2026-01-09
27 分钟This is In Conversation from Apple News.
I'm Shamita Basu.
Today, how to make sense of the U.S.'s operation in Venezuela.
It's been just about a week since the world learned of the U.S.
special operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores.
It came after months of mounting U.S.
military pressure on the country.
Trump has said that the U.S.
will run Venezuela for as long as necessary,
years even, though what exactly that means remains unclear.
Any kinds of moves like the ones the administration has made in recent days.
have just immense consequences that can ricochet in countless directions.
That's New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer.
Just the degree of uncertainty and confusion at a time when the actual human and political consequences are as grave
as they are,
I think has made the situation absolutely astonishing to try to follow.
Jonathan has been reporting on immigration and foreign policy for years, and the way he sees it,
Venezuela sits at the nexus of so many interconnected Trump administration priorities,
from stemming migration, to addressing drug trafficking, to amassing natural resources.
I sat down with Jonathan to ask him to untangle the reasons why he says Venezuela has long been an obvious target for Trump and for the people in his orbit.