MOSCOW, January 5. /TASS/. Following the attack on Venezuela, US President Donald Trump may divert his focus away from Ukraine amid a US reorientation toward Latin America, Jozef Schutzman, an American blogger and IT specialist, told TASS in an interview.
The White House "now treats control over the Western Hemisphere as a core strategic priority - not merely as foreign policy, but as regime preservation. It exposes the scale of ambition behind the move: this is not about Venezuela alone, but about reasserting uncontested American dominance in its near abroad," argued Schutzman who also co-hosts the Russia Up Close talk show on YouTube.
According to him, while domestic support for the US military action against Venezuela is weak, as many as 70% of Americans, both conservatives and liberals, oppose the intervention. "That <…> presents a structural risk for the administration. While President Trump's second term has shown less sensitivity to public opinion than his first, sustained disapproval still erodes political capital, especially when layered on top of existing institutional and social fractures," the expert said.
Schutzman surmised that "the most consequential effects of this shift may not even be in Latin America, but in Eastern Europe." "A US reorientation toward the Western Hemisphere necessarily diverts attention, resources, and political focus away from Ukraine. If Washington becomes absorbed in consolidating a new hemispheric security posture, Kiev risks becoming strategically expendable," he continued.
Schutzman described the anxiety in the Ukrainian leadership as understandable, since "Trump has publicly referred to Zelensky as a dictator on multiple occasions." "And in geopolitics, precedent matters. If regime pressure is now openly being applied in Venezuela, it creates a psychological and strategic template that others - including Zelensky - cannot ignore. In this sense, Caracas is not just a target; it is a signal. And the signal is that Washington is reasserting its willingness to decide which governments are legitimate - and which are disposable," the American blogger concluded.
Venezuela’s top diplomat Yvan Gil Pinto said on January 3 that the United States had attacked civilian and military facilities in Caracas. He condemned Washington’s actions as a military aggression. Venezuela declared a state of emergency. Trump later confirmed the attack on Venezuela. According to the US leader, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were captured and taken out of the country.
Maduro pleaded not guilty a New York court hearing on Monday. The judge set the next hearing in the Maduro case on March 17.