Michael Palin

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Venezuela. Chasing the Story

I’ve completed most of the dates on my Venezuela book tour which took me from Tynemouth in Northumberland to Yeovil in Somerset. That’s the dual satisfaction of these series – by going abroad I get to see more of my own country. Thank you to all those who turned out to see the show and join me in my ramblings.

What added a touch of excitement and immediacy to this particular tour was that Venezuela, which we chose to go to because so little was known about it, is suddenly back in the headlines. As ever, Donald Trump and his administration are at the centre of it.

Venezuela. Chasing the Story

American airborne rockets have sunk a number of boats off the coast of Venezuela, claiming nearly fifty lives without providing any clear evidence for what these boats were carrying and where they were going to.

We just have to assume what we are told. That these were bad people attempting to destroy America with drugs, who deserved not just to be disabled, or even arrested and put on trial, but blown apart and sent to the bottom of the sea.

Things are moving fast. Trump has authorised a covert CIA operation in Venezuela. The US navy has moved its biggest aircraft carrier into the region. A force of 10,000 has been assembled.

President Maduro, with the Americans in his gunsights, is ramping up his own defences, tightening his grip on the country.

The Venezuelan people are stuck in the middle of this stand-off, threatened from the inside and the outside. The people of this stunningly beautiful country have put up with a lot over these last years. They deserve a break, not a war.