As Secretary Hegeseth has announced Operation Southern Spear, I can tell you, Latin America is totally up for grabs.

You have the left-wing alliance of Cuba, Venezuela, increasingly Colombia, and Honduras.

And then you have the populist nationalist division for Latin America, led by the president of El Salvador, Naibu Kelle.

Mele is in that light, Marino in Panama, in that light also the President of Paraguay.

And there is a great battle of ideas going on here.

Now, my sources tell me that the battle over Venezuela may not even have to go kinetic

if the United States is able to force Maduro into a number of decisions.

And those decisions could divide his coalition, weaken the extent to which military generals are reliant on him.

And here's what's interesting. I'm watching it down here now, Steve.

The Honduran election at the end of this month could very well be a test case for

whether or not the military in Venezuela turns against the people because we expect a lot of

Venezuela's tactics to be used by the political left in Honduras where we think the populace

would prefer a center-right government but there's a left-wing government in power now.

Usually when a regime is under siege like Maduro is, they try to bring their military in closer.

They try to centralize whatever control they have over a capital or a jurisdiction.

But here we've seen Maduro take a very different tactical stance.

He's actually moved the military out into the country, hoping that if there were strikes on Caracas,

he could create chaos and violence in the outer areas of Venezuela, and that that would give them some place in the hinterlands

to control and occupy. So as he makes that decision, there are going to be a number of these

key military leaders and generals who question it, who maybe leave Maduro's side,

and he could be very vulnerable in Caracas, not to direct kinetic U.S. military

intervention, but to simply the people there realizing that his days may be numbered.

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