Is the US eyeing its next Latin American target?

The United States has eight warships in the Caribbean near Venezuela and 10 F-35 jets in Puerto Rico. It is the biggest force in the region since 1994, when the US helped oust a military regime in Haiti. So, many wonder: Will Venezuela, home to the largest proven oil reserves in the world, be next?

Among them, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a man who hears a threat when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls him a "fugitive from American justice".

Historians say this sort of thing is not new. From 1898 to 1994, the US successfully ousted a Latin American government at least 41 times. While US security interests may have often been cited as justification, economic interests often prevailed.

For example, the US waged the so-called Banana Wars from 1898 to 1934 to support or install governments aligned with its economic plans, which favoured US firms like the United Fruit Company. Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Haiti were all affected.

At times, though, US efforts to depose a left-wing or communist government fell short. Notably, the Bay of Pigs invasion, when the US botched the overthrow of Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 1961.

But that did not stop Operation Brother Sam, the US’s plan to support the Brazilian military’s coup in 1964. Brazil spent the next 21 years under a military dictatorship.

With the Cold War heating up, the CIA tried to destabilise Salvador Allende’s socialist government in Chile by funding protests and the opposition. On September 11, 1973, Chilean General Augusto Pinochet overthrew Allende in a coup.

These days, the US seems focused on Venezuela, resurrecting an indictment for drug trafficking brought against Maduro in 2020, during President Donald Trump’s first term. Maduro denies the charges.

On October 2, Trump reportedly ended talks with Venezuela aimed in part at granting the US access to Venezuelan oil. The decision is seen as favouring Rubio’s hardline approach and raising the spectre of a military escalation. To date, the US has bombed at least four alleged Venezuelan drug boats, killing at least 21 people. As the standoff festers, Venezuelans are left to wonder: Will we be next?