U.S. Remote Control by Kidnap in Venezuela

Things are happening and changing at a rapid pace but right at the moment we seem to be heading toward a redux of the 1901 Platt Amendment, buy which the U.S. controlled Cuba and gave itself the right to intervene if it didn't like what Cuban presidents were doing. As with Cuba, control over natural resources was a big part of it (sugar versus oil).

A huge difference is that Trump does not want to occupy the country so it will be remote control, with the idea that if the Venezuelan president (currently Delcy Rodriguez) does not follow orders, then she will be kidnapped. And Marco Rubio has said the same might apply in the future to Cuba. The notion of controlling via kidnap is a new low, I'd say, in a policy of lows. Rubio has noted some of the U.S. demands--kick out the ELN, Hezbollah, Iran, Cuba, don't traffic in drugs--though they're not exactly easy to measure when no U.S. troops are even on the ground. What "compliance" means is either secret or the administration hasn't bothered to specify.

What happens now? I won't even both trying to guess. The Maduro regime has been all about self-preservation rather than chavismo for quite some time but will they bend the knee to the U.S., which was Hugo Chavez's original enemy?