been reading over the past couple of days, the expectation now that within days the Rafah crossing is going to open and allow for movement in and out of Gaza. So far, we know the Israeli military is pushing for Rafah to be just a one-way exit,” Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud reported.

After months of uncertainty, people in Gaza who have suffered unimaginable loss and destruction are cautious. Even the possibility of relief comes with questions and little trust in what will happen next.

At least 71,386 Palestinians have been killed and 171,264 injured since the start of the war in October 2023, according to the latest figures from Gaza’s Ministry of Health. At least 420 people have been killed since the ceasefire was agreed upon three months ago.

The Israeli military continues to block a large amount of international humanitarian aid amassing at the Gaza crossings, while maintaining that there is no shortage of aid despite testimonies by the United Nations and others working on the ground.

United States President Donald Trump announced on Saturday morning that his country’s forces had bombed Venezuela and captured the South American nation’s president, Nicolas Maduro, and First Lady Cilia Flores in a dramatic overnight military attack that followed months of rising tensions.

Venezuela’s government said that the US had struck three states apart from the capital, Caracas, while neighbouring Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro released a longer list of places that he said had been hit.

The operation has few, if any, parallels in modern history. The US has previously captured foreign leaders, including Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Panama’s Manuel Noriega, but after invading those countries in declared wars.

Here is what we know about the US attacks and the lead-up to this escalation:

How did the attack unfold?

At least seven explosions were reported from Caracas, a city of more than three million people, at about 2am local time (06:00 GMT), as residents said they heard low-flying aircraft. Lucia Newman, Al Jazeera’s Latin America editor, reported that at least one of the explosions appeared to come from near Fort Tiuna, the main military base in the Venezuelan capital.

Earlier, the US Federal Aviation Administration had issued instructions to American commercial airlines to stay clear of Venezuelan airspace.

Within minutes of the explosions, Maduro declared a state of emergency, as his government named the US as responsible for the attacks, saying that it had struck Caracas as well as the neighbouring states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.

The US embassy in Bogota, Colombia, referred to the reports of the explosions and asked American citizens to stay out of Venezuela, in a statement. But the diplomatic mission did not confirm US involvement in the attacks. That came more than three hours after the bombings, from Trump.

What did Trump say?

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said, a little after 09:00 GMT that the US had “successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country”.

Venezuela has not yet confirmed that Maduro was taken by US troops — but it also has not denied the claim.

Trump said that the attack had been carried out in conjunction with US law enforcement, but did not specify who led the operation.

Trump announced that there would be a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida at 11am local time (16:00 GMT) on Friday, where more details would be revealed.

Where did the US attack in Venezuela?

While neither the US nor Venezuelan authorities have pinpointed locations that were struck, Colombia’s Petro, in a social media post, listed a series of places in Venezuela that he said had been hit.

They include:

• La Carlota airbase was disabled and bombed.
• Cuartel de la Montana in Catia was disabled and bombed.
• The Federal Legislative Palace in Caracas was bombed.
• Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s main military complex, was bombed.
• An airport in El Hatillo was attacked.
• F-16 Base No 3 in Barquisimeto was bombed.
• A private airport in Charallave, near Caracas, was bombed and disabled.
• Miraflores, the presidential palace in Caracas, was attacked.
• Large parts of Caracas, including Santa Monica, Fuerte Tiuna, Los Teques, 23 de Enero and the southern areas of the capital, were left without electricity.
• Attacks were reported in central Caracas.
• A military helicopter base in Higuerote was disabled and bombed.

What led to these US attacks on Venezuela?

Trump has, in recent months, accused Maduro of driving narcotics smuggling into the US, and has claimed that the Venezuelan president is behind the Tren de Aragua gang that Washington has proscribed as a foreign terrorist organisation.

But his own intelligence agencies have said that there is no evidence that Maduro is linked to Tren de Aragua, and US data shows that Venezuela is not a major source of contraband narcotics entering the country.

Starting in September, the US military launched a series of strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea that it claimed were carrying narcotics. More than 100 people have been killed in at least 30 such boat bombings, but the Trump administration is yet to present any public evidence that there were drugs on board, that the vessels were travelling to the US, or that the people on the boats belonged to banned organisations, as the US has claimed.

Meanwhile, the US began its largest military deployment in the Caribbean Sea in at least several decades, spearheaded by the USS Gerald Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier.

In December, the US hijacked two ships carrying Venezuelan oil, and has since imposed sanctions on multiple companies and their tankers, accusing them of trying to circumvent already stringent American sanctions against Venezuela’s oil industry.

Then, last week, the US struck what Trump described as a “dock” in Venezuela where he claimed drugs were loaded onto boats.

Could all this be about oil?

Trump has so far framed his pressure and military action against Venezuela and in the Caribbean Sea as driven by a desire to stop the flow of dangerous drugs into the US.

But he has increasingly also sought Maduro’s departure from power, despite a phone call in early December that the Venezuelan president described as “cordial”.

And in recent weeks, some senior aides of the US president have been more open about Venezuela’s oil: the country’s vast reserves of crude, unmatched in the world, amounted to an estimated 303 billion barrels (Bbbl) as of 2023.

On December 17, Trump’s top adviser Stephen Miller claimed that the US had “created the oil industry in Venezuela” and that the South American country’s oil should therefore belong to the US.

But though US companies were the earliest to drill for oil in Venezuela in the early 1900s, international law is clear: sovereign states — in this case Venezuela — own the natural resources within their territories under the principle of Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources (PSNR).

