Hey, John Lee.

Hi, Tyler. How are you?

I'm good. Thanks so much for being here.

Real pleasure.

So just to start out, you know, you've reported on conflict zones, revolutionary movements,

strong men extensively on Latin America, and a lot on U.S. intervention

across the globe. And so when you look at U.S. policy toward Venezuela today, specifically what

we've been seeing with the Trump administration referring to vessels as narco-terrorist targets

and striking small boats, is this best described as a drug war, a political pressure campaign, or is it just like a

return to old school gunboat diplomacy?

Like what is actually like the operating logic in the White House right now in your

view?

I would choose the latter. Performative gunboat diplomacy. You know, if you take together the sort

of rhetorical vilification campaign by Trump and his coterie towards Venezuelans, first as, you know,

criminal migrants beginning in his campaign this time round, to assigning

roles to Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, as a cartel chief, putting a,

putting a narco-terrorist label on him and giving him a, you know, $50 million bounty. It's rhetorical. It's

performative. This is black ops at its most baroque. You know, you have a president who tweets

constantly. You have a defense secretary who calls himself the secretary of war. And you see back and

forth statements by Trump about what he might or might not do to the Venezuelans.

So it's all about creating a drama, creating suspense. In that sense, it's great theater.

Here we are all watching and waiting. And the entire world is asking, what's going to happen?

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