Is US planning Venezuela military intervention?

A Moscow security official says he believes the United States is planning a military intervention in Venezuela. The claim comes after US reporters accused the Venezuelan government of holding them against their will.
A Russian security official said on Tuesday he believed Washington was planning to intervene militarily in Venezuela.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, said Moscow had agreed to a US proposal to hold talks in Venezuela — a Russian ally — but that the US had postponed them on "false pretenses."

"The United States is preparing a military invasion of an independent state," Patrushev said in an interview with Russian weekly newspaper Argumenty i Fakty.

"The transfer of American special operations forces to Puerto Rico, the landing of US forces in Colombia and other facts indicate the Pentagon is reinforcing its troops in the region in order to use them in an operation to remove ... Maduro from power." 

But a US Special Representative Elliott Abrams said during a press briefing on Friday that the United States is not planning a military intervention in Venezuela, but all options remain on the table .

"We are not attempting to do that, the United States is pursuing a policy of economic, financial, political, diplomatic pressure on the de facto regime in Venezuela in support of Juan Guaido… we continue to say, and we always will, that all options are on the table," Abrams said.

Abrams added that the United States is in conversations with international partners about how to put more pressure on the Maduro government.

Maduro

US journalists briefly detained in Venezuela

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Patrushev's comments come on the heels of accusations that the Venezuelan government held a reporting team from a Spanish-language US television network against their will for more than two hours.

Univision anchor Jorge Ramos was interviewing President Nicolas Maduro when an altercation took place that he says led to their brief detention.

Ramos claims that he and his team were locked up in a security room where the lights were turned off and that their cellphones were confiscated.

"He did not like the things we were asking him, about the lack of democracy in Venezuela, about torture, political prisoners, about the humanitarian crisis that is going on," Ramos recounted, saying that he showed Maduro a photo of young men eating out of the garbage.

According to Ramos, the photo prompted Venezuela's acting president to abruptly leave the interview and shortly after, the team was stripped of their equipment and personal items.

The anchor spoke by phone with Univision news and the network aired the footage that allegedly drew Maduro's ire.

Journalists set to be deported

US State Department official Kimberly Breier announced the team's detention on Twitter. "The State Department has received word the journalist Jorge Ramos and his team are being held against their will at Miraflores Palace by Nicolas Maduro. We insist on their immediate release; the world is watching," Breier said.

Venezuela's Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez denounced Univision on Twitter, arguing that the government has welcomed hundreds of journalists at the Miraflores presidential palace. But Rodriguez said Caracas did not support "cheap shows," orchestrated with the help of the US Department of State

Venezuela's Press Workers Union said on Twitter that members of Venezuela's security services had surrounded the hotel where the journalists were staying and had notified the team that they would be taken to the airport in the morning, as part of deportation procedures.

Univision is one of the largest Spanish-language broadcasters in the US. Ramos, of Mexican origin, is one of the network's most prominent anchors and is known for his tough and confrontational style during his interviews.

In 2015, he was ejected from a press conference of then-candidate Donald Trump, after he refused to sit down and continued to press Trump over his pledge to deport undocumented immigrants from the US.

According to the senior official, the US will continue taking "appropriate actions" against Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and will impose new visa restrictions for dozens of Venezuelan officials.

"The United States has imposed new visa restrictions on individuals responsible for undermining Venezuela's democracy," Abrams said. "We are applying this policy to numerous Maduro-aligned officials and their families."

Earlier, the US Treasury Department issued new Venezuela-related sanctions against six individuals. After imposing a new round of sanctions, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the US would continue to target the supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with sanctions.

Tensions have been escalating in Venezuela since 23 January, when opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president. Maduro qualified Guaido's move as an attempt to stage a coup orchestrated by Washington.

The return of the U.S. back Juan Guaido to Venezuela today and the reaction of the Maduro's government to Guaido's self proclamations as the interim president of the country will exposed the US and other  allied countries of their military option.

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