Rubio’s fantasy and the risk of forever war in Venezuela

‘In my opinion, the three regimes that exist in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba are enemies of humanity,’ said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this year.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is a second-generation Cuban-American whose parents immigrated several years before Fidel Castro’s Communist regime took power. That history has shaped his politics, writes Gwynne Dyer.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

December 18, 2025

LONDON, U.K.—United States President Donald Trump has ordered “a total and complete” blockade of all “sanctioned” oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuelan ports, which is technically an act of war. How seriously should we take this?

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