How is intervention in Venezula in U.S. national interest?

Re “U.S. to ‘run’ Venezuela” (Jan. 3): The president is playing the old game of “shore up bad poll numbers.” Using U.S. military muscle to squash an itty-bitty country is tried and true.

So what’s the point of invading Venezuela? The answer is there is no point. That country created its own economic mess and it would not be cost-effective for the U.S. to refurbish it. Even those in MAGA are not pleased. Citing the Monroe Doctrine is silly.

Was it oil? The quality of the crude and the bad state of infrastructure there do not warrant an intervention. The U.S. is not in need of oil.

U.S. relations with Latin America have been on the far back burner for decades. Maybe this is about the angst Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds against Cuba.

Was it drug interdiction? That was just a pretext.

— John H. Borja, Chula Vista

Donald Trump captured Nicolás Maduro supposedly to halt the drug trade from Venezuela. If he was so interested in halting the drug trade, why did he pardon the ex-Honduran president who was convicted of dealing over 500 tons of cocaine and sentenced to 75 years in prison?

It is control of Venezuela’s oil he wants. He is not talking about elections, which will have to be monitored by a disinterested party. The candidate supported by the Nobel Peace Prize winner from Venezuela won the last election but was prevented from taking office by Maduro.

As bad as Maduro was, this will turn into a huge mess. The already-suffering Venezuelan people will suffer even more and we will be stuck in a quagmire of our own making.

— Joan Suffredini, Oceanside