Tensions in Venezuela escalated dramatically recently, after President Donald Trump delivered a direct ultimatum to Nicolás Maduro during a phone call and subsequently urged that “the airspace above and around Venezuela be considered completely closed.” The warning, reported by The Washington Post, offered Maduro “the easy way or the hard way,” including safe passage to a friendly capital or, if he refused, the prospect of direct U.S. action. Maduro rejected the ultimatum as a “colonialist threat” and accused Washington of attempting an illegal intervention. The standoff has transformed what was already a fragile situation into a moment of acute geopolitical danger, sharpening the divisions within the American right over how far the United States should go in confronting the regime.
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