Florida Conservative

Even if Washington (or Miami media) prefers a face, the governing reality right now is contested because Delcy Rodríguez has been seated domestically by regime-held institutions, and there are reports of crackdown behavior (e.g., detentions of journalists). Reuters +2 The Guardian +2

What this administration is doing is internally consistent with how it thinks about power, legitimacy, and time—and it is not a continuation of the Bush-Obama era nation-building model that the media keeps dragging out of storage every time the United States acts abroad.

When they run dark and refuse to stop, they effectively become combatants. Under those conditions, the line between “law enforcement” and “armed conflict” disappears.

“Maduro NO es el presidente de Venezuela y su régimen NO es el gobierno legítimo”, publicó Rubio en X (antes Twitter) el 27 de julio. “Maduro es el jefe del Cartel de los Soles, una organización narco-terrorista que ha tomado posesión de un país. Y está acusado de introducir drogas en Estados Unidos.”