Anatoly Kurmanaev

Machado believes that the country overwhelmingly supports her and would just welcome her with open arms for her candidate to assume the presidency and take over.

armed forces, state bureaucracy, state infrastructure, and just usher this new era of democracy, prosperity.

But there's all sorts of outcomes that are likely, even more likely to occur.

Maduro could lose power but be replaced by someone even more hard-line within his own coalition, but someone even more oppressive and someone more antagonistic towards the United States.

The power vacuum could create all sorts of chaos, perhaps not necessarily in Caracas, but in the periphery of a country, areas where you have all sorts of armed groups ranging from criminal gangs to Colombian insurgents.

We could see the violence that this could create could unleash a whole new wave of migration towards Colombia, the neighboring country to Venezuela, which could destabilize that country further.

The military interventions could have

All sorts of unexpected, lasting outcomes that go far beyond the sort of clean, elegant transition to democracy under a democratically elected government.

No, and the way this campaign is unfolding so far gives indications of the risks ahead.

The way the strikes against boats seems to be spreading to countries neighboring Venezuela.

Colombian president has accused US of murdering a Colombian fisherman.

Trump has responded by cutting off aides and threatening Colombian governments.

So this has already escalated beyond Venezuela.

the sort of narrow surgical approach towards removing Maduro.

And we are just in the beginning.

So I think, you know, the risk of plunging the region into uncharted territory are very great.

And this is the line that Maduro's government and his allies in Washington have exploited.

You know, they present themselves as this bastion of stability and relative peace against the anarchy and chaos that Machado is about to unleash on the country.

What worries me the most here, Natalie, is the potential precedent that it sets.

To me, this is beyond Venezuela, a country that I know and care deeply about.