‘A great benefit to us!’ Ex-Trump official reveals real reason behind Venezuela attack

A former senior White House official took to Fox News Saturday to celebrate the Trump administration’s attack on Venezuela and subsequent capture of its president, and in doing so, made several startling admissions as to could very well be the administration’s true motive behind the attack.

“This is broader than Venezuela – Cuba may now collapse,” said Victoria Coates, vice president of the Heritage Foundation and former deputy national security advisor under President Donald Trump during his first administration, speaking on Fox News.

“That's 90 miles off of the shores of Florida, that is a direct threat to the United States, we could get rid of that hostile communist regime at long last 60 short years later! So I think this is a huge day for the United States, it is just a new dawn for the Western Hemisphere!”

The United States government has long sought to topple Cuba’s government since the overthrowing of U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, who turned Cuba into what experts have described as a “virtual slave state,” allowing its resources and labor to be largely “owned by American companies.” The CIA launched multiple failed attempts to assassinate Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro over several decades.

Venezuela has been a lifeline to Cuba given the decades-long United States embargo against the Caribbean nation, providing it with cheap oil. With the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Coates is now hopeful for the economic collapse of Cuba, a goal Secretary of State Marco Rubio has pursued for years.

Furthermore, Coates made the startling suggestion that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum might also be captured by the American military.

“I think Claudia Sheinbaum is probably legitimately concerned given her ties to the drug cartels in Mexico, that she could be indicted and she could be subject to this kind of thing,” Coates said.

Coates also said she was hopeful that Venezuelan politician Maria Corina Machado would seize control of Venezuela’s government in Maduro’s absence.

Machado has championed the Trump administration’s deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean, as well as its military hostilities toward her own nation. She’s also claimed, without evidence, that Hamas and Hezbollah operate in Venezuela, and has repeatedly urged foreign governments to assist in pursuing regime change.

“So if that is cut off by the new interim government – which I hope is being run by Maria Corina Machado – that then could be the end for the communist regime in Cuba,” Coates said. “So strategically, this is a great benefit to us!”