Heine on U.S.’s Venezuelan Intervention and Where to go from here
Jorge Heine was interviewed by CGTN Europe to unpack the recent United States military action on Venezuela, the removal of President Maduro, and respond to President Trump’s proclamation that the US will run Venezuela.
Heine shared his skepticism for a straight-forward exchange of power. While the US was successful in removing President Maduro as the head, Heine notes , “there still remains a whole cabinet of government officials in place that will continue to run the government.” In Maduro’s absence, Vice President Darcy Rodriguez has now stepped in as acting president, leading Heine to question the US’s legitimacy and ability to run the country.
This is the first time the US has enacted an attack on mainland of South America, leading to more uncertain relations with surrounding countries such as Mexico, Colombia, and Cuba. However, Heine pointed out that the Venezuelan intervention follows an unfortunate history of US interventions in other countries,
What those cases indicate, it is one thing to occupy and invade a country and effect regime change, it is quite another to actually run it. That is a very difficult operation. It certainly failed in Afghanistan, it failed in Iraq, it failed in Libya. Libya saw a NATO military intervention in 2011 and to this day it is mired in a civil war. So those are the things we might see in Venezuela. It is very tricky to face the challenges of nation building and building up democratic institutions after a military intervention.
The full interview can be watched here.
A former research professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Jorge Heine is a diplomat, international relations scholar, and lawyer. He is currently a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute. He has served as an ambassador of Chile to China, India, and South Africa. Heine has written over fifteen books, including The Non-Aligned World: Striking Out in an Era of Great Power Competition (2025), which provides insights on how the Global South can navigate the changing diplomatic landscape amid the U.S.-China rivalry.