Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is well-known for his saber-rattling, much of which is designed to distract Venezuelans from the severe economic crisis sweeping the country and the brutality of his autocratic regime. In recent weeks Venezuelan military and police have been conducting offensive operations in the southwestern state of Apure near the Colombian border. Aside from the humanitarian toll they are taking on the local civilian populace, they have sparked fears that Caracas is once again ramping up pressure on its perceived mortal enemy Colombia. Staunch regional U.S. ally Colombia, which sits at the entrance to South America from Central America, is pivotal to addressing the more than decade-long humanitarian and economic crisis which has engulfed neighboring Venezuela. Maduro and his predecessor Chavez, who on assuming the presidency in 1999 launched his socialist Bolivarian revolution, have regularly stoked fears that Colombia supported by the U.S. is intent on destabilizing […]