"It’s not every day that a purportedly friendly foreign nation tries to intimidate the United States by dispatching a fleet of military vehicles to the U.S. Embassy. It is rarer still for the vehicles in question to have been donated by the United States itself and diverted from their intended mission of combatting crime and narcotics trafficking. And it is perhaps unprecedented that such a turn of events would elicit only a tepid response from the U.S. government, followed a short [...]

"President Trump has said “all options are on the table” as he looks at ways to divert Venezuela’s revenue from the Maduro regime and offer direct aid to Juan Guaidó’s newly established interim government, which the United States formally recognized on Jan. 23. "Having put sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, the administration should go one step further. One option the Trump administration should consider is to seize the assets of Maduro henchmen that are lying fallow in U.S. bank accounts [...]

"For the famously fractious Venezuelan political opposition, these have been weeks marked by uncharacteristic unity and strategic thinking. While achieving their ultimate goal—the ouster of Nicolás Maduro and restoration of democracy—remains uncertain, the opposition has strengthened to a point where transition seems possible, if by no means certain. "For the past several months, Venezuelan opposition figures have focused anyone who would listen on the date of January 10, 2019. That day, they argued, would mark the start of a new presidential [...]