US military attack on Venezuela mulled by top Trump advisors and Latin American officials at private DC meeting
Away
from the public eye, the Center for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) think tank hosted a top-level, off-the-record meeting
to explore US military options against Venezuela.
by
Max Blumenthal
Part
2
- ‘We Talked About Military Options in Venezuela’
The
CSIS meeting on “Assessing the Use of Military Force in Venezuela”
suggests that the Trump administration is exploring military options
more seriously than before, possibly out of frustration with the fact
that every other weapon in its arsenal has failed to bring down
Maduro.
On
April 10, I obtained a check-in list containing the names of those
invited to the meeting. It was apparently incorrectly dated as April
20, but had taken place earlier that day, at 3 PM.
I
confirmed that the meeting had taken place with Sarah Baumunk, a
research associate at CSIS’s Americas Program who was listed as a
participant.
“We
talked about military… uh… military options in Venezuela. That
was earlier this week though,”
Baumunk told me, when The
Grayzone
asked her about the meeting that was wrongly listed for April 20.
When
The
Grayzone
asked if the event took place on April 10, Baumunk appeared to grow
nervous. “I’m
sorry, why are you asking these questions? Can I help you?”
she replied.
After
I asked again about the meeting, Baumunk cut off the conversation.
“I’m
sorry I don’t feel comfortable answering these questions,”
she stated before hanging up.
The
Grayzone
received additional confirmation of the meeting from Santiago
Herdoiza, a research associate at Hills & Company, who was also
listed as an attendee. “I’m
sorry, that was a closed meeting. Good evening,”
Herdoiza commented when asked for details on the event.
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