Venezuela stands up to Donald Trump
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hyvät kollegat, mikä hämminki on sloganissa We Have Little Prices? Eikö meillä pitäis olla Prisma Prices? Little Prices on parempi.
Laita joo toi sloganiksi.
Ei huono. Prisma Selection, Little Prices. Hyvää stormausta, jengi. Prisma. Big Selection, Little Prices. I'm Alex Ritson, and in the early hours of November 30th, these are our main stories. Venezuela condemns President Trump's warning that its airspace should be considered closed as an illegal and unjustified aggression. Mr Trump has also targeted Honduras, threatening to cut funding if the right-wing candidate Nasri Asfura doesn't win Sunday's presidential election. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says the number of people killed in Israel's military offensive has now passed 70,000. Doctors say the latest to be killed are youngsters. The two boys who died have been described as an eight-year-old and his elder brother aged 10 or possibly 11.
They were killed in what the relatives described as a drone strike by Israeli forces. Also in this podcast, the German TV series Auf Fritzis Spuren wins an Emmy. And we look back on the life of the British playwright Tom Stoppard, who has died. Relations between Venezuela and the Trump administration have been deteriorating for months, with the US stepping up its very public criticism of the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro. US forces have also been building up their presence in the Caribbean and targeting boats officials say have been involved in drug smuggling. Mr Trump has warned that US efforts to halt Venezuelan drug trafficking by land would begin very soon. Now he's infuriated Caracas even further by posting a warning on his Truth Social platform that the airspace above and around Venezuela should be considered closed.
Luis Fajardo from BBC Monitoring told me more.
The government of Venezuela has protested in very strong terms to what they describe as, quote unquote, colonial attitude by the U.S. when the president announced what he calls a closing of the Venezuelan airspace. There are reports in local media, however, from Caracas International Airport, the main airport in the country. suggesting that at least a few planes are still leaving from the airport. So it does not seem to have effectively closed down traffic. Of course, a lot of very intense concern in Venezuela about the possible effects of these new statements by the US president.
So what's the objective of this? I mean, Nicolas Maduro and his military are not going to take this lightly.
Well, the government of the U.S. has been very clear actually about its displeasure with the Venezuelan government. There is this argument that many commentators are saying that the U.S. hopes that the mere threat of military action against Venezuela would be enough to cause the ranks of the military, which have been remarkably loyal to Maduro until now, to kind of suggest that they could actually remove his support and force him to leave or convince him to leave, to give up power. There is no evidence up to this point that that is happening. Of course, this is seen as a weeks-long campaign to exert this kind of pressure against the Venezuelan government and still the expectation to see what will be the actual result.
What do regular people in Venezuela make of all this?
There seem to be mixed feelings. There's certainly at least a part of Venezuelan society that would seem to actually be accepting of the US interfering more or intervening more in Venezuelan affairs and actually trying to convince or to force Maduro out of office. However, there are also voices saying that this could be seen as an intervention in Venezuelan politics. And certainly there are those who say that there are people in Venezuela and the Venezuelan government or close to the Venezuelan government that even if this hypothetical intervention occurred, they would not leave that easily. There's certainly militias in Venezuela. There's even foreign rebel groups like the Colombian ELN and the FARC dissident groups that are present in Venezuela.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–5:28
2
What did Venezuela say about Trump's airspace warning?
5:28–8:05
3
What are the latest casualty figures from Gaza's military offensive?
8:05–13:05
4
How has U.S. criticism affected Venezuela's government?
13:05–15:13
5
What are the implications of Trump's warning for Venezuelan politics?
15:13–22:57
6
How do Venezuelans feel about U.S. intervention?
22:57–27:58
7
Who might succeed Nicolas Maduro if he were to leave office?
27:58–30:45