Bolton says Trump ‘very serious’ about ‘all options’ as Venezuela dismantles ‘terrorist cell’

“President Trump himself has been clear on this point on any number of occasions when he says all options are on the table. I think people need to understand and believe that; he’s very serious about it,” Bolton told Breitbart.

While refusing to explicitly confirm or deny whether the US is willing to arm the opposition or is mulling an all-out invasion of the country, Bolton did stress that the US has “no higher duty internationally” than to protect up to 50,000 Americans living in Venezuela from “violence and intimidation.”

A similar concern for some 800 American students at the US-run St. George's University School of Medicine in Grenada was used as an excuse to invade that island nation in 1983 to oust the country’s leftist government. The tiny tropical paradise is located just 160 kilometers (99 miles) north of Venezuela.

Once again referencing the notorious Monroe Doctrine, Bolton essentially admitted the US plans to impose its hegemony over Venezuela, and to prevent Russia and China from even trying to help Caracas overcome its economic crisis – which the socialist government maintains was caused by US sanctions and the Washington-led global effort to isolate the country financially and politically.

Our goal is to make sure these foreign influences are not controlling Venezuela and adversely affecting the United States and our interests in our own hemisphere,” he said. “So we’re talking here about wresting control away from a socialist autocracy and keeping the Monroe Doctrine alive in the Western Hemisphere to have powers outside the hemisphere not dictating what goes on here.”

Maduro made another “big mistake” when he arrested Roberto Marrero, the aide of self-proclaimed ‘interim’ president Guaido, Bolton stated earlier on Thursday, threatening that the move “will not go unanswered.”

Venezuelan security forces said they caught Marrero red-handed and accused him of being “directly responsible for the organization of criminal groups” and of plotting to carry out terrorist attacks against the public and senior government officials.