On Friday, March 22, 2019, Joseph Humire, Executive Director of the DC based think-tank, the Center for a Secure Free Society, spoke on the Venezuelan conflict. He focused on the Middle Eastern roots of the crisis and its current geopolitical complexity, including the involvement of Cuba, members of the Bolivarian Alliance, certain extra-regional actors such as Iran, China and Russia, and various transnational networks. The regime in Venezuela is sustained through the multi-dimensional, multi-faceted, sophisticated matrix of foreign and domestic actors whose personal, familial, organizational and commercial relationships involve a range of licit and illicit activities that are also at the service of the Venezuelan regime. Mr. Humire, a former Marine and Iraq war veteran, delivered this tour de force after years of painstaking research that has encompassed many trips to the region and the collection of firsthand information from those with an intimate knowledge of South America and Venezuela. His recommendation: the United States should develop good intelligence on the Venezuelan problem as a first step. While not favoring direct military intervention he believes that a range of non-kinetic tools, enabled by accurate intelligence, could undermine the capacity of the Maduro regime and its supporters to make trouble in the region while continuing in power.