Venezuela nationalised its oil industry in 1976. Since 1999, when socialist President Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s mentor and predecessor, came to power, Venezuela has been locked in a tense relationship with the US.

Still, one major US oil company, Chevron, continues to operate in the country.

The Venezuelan opposition, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, has publicly called for the US to intervene against Maduro, and has pointed to the oil reserves that American firms could tap more easily with a new dispensation in power in Caracas.

Oil has long been Venezuela’s biggest export, but US sanctions since 2008 have crippled formal sales and the country today earns only a fraction of what it once did.

How has Venezuela’s government reacted?

While Venezuela has not confirmed Maduro’s capture, Vice President Delcy Rodrigues told state-owned VTV that the government had lost contact with Maduro and First Lady Flores and did not have clarity on their whereabouts.

She demanded that the US provide “proof of life” of Maduro and Flores, and added that Venezuela’s defences were activated.

Earlier, in a statement, the Venezuelan government said that it “rejects, repudiates and denounces” the attacks.

It said that the aggression threatens the stability of Latin America and the Caribbean, and places the lives of millions of people at risk. It accused the US of trying to impose a colonial war, and force a regime change — and said that these attempts would fail.

What happens to Maduro next?

In a statement posted on X, Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Maduro and his wife have been indicted in the Southern District of New York.

Maduro has been charged with “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy” among other charges, Bondi said. It was unclear if his wife is facing the same charges, but she referred to the Maduro couple as “alleged international narco traffickers.”

“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” she added.

Mike Lee, a Republican senator from Utah, earlier posted on X that he had spoken to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had told him that Maduro had been “arrested by US personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States, and that the kinetic action we saw tonight was deployed to protect and defend those executing the arrest warrant.”

In 2020, US prosecutors had charged Maduro with running a cocaine-trafficking network.

But US officials remain silent on the illegality of Maduro’s capture and the attacks on Venezuela, which violate UN charter principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations.

Russia and Cuba, close Maduro allies, condemned the attack. Colombia, which neighbours Venezuela and has itself been in Trump’s crosshairs, said that it “rejects the aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and of Latin America” – even though Bogota itself does not recognise Maduro’s government.

Most other nations have been relatively muted in their response to the US aggression so far.

What’s next for Venezuela?

Constitutionally, Rodriguez, the vice president, is next in line to take charge if Maduro indeed has been plucked out of Venezuela by the US.

Other senior leaders seen as close to Maduro and influential within the Venezuelan hierarchy include Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, National Assembly President — and Delcy’s brother — Jorge Rodriguez, and military chief General Vladimir Padrino López.

But it is unclear whether the state apparatus that Chavez and Maduro carefully built over a quarter century will last without them.

“Maduro’s capture is a devastating moral blow for the political movement started by Hugo Chavez in 1999, which has devolved into a dictatorship since Nicolas Maduro took power,” Carlos Pina, a Venezuelan analyst based in Mexico, told Al Jazeera.

If the US does engineer — or has already engineered — a regime change, the opposition’s Machado could be a front-line candidate to take Venezuela’s top job, though it is unclear how popular that might be. In a November poll in Venezuela, 55 percent of participants were opposed to military intervention in their country, and an equal number were opposed to economic sanctions against Venezuela.

Trump might be mistaken if he thinks the US can stay out of the chaos that’s likely to follow in a post-Maduro Venezuela, suggests Christopher Sabatini, a senior research fellow for Latin America, the US and North America programme at Chatham House.

“Assuming even if there is regime change – of some sort, and it’s by no means clear even if it does happen that it will be democratic – the US’s military action will likely require sustained US engagement of some sort,” he said.

“Will the Trump White House have the stomach for that?”

WASHINGTON — A federal magistrate judge on Friday refused to order the pretrial release of a man charged with planting two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican national parties on the eve of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh ruled that Brian J. Cole Jr. must remain jailed before trial. The magistrate concluded there are no conditions of release that can reasonably protect the public from the danger that Cole allegedly poses.

Justice Department prosecutors say Cole confessed to placing pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee headquarters only hours before a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol. According to prosecutors, Cole said he hoped the explosives would detonate and “hoped there would be news about it.”

“Mercifully, that did not happen,” Sharbaugh wrote. “But if the plan had succeeded, the results,” he said, could have been devastating, “creating a greater sense of terror on the eve of a high-security Congressional proceeding, causing serious property damage in the heart of Washington, D.C., grievously injuring DNC or RNC staff and other innocent bystanders, or worse.”

After his arrest last month, Cole told investigators that he believed someone needed to “speak up” for people who believed the 2020 election, which Democrat Joe Biden won, was stolen and that he wanted to target the country’s political parties because they were “in charge,” according to prosecutors.

If convicted of both charges against him, Cole faces up to 10 years of imprisonment on one charge and up to 20 years of imprisonment on a second charge that also carries a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence.

Cole’s attorneys asked for him to be released on home detention with GPS monitoring. They said Cole doesn’t have a criminal record, has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and lives in a stable home that he shared with his parents in Woodbridge, Va.

“Mr. Cole simply does not pose a danger to the community,” defense attorneys wrote. “Whatever risk the government posits is theoretical and backward-looking, belied by the past four years where Mr. Cole lived at home with his family without incident.”

Cole continued to purchase bomb-making components for months after the Jan. 6 riot, according to prosecutors. They said Cole told the FBI that he planted the pipe bombs because “something just snapped.”

“The sudden and abrupt motivation behind Mr. Cole’s alleged actions presents concerns about how quickly the same abrupt and impulsive conduct might recur,” Sharbaugh wrote.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.