President Donald Trump‘s January opening gambit with respect to Venezuela has been brilliant. He distracted the world with grand Kabuki theater — assembling a U.S. naval armada and posse of 15,000 soldiers in the Caribbean together with diversionary attacks on alleged drug traffickers in the high seas — while orchestrating a virtually bloodless palace coup managed by regime insiders (led by Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez), which culminated in the abduction and rendition of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro by U.S. special forces, who is now incarcerated in the United States awaiting trial.

Although the opportunity has been created, the desired end state for Venezuela has yet to be articulated.