U.S. vs. Venezuela: The Limits of Unconventional Warfare

The escalation of subversive actions by the United States and its main allies against Venezuela over the past few months is part of a higher, and desperate, stage in the war against the Bolivarian government.

President Nicolas Maduro, amid the preparations for the election of the National Constituent Assembly on July 30, made it clear this week that the Venezuelan people, along with the National Armed Force and the political groups that support the revolutionary process, will resist Washington's pretensions.

The right-wing opposition has announced an escalation of protests or a 24-hour strike, something that experts described as the prelude to a spiral of violence supported by U.S. power groups and whose consequences are hard to predict, despite the prudence shown by official authorities. Maduro and other government leaders have repeatedly expressed their will to continue seeking peace and mutual understanding through national dialogue.

However, after putting the key factors that participate in the destabilization of that South American nation in maximum tension, U.S. President Donald Trump's list still have the most dangerous options: a group of severe economic sanctions with which Washington wants to give the Venezuelan government the coup de grace.

In statements to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the expert Geoff Thale, of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), based in the U.S. capital, said that he was 'very skeptic' about the possible effectiveness of the U.S. unilateral punitive measures

It is more likely that they will make the government feel that it has no other option to resist and they will offer the government a nationalistic cry against the United States, Thale noted.

Measures like these would be imposed shortly before ordering a military aggression with the use of 'peace-keeping' forces made up of countries subordinated to the White House under the operative leadership of the South Command.

Although a military intervention cannot be ruled out, experts assure that it seems to be the last option on Trump's table, due to the danger of a big failure in light of that country's resistance and international solidarity.

After the 'military preparation of the last few months, with statements and destabilizing actions by the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, and several governments and political personages, there is no much to do in the media field.

Those anti-Venezuela factors act under the leadership of the U.S. Department of State and the intelligence community, which, according to experts, implement a single subversive plan to destroy the revolutionary project in the South American nation.

The escalation of criminal actions by violent groups led by the Board of Democratic Unity (MUD), under the White House's umbrella and the continental and European reaction, try to create an image of total chaos in Venezuela.

That group of initiatives aims to reduce at all cost the popular foundation of President Maduro, stimulating discontent at unbearable levels for his administration.

The Pentagon's Training Circular TC 18-01, published in November 2010 under the title 'Special Forces Unconventional Warfare', somehow illustrates how the subversive processes against the nations that do not obey Washington's dictates are developed.

The TC 18-01 establishes, 'The intent of U.S. UW efforts is to exploit a hostile power's political, military, economic, and psychological vulnerabilities by developing and sustaining resistance forces to accomplish U.S. strategic objectives.'

Anyway, the enemies of the process started by Commander Hugo Chavez openly declare that they will not stop until they achieve their goal of overthrowing the Bolivarian government.

However, as Venezuelan leaders have repeatedly said, the armed forces, the people and the groups that support the revolutionary project are preparing themselves for the worst options, an attitude that the Pentagon and the intelligence community do not always take into consideration.