>>/25570/
> Everyone in Venezuela is extremely incompetent?
Cowardice and miscalculation are common in history.
> a foreign power steps in and make some order
Russia has already stepped in to preserve the status quo. America could try an intervention, and it'd actually be a lot easier than Iraq.
Venezuela has a functioning oppositionist Presidency, Supreme Court and Parliament backed by legal arguments justifying their legitimacy. It's a full paralell state that simply needs to be given power, like governments in exile at the last World War. In Iraq America had to rebuild all institutions from scratch.
Chavismo's popular support is microscopic. There would be no insurgency to repress, just a short conventional battle at the end of which Americans would be greeted as liberators. And unlike Iraq, there are no lingering ethnoreligious resentments that'd explode into sectarian violence in a power vacuum.
Venezuela is right within America's traditional sphere of influence and is logistically easy to access.
The disadvantages are more on America's side than Venezuela's, as the financial burden of conducting regime change and then rebuilding the country would be heavy. But all things considered it'd proceed a lot smoother than Middle Eastern operations.
>>/25586/
They've always had extensive civilian and military deployments all across the world. They've even put troops in Africa in the past. Aside from direct deployments, they also coordinate leftist activity across South America. Pink Tide parties share resources (e.g. Caracas metro and the Mariel port in Cuba were built with Brazilian money), support each other and look towards Cuba for a higher voice. They're like different mushrooms of the same fungus.