Juan David Rojas | UnHerd
In dealing with Venezuela, the second Trump administration for months
oscillated between dealmaking and regime change. More recently, however,
an unprecedented military buildup in the Caribbean appears to be aimed
at toppling Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. The regime-change faction, in other words, has got the upper hand. But how? Blame the regime-change capital of the Americas, Miami, and its native son, Marco Rubio.
Early on, there was some hope that the White House would forgo the first term's amateur coup attempts and moralistic posturing against Maduro. Among his first acts in 2025, President Trump dispatched special envoy Richard "Ric" Grenell to broker an America First understanding with the Caracas regime.
Under the deal, Chevron could continue to export Venezuelan crude Stateside through the renewal of a Biden-era oil license. In exchange, Caracas agreed to accept deportation flights of its citizens — a vital priority given the subsequent suspension of Temporary Protected Status for some 350,000 Venezuelans in the US homeland. The administration thus made good on two campaign pledges: boosting fossil fuels and deporting illegal migrants.
Sadly, this understanding underwent a series of erratic twists in the ensuing months, a turn of events caused mostly by Miami's community of Right-wing Latin-American exiles.
Fly to Miami from the American heartland, and you'll find what can appear like a Right-wing foreign country, where Spanish prevails over English; and where denizens of Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, and, especially, Cuban extraction pray at the altar of neoconservative ideology. This, even as they have recreated the clientelist politics of their homelands within the city council.
Drug trafficking, money laundering, as well as state- and nonstate-sponsored regime-change operations across the hemisphere form part of the city's past and present mythology. Influencers like Alexander Otaola grandstand in the form of three-hour, Castro-esque rants on YouTube, offering any and all justification for toppling regimes from Havana to Tehran.
Unsurprisingly, Trump's initial pragmatism on Venezuela didn't play well in Miami.
Early on, there was some hope that the White House would forgo the first term's amateur coup attempts and moralistic posturing against Maduro. Among his first acts in 2025, President Trump dispatched special envoy Richard "Ric" Grenell to broker an America First understanding with the Caracas regime.
Under the deal, Chevron could continue to export Venezuelan crude Stateside through the renewal of a Biden-era oil license. In exchange, Caracas agreed to accept deportation flights of its citizens — a vital priority given the subsequent suspension of Temporary Protected Status for some 350,000 Venezuelans in the US homeland. The administration thus made good on two campaign pledges: boosting fossil fuels and deporting illegal migrants.
Sadly, this understanding underwent a series of erratic twists in the ensuing months, a turn of events caused mostly by Miami's community of Right-wing Latin-American exiles.
Fly to Miami from the American heartland, and you'll find what can appear like a Right-wing foreign country, where Spanish prevails over English; and where denizens of Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, and, especially, Cuban extraction pray at the altar of neoconservative ideology. This, even as they have recreated the clientelist politics of their homelands within the city council.
Drug trafficking, money laundering, as well as state- and nonstate-sponsored regime-change operations across the hemisphere form part of the city's past and present mythology. Influencers like Alexander Otaola grandstand in the form of three-hour, Castro-esque rants on YouTube, offering any and all justification for toppling regimes from Havana to Tehran.
Unsurprisingly, Trump's initial pragmatism on Venezuela didn't play well in Miami.
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