Hello and welcome to the GZero World Podcast.

This is where you can find extended versions of my conversations on public television.

I'm Ian Bremmer, and today I'm asking a surreal question.

Is the United States really about to invade Venezuela?

It increasingly looks that way.

U.S. Venezuelan antipathy dates back decades, but as intensified as Hugo Chavez's successor,

Nicholas Maduro,

has decimated Venezuela's economy

and solidified his own dictatorship.

And now the Trump administration has ratcheted up the stakes

from diplomatic condemnation to military escalation.

And suffice to say, President Trump has sent mixed signals about his intentions.

He's deployed America's most advanced U.S. aircraft carrier to the region,

and he's reportedly receiving near daily briefings with military options,

ranging from strikes on government facilities to special operations rates.

He has said that Venezuelan President Maduro's days are numbered,

but also that Maduro, quote, wants to talk.

He may end up doing nothing at all.

Maduro, for his part, has called for peace,

going so far as to butcher the lines of a famous John Lennon's song, Acapella.

Alfred Nazare, how was the song of John Lennon?

D'em imagining of people.

...