Monday’s written note by John Bolton reading “5,000 troops to Colombia” is very much on the table, according to the Trump Administration. Officials are quick to insist that all options are on the table, and that must be too.



Pentagon officials refused to rule out this major deployment to South America. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan saying that he hadn’t specifically discussed the idea with John Bolton. Bolton says he wouldn’t rule out such a move.



Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) speculated that Bolton was “sending a message” to Venezuela with the note. The message apparently was intended to be above and beyond the repeated US threats of military action already.



The one nation that’s apparently completely out of the loop on this is Colombia, as their foreign minister says he has no idea what the note “5,000 troops to Colombia” could mean, while saying Colombia would continue to support the demands for new elections in Venezuela, which is what the US is demanding.





Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz