Venezuelan opposition leaders are increasingly divided over a potential US intervention in their country even as Caracas continues to crack down on dissent.
The group led by recent Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado has sided closely with Washington, which has deployed vast military assets, including the world’s biggest aircraft carrier, to the southern Caribbean to combat what it calls Venezuela’s state-sponsored narco-terrorism. But experts speculate the White House really wants to encourage a military-led mutiny to overthrow the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Some, including Venezuela’s two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, warn that a US intervention could create a vacuum filled by even worse leadership. “There is no happy ending,” one analyst said.