Hare Discusses Trump’s Venezuela Push
Professor Paul Webster Hare, former British ambassador to Cuba, shared his thoughts on Trump Administration’s policy objectives for Venezuela with the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle on October 17, 2025. In the article, he said Trump’s approach to the Maduro regime was a “special case” rather than a signal of increasing US intervention into the region.
“Trump doesn’t want to go into history as the war-making president creating conflict,” Hare told DW. “He wants to do some sort of deal [with Venezuela]. “They are concerned with, obviously, the migration issue, the drugs issue.”
Beyond supporting his personal allies, a return to extensive interventions in Latin American politics is unlikely to be a priority for the US president in the remaining three years of his second and final term.
“I don’t think he’s terribly interested in Latin America as an area,” Hare said. “I do think there are a lot of voices who see this as the chance to topple Maduro and maybe even to provoke change in Cuba, however that might be done.”
The momentum for political change in Venezuela, further spurred by opposition leader Maria Corina Machado recently winning the Nobel Peace Prize, could very well be aided by the current US intervention. But Hare also states Maduro could still find a way to hold onto power.
“I don’t think it’s inconceivable that Maduro may come round [to Trump] and say, ‘Yes, we’ll do a deal on the deportations,’ or ‘We’ll do the things you like, if you agree to stand off’.”
The full article can be accessed here.
Paul Webster Hare is a master lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. He served as British Ambassador to Cuba from 2001 to 2004 and also represented the U.K. to the European Union in Brussels, New York, Portugal, and Venezuela as deputy head of mission. Hare has extensively written about Cuba for renowned news outlets including The Financial Times, The Atlantic, Newsweek, and The Huffington Post. He is also the co-editor of the Palgrave Handbook of Diplomatic Reform and Innovation, which analyzes current practices of diplomacy and proposes practical solutions to improve diplomatic outcomes.