Historically the most dangerous tool of the US empire has been internal coups, but that has conclusively been defeated by Venezuela
As a result the US is grudgingly resorting to some bungled military attempt, likely a bigger version of that merc invasion several years ago, that was defeated by local fishermen
Aside from a few exceptions, US military invasions fail when targeting large countries; the jungles of southern and eastern Venezuela are impervious to US power projection, the Colombian border (which is only viable route to invade Venezuela) is closed and the northern coast is protected by a massive mountain range and dense, large, pro regime cities and towns
As a result the US will be forced to rely on air power and naval bombardment to damage the the revolutionary state
The logistical equation is fairly obvious in this case, it would require a decade of sustained warfare with the deployment of hundreds of thousands of troops to overcome the militia networks and the sheer geography of Venezuela
And the first dead Venezuelan child by a US bomb or bullet will gureentee the long overdue obliteration of the opposition for generations
When was the last time a country was able to keep the invading US forces from blowing through that country’s defending military and just park wherever? I’m pretty sure US military invasions are almost always successful.
A large scale bombardment campaign by the US against Venezuela will result in 100,000’s to millions of civilian refuges fleeing the country in a few years.
Whatever friendly neighbors Venezuela has now, will shrink over time as the influx of Venezuelans puts pressure in the receiving countries’ resources.
While the USA is bombing the shit of Venezuela the CIA and JSOC will be in the those neighboring countries ramping up the right wing propaganda operations to turn those once friendly neighbors against the Venezuelan refuges. Economic sanctions will come down on those neighboring countries that resist the US funded right wing propaganda operations too well.
So if this isn’t some incredibly bloody sabre rattling from the USA or China/Russia pulls some big dog shit, US military bombardment and in country JSOC stuff will be pretty effective.
A large bombardment that results in civilian displacement and mass death, will forever discreet the opposition, no matter how many officials they kill or how many generals are blown to smithereens the entire country will know it’s the US that is responsible for creating Gaza like images in Venezuela, opposition figures will likely be targeted by lynch mobs or assassinated, militia recruitment will skyrocket and a ‘rally around the flag’ phenomenon will take place
Venezuela is not Gaza, it’s a massive country, it can absorb massive bombardment and the blame won’t be abstract like with economic sanctions, it’ll be direct and obvious, every bomb dropped on Venezuelan soil strengthens the revolutionary movement
Venezuela is not Gaza, this is true. But it is like Iraq and Afghanistan, where the US military and economic interests did whatever they wanted until the political/economic costs and benefits hit a break even or loss point.
Hopefully, (assuming a worse case scenario where the USA does actually try to turn Venezuela into an Iraq/Afghanistan for itself) there can be enough pain caused by resistance within Venezuela (combined with the USA failing as a political entity on the world stage) that this timeline drops from 10+ years down to just a few very horrible bloody years for the Venezuelans.
The US could only invade those countries because they weren’t socialist and it literally bribed the majority of the armed factions not to fight, in the case of Iraq most of the army dissolved for the sake of dollars in briefcases, handed out in the greatest incident of mass bribery in human history
The socialist militias can’t be bribed and without boots on the ground, the US can’t fund, arm or train traitors and kulaks
The US has nothing but air and naval power over Venezuela, if that was enough, Yemen would’ve fallen by now