Historian Alan McPherson tells Marc Lamont Hill how the United States is running a regime change campaign in Venezuela.
Is the United States plotting regime change in Venezuela? Could this lead to an all-out war?
This week on UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill speaks with Alan McPherson, a Temple University history professor and author who specializes in U.S.-Latin American relations.
The United States continues its largest military buildup in Latin America in decades, seizing an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. US President Donald Trump has also threatened to attack Venezuela by land “soon”, while the Pentagon continues to attack suspected drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean. At least 87 people were killed in what human rights groups called extrajudicial killings and killings.
The Trump administration has made it clear that it wants Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to be ousted and supports opposition figure and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Colina Machado. She supports foreign intervention and wants to privatize Venezuela’s oil, leading many to question the extent to which U.S. politicians’ ideology and oil company interests are driving regime change in Venezuela.
Published December 14, 2025
