IGP, CGEP, and ILAS hosted a Rapid Response webinar to examine the future of Venezuela, Latin America, and energy markets following the recent military operation to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

"We're going to have to see in the coming weeks and months and years whether there is, in fact, a stable transition to a democratically elected government," IGP Faculty Advisory Board member Jason Bordoff told NPR. 

IGP Affiliated Faculty member Robert Y. Shapiro told Newsweek: "The low popularity rating, especially falling off among Republicans, is of concern—more so for the Republican Party as the midterm elections approach."

"Born in Caracas, I am a U.S. federal judge," writes IGP Carnegie Distinguished Fellow Roy Altman. "Millions of exiles around the world hope this is the end of a decades long nightmare."

"For the good of the country, Mr. Trump should rediscover his instinct for military restraint," writes Jon Finer, former IGP Carnegie Distinguished Fellow and CGEP Distinguished Visiting Fellow

Washington’s long-term interests require a smooth political transition in Caracas, not short-sighted mercantilism, writes Jason Bordoff, IGP Affiliated Faculty member and founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

According to IGP Affiliated Faculty member Robert Y. Shapiro, the U.S. action in Venezuela “further tarnishes Trump’s image as a peacemaker and Nobel Prize candidate,” although he noted that “the operation was a military success and further established the military and operational capabilities of the United States.”

“If we really go in and do some things that are kind of extraordinary: seizures, nationalisations, letting US companies go in and use it as a coercive tool to extract massive rents from the new government — that . . . really would be a game-changer for how the rest of the world views the United States — and US oil companies,” said Jason Bordoff, IGP Faculty Advisory Board member and founding director of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

"If he wants to provide free bus service and free child care, these kinds of things cost money," said Robert Shapiro, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University

IGP Affiliated Faculty member Robert Y. Shapiro told Newsweek that “getting as far as he has with the settlement in GAZA and the release of the hostages, which looked very good for a time and could now take another bad turn” was a win for Trump’s administration.