{"id":501835,"date":"2026-01-08T17:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T17:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/501835\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T17:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T17:43:11","slug":"maduro-venezuela-documentary-men-of-war-predicts-current-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/501835\/","title":{"rendered":"Maduro, Venezuela Documentary Men of War Predicts Current Events"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWatching the dramatic events in Venezuela<\/a> over the past week, with its U.S. invasion to carry off a leader<\/a>, a powerful reaction abides: \u201cThis feels like kind of an insane movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt turns out to be more than a feeling. The events were\u00a0the stuff of an insane movie. And that movie was a documentary. Completed and screened in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMen of War, from the veteran doc filmmakers Jen Gatien (Limelight) and Billy Corben (Cocaine Cowboys), traces a 2020 attempt by a former Army Green Beret named Jordan Goudreau<\/a> to launch an ill-fated coup against the government of Nicolas Maduro<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWith just 60 poorly trained men, Goudreau\u2019s effort was quickly and brutally quashed, with eight of his people killed and dozens of others taken into custody. But the movie offers an unusual window into what as of last week became official U.S. policy \u2014 suggesting not only how the Trump administration\u2019s invasion didn\u2019t just come out of nowhere but providing a glimpse, long before it happened, of what a more successful one might actually look like.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat I think is very clear is that none of this happened in a vacuum \u2014 this is just the latest chapter of a long history of U.S.-Latin American interventions,\u201d Gatien told The Hollywood Reporter this week, adding, \u201cthe whole thing, it\u2019s surreal.\u201d The number of moments in the film that feel eerily prescient include supercuts of President Donald Trump<\/a> and his advisers way back in his first term saying \u201call options are on the table\u201d with Venezuela along with rhetoric even back then about a desire to take control of the country\u2019s oil supply.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso pointed: Trump\u2019s head-of-state-esque welcoming of then-opposition leader Juan Guaido at the 2020 State of the Union as the legitimate leader of Venezuela \u2014 a move that, when Guaido turned out to be rejected by his people, may well have contributed to the president\u2019s shift from simply supporting grassroots opposition campaigns to intervening militarily himself.<\/p>\n

\n\tMen of War premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024 and was soon picked up by Neon<\/a>. The company gave it a qualifying release a few months ago (it is now on streaming platforms) but the doc did not make the Oscar short list. Had the timing been different, it well\u00a0might have.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe movie primarily focuses on the failed effort of Goudreau, who tried numerous ways to get a revolution going (and, possibly, collect a $15 million U.S. government bounty), eventually kamikazily self-funding a gambit known as \u201cOperation Gideon\u201d (\u201cBay of Piglets,\u201d to wags) when other partners dropped out. Goudreau does have the help of a longtime Venezuelan general, Cliver Alcala, who was a loyalist to Hugo Chavez but fell out with Chavez successor Maduro back in 2013 and has long been training soldiers in exile for a planned coup.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe extent of the actual U.S. involvement in Goudreau\u2019s effort is unclear. While the Trump administration denied involvement in what the solider-turned-security consultant was doing, the movie reveals at least one member of then-VP Mike Pence\u2019s office, Drew Horn, meeting with him about it. Goudreau also claims he had close contact with Keith Schiller, Trump\u2019s bodyguard at the time.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in a way the administration\u2019s technical involvement is less relevant than the film\u2019s spiritual truth: attempts to overthrow Maduro have been going for a long time, and the events of last weekend are just an example of what they look like when they finally come with maximum money and firepower. \u201cA military option,\u201d Gatien says, \u201chas been on the table since at least 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGatien calls her film \u201can adventure story about self-mythologizing,\u201d a comment about Goudreau that easily could apply to the president as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo complete the art-life give-and-take, the arrest of Maduro could now in turn have an impact on the subjects of the film. Alcala is six years into a two-decade prison sentence<\/a> in the U.S. for what Gatien says are unfair and trumped-up charges. The general is portrayed as a hero in the film, someone who genuinely has been fighting Maduro but posed a threat to U.S. authorities as a beloved opposition leader who couldn\u2019t be controlled, and thus was railroaded as a result.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat Cliver ultimately got charged with was in 2006 while serving as a major general was that he gave two grenades and guns in exchange for releasing [Venezuelan] people who were kidnapped to [then-Colombian terrorist group] FARC. And for acting on behalf of his own country, nothing to do with us, we decided to sentence him,\u201d Gatien said. But the trial against Maduro could now require his testimony, Gatien believes, potentially allowing for him to make a deal with U.S. authorities to reduce his sentence. \u201cI really hope that\u2019s what happens,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tGatien talked to Alcala a few days after the invasion, and he said he was \u201cgiddy\u201d about what had occurred, believing that Maduro was never leaving without force. (Alcala was less enthralled, Gatien said, about Trump\u2019s decision to leave in place Delcy Rodriguez<\/a> and her apparently repressive ways; a\u00a0crackdown in the past few days<\/a>\u00a0may validate his concern.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film could also redouble the efforts of federal prosecutors to go after a man who recently\u00a0became an American fugitive.<\/p>\n

\n\tFaced with the prospect\u00a0of years in jail on weapons-smuggling charges, Goudreau several months ago fled, cutting off his ankle bracelet and disappearing before he could show up for a court date \u2014 which throws into question the prosecution against him, not to mention the apartment that Gatien had put up as bond\u00a0to allow him <\/a>to stay out of jail while he awaited trial.\u00a0 A new court date next week along with others beyond could help resolve some of those questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOn one hand, prosecutors could believe that the temperature on Venezuela has been lowered with the removal of Maduro and as a result relax their efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the other hand, Goudreau\u2019s meddling in a situation that now required heavy U.S. intervention \u2014 and the general restoration of Venezuela to the headlines \u2014 could make them dig in even further. For now, Goudreau is MIA, adding yet another twist both to the Maduro saga and the ongoing story of the film. <\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the future of Venezuela, Gatien says she feels that Trump\u2019s decision to leave Maduro vice president Delcy Rodriguez and other members of his regime in place instead of installing galvanized opposition leader <\/a>Maria Corina Machado means that the days of repression, uprisings and even outside manipulations may be far from over. \u201cThere are other chapters yet to be written,\u201d says Gatien. \u201cThe book on U.S. interventions in Latin America is one that never seems to end.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watching the dramatic events in Venezuela over the past week, with its U.S. invasion to carry off a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":501836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181159,434,69,171,225124,53,37096,92550,67,132,68,32322],"class_list":{"0":"post-501835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-delcy-rodriguez","9":"tag-documentaries","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-jordan-goudreau","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-neon","15":"tag-nicolas-maduro","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-venezuela"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115860721612199389","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}