In reality, three quarters of the international community is behind Maduro, and the country is operating more or less as normally as it was before Juan Guaido, the speaker of the country's National Assembly, declared himself to be interim president on January 23.
Moreover, Maduro's caution and skepticism of the Trojan horse of international humanitarian aid is completely justified, given the figures in Washington who are overseeing it, two journalists in Venezuela told Sputnik Monday.
Guaido, along with his international backers in Washington and abroad, has made increasingly dire predictions about the impending humanitarian catastrophe in Venezuela if Maduro's government is not overthrown quickly. Guaido told AFP on Saturday that 300,000 Venezuelans could die without food and medical aid, and the pro-coup narrative, as articulated by the mainstream media and Western politicians, is that Maduro is blocking that aid from entering the country.
An image of the Tienditas Bridge, which spans the Tachira River between Tachira state in Venezuela and Norte de Santander in Colombia, barricaded with shipping containers has become the damning evidence of Maduro's supposed tyranny.
Radio Sputnik's Loud and Clear spoke with two reporters in Venezuela from Venezuelanalysis.com Monday: Paul Dobson, who reported from Merida; and Lucas Koerner, who spoke to Sputnik from the capital of Caracas.
The Cart Before the Horse
"Washington has really put the cart before the horse and went ahead with recognizing a government that is nowhere closer — I mean we're how many weeks, we're over two weeks into this, and they're nowhere closer to actually installing this government as a power," Koerner said.
"There's really a danger here, because Washington has — the Trump administration has banked a lot of political capital on this. And moreover, when we look economically at these sanctions, the new oil embargo that has been imposed has basically [suspended] the secondary market for bonds for Venezuela's state and oil company bonds. This means that if the government is not toppled soon that these bondholders stand to lose a lot from their non-payment. So, this really leaves us with a closing window for Washington to achieve regime change."
"There definitely is contingency plans for the event of the US invasion, and obviously the Venezuelan people will attempt to defend themselves under any circumstances," Koerner said. "They are not going to tolerate a US intervention. But of course, fighting the wealthiest country in the world with the most advanced weaponry will, as Panama experienced in 1989, will have catastrophic consequences for the Venezuelan people."