As reported by Jonathan Swan in Axios, when asked by president Trump two weeks ago what did he think about using military force to depose the president of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro, Graham responded: “Well, you need to go slow on that, that could be problematic.”

“Problematic.” Not criminal, not murderous, not illegal, not evil, not stupid: “Problematic.”

That is, if thousands of people –both Venezuelans and Americans --are killed in a criminal attempt to take over the South American nation’s oil reserve, the largest in the world, that’s not a concern. The concern for the U.S. power elite is that invading a sovereign country, spilling the blood of its people and of U.S. soldiers, laughing at the principle of non-intervention and imposing by force a puppet president appointed by Washington “could be problematic.’”

“Trump’s really hawkish’ on Venezuela,” Graham added matter-of-factly.

Well, no, it is not as simple as having arrogant old men with a “masters-of-the universe” superiority complex, and a shameful trajectory of breaking the laws and supporting dictators deciding to provoke a blood bath with a hypocritical invasion in the name of democracy. The consequences of such action are sure to be dire and unpredictable for Venezuela and for Latin America as a whole.

“We’re dealing with a very serious matter, with very serious people, with very serious consequences, and we need to, regardless of what we think of [President Nicolás Maduro’s] government, we need to stop U.S. intervention in the matters of a sovereign nation under international law”, Roberto Alvarenga Lovato, a Salvadoran-American journalist and educator told the web site Shadow Proof. “There’s no international statute that says you can simply tweet a guy like Juan Guaidó into power and then get some of your international buddies to say, oh, yes, he’s not elected but he’s the president. That’s an extremely dangerous precedent not just for Venezuela but [for] the world.”

Yet, just by taking a look at Elliott Abrams, the person Trump has chosen to “restore Venezuela’s democracy,” it is clear that foreign military boots could soon step on the soil of the South American nation.

Lovato knows what he is talking about when he calls Abrams “one of the singularly most sinister people in modern U.S. diplomatic history.” Inevitably his appointment raises a question: Can democracy be “restored” from the barrel of a murderer’s gun? Because as much as anyone, Abrams has the reputation of having been responsible for the mass murder of 250,000 people in Guatemala, thousands more in Nicaragua and 80,000 in El Salvador while he served in various State Department roles during the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations. He is also well-known for having been convicted of lying to Congress about the infamous Iran-Contra affair. He was later pardoned by president George H.W. Bush.

Yes, imperialism is back in full force shamefully aided and abetted by seemingly self-hating Latin American presidents, friendly with the Trump administration but brutal enemies of their own people, such as Colombia’s Iván Duque, Argentina’s Mauricio Macri and Brazil’s fascist Jair Bolsonaro.

Trump’s and his cohorts’ plan to invade Venezuela must be stopped. No matter what you think about Maduro the U.S. has no right to decide who governs Venezuela. And Trump has no right to tweet Juan Guaidó – or anybody else-- into power.