By Tom Clifford
Amid an intense regional military build-up by the United States, which many believe could see an attack on Venezuela, the Dutch Prime minister urged calm.
Dick Schoof was speaking in Curaçao amid growing tension between the US and Venezuela. Addressing a media conference, he stressed that the Kingdom is “not involved in US military operations” and that all parties must avoid, what he called, “doom scenarios.”
The situation, Schoof stressed, was being monitored by the Defence and Foreign Affairs departments and intelligence concerning developments is being shared with Curaçao, Aruba, Sint Maarten, and Bonaire to ensure coordinated responses.
The premier acknowledged local concern over US bomber flights near the Venezuelan border but reassured residents that the islands remain safe.
The US has deployed a seventh of its naval assets – including the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford – to the region since August. B-52 bombers and special forces have been spotted off Venezuela’s northern coast. Airstrikes on what the US describes as drug boats in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea have killed more than 70 people. No evidence has been offered by the US to substantiate these drug claims.
Washington insists that the deployment of warships, Reaper drones and about 10,000 service personnel is part of a crackdown on Latin American narco-traffickers.
US President Donald Trump accuses these traffickers of flooding the US with drugs. But many believe that this is a cover for the goal of toppling Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan president, who has been accused of rigging the presidential election that saw him ’re-elected’ in 2024.
The present situation is being compared to George H.W. Bush toppling Panama leader Manuel Noriega in 1989 before he was tried and jailed in the US.
But Venezuela is a country that is 12 times larger than Panama, and more politically and geographically complex.
The Battle of Rio Hato Airfield in December 1989 saw stealth bomber blitzkrieg and subsequent army ranger assault marking the start Operation Just Cause – the operation to oust Noriega.
Trump confirmed last month that he had authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela.
The US has spent years trying to undermine and overthrow Maduro’s regime. In Trump’s first term he recognized the opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful president.
But Panama may not be the best example of the playbook Washington might follow. The US brought down the in Guatemala democratically elected president, Jacobo Árbenz, in 1954. Operation PBSuccess was built almost entirely on psychological operations, known as psyops.
The then President Dwight Eisenhower used a spurious communist threat – involving a CIA-funded disinformation and sabotage campaign to convince Guatemalan military officials they were on the brink of being attacked by “a powerful liberation army”.
Their only hope of survival was to abandon Árbenz to avoid “devastating US retribution”.
When it comes to intervention in Latin America, the US has a long history of operations to draw on.
Photo caption: Premier Dick Schoof during press conference in Curacao on Saturday, November 8, 2025. Photo by Tim van Dijk/TMedia.
###
Related links:
Venezuela-crisis: Schoof roept op tot rust en geen doemscenario’s
Premier Dick Schoof in Aruba
Follow the debate online above bully tactics USA against Venezuela>>>
###
ADVERTISEMENT
