«Arguably the real military power behind the throne in Venezuela today is the tens of thousands of Cuban operatives in the country. These range from bodyguards protecting Maduro (a sign he cannot trust his own people) to intelligence operatives, to “sports advisers” to ground forces which are not called as such. Estimates of the total number of Cuban operatives range as high as 30,000.
One of the reasons Maduro has been unable to flee is that the Cubans, reportedly, were threatening to kill him if he did. Cuba needs Venezuelan oil to live, otherwise its regime could fail. The Cuban economy is a mess and the island has suffered regularly from power outages. Venezuelan fuel is keeping it going. The slow down already in oil deliveries because of the US attacks over the last few months has been felt seriously in Cuba.
If those Cuban forces remain in Venezuela, they will almost certainly try and play a role in trying to replace Maduro with another Maduro—which is why the US cannot hope to succeed unless they get the Cubans out.»
If I wasn't an upper middle brow news consumer, I just might think Trump is desperately trying anything to avoid focus on his appearances in the Epstein files.
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