Rep. Matt Gaetz

Sign up for free and be part of the movement.

As Secretary Hegseth has announced Operation Southern Spear, I can tell you Latin America is totally up for grabs.

You have the left-wing alliance of Cuba, Venezuela, increasingly Colombia and Honduras.

And then you have the populist nationalist division for Latin America led by the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele.

Mele is in that light.

Marino in Panama in that light.

Also the president of Paraguay.

And there is a great battle of ideas going on here.

Now, my sources tell me that the battle over Venezuela may not even have to go kinetic if the United States is able to force Maduro into a number of decisions.

And those decisions could divide his coalition, weaken the extent to which military generals are reliant on him.

And here's what's interesting.

I'm watching it down here now, Steve.

The Honduran election

at the end of this month could very well be a test case for whether or not the military in Venezuela turns against the people, because we expect a lot of Venezuela's tactics to be used by the political left in Honduras, where we think the populace would prefer center-right government, but there's a left-wing government in power now.

Yeah, usually when a regime is under siege like Maduro is, they try to bring their military in closer.

They try to centralize whatever control they have over a capital or a jurisdiction.

But here we've seen Maduro take a very different tactical stance.

He's actually moved the military out into the country

hoping that if there were strikes on Caracas, he could create chaos and violence in the outer areas of Venezuela, and that that would give them some place in the hinterlands to control and occupy.

So as he makes that decision, there are going to be a number of these key military leaders and generals who question it, who maybe leave Maduro's side, and he could be very vulnerable in Caracas, not to direct