Description: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro invoked John Lennon's peace anthem Imagine during a rally Saturday with supporters, singing along to the iconic song as he called for calm amid escalating tensions with the United States.

Caracas

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro led supporters in singing John Lennon's 'Imagine' at a rally as tensions between Venezuela and the United States increased. The event coincided with the arrival of the USS Gerald Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, and approximately 15,000 US troops in the Caribbean, marking the largest US military deployment in the region since 1989.

US officials have suggested that military action against Venezuela is under consideration, while the Venezuelan government has stated it will not tolerate any support for a US invasion. Maduro continues to call for peace and dialogue, but his government has warned that any attempt to oust him would not be easy, drawing comparisons to past US military interventions.

Maduro and supporters sing Imagine as tensions with U.S. rise

This was Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at a rally this weekend, leading supporters as they sang John Lennon's peace anthem, Imagine. The rally comes as tensions grow between Washington and Caracas. US President Donald Trump has suggested he has made a decision on a course of military action against Venezuela, and a huge military aircraft carrier has now arrived in the region. For the latest on the situation in Venezuela, we are joined by journalist Cody Wedel in Bogota, Colombia. Cody, the USS Gerald Ford, which is the world's largest aircraft carrier, has arrived in the Caribbean, now within striking distance of Venezuela. So how does this escalate the situation? Well, most experts I've been speaking to have called this a major escalation of the tensions between Venezuela and the U.S. As you said there, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, certainly the most advanced warship that the U.S. has, and now with the arrival of the USS Gerald Ford, it's believed there are around 15,000 U.S. servicemen and women in the region. That's the largest deployment of troops in this area since the 1989 invasion of Panama. Most people are saying this far exceeds what the United States would need to interdict drug boats or conduct this anti-narcotics operation. I recently spoke to the former ambassador for the U.S. to Venezuela, James Story, and he told me that we're at a point now that it's really hard for the U.S. to pull out of this situation without carrying out some type of strike within Venezuelan territory. Now we have so many resources in the region, there's so much focus on the region. Were we not to take action, I think it would undermine the president internationally and undermine the president domestically. I think that ideally, somebody close to Maduro will show him the door. There are three options there. He goes into exile, he's extradited to the United States, or he's sent off the planet in some other way, right? So Cody, what is the reaction then to this in Venezuela, and how is the Maduro government reacting to all of this? Well, it's really hard to know how Venezuelans on the ground in Venezuela feel about this U.S. buildup of force in the Caribbean. The Venezuelan government has been very clear. It will not tolerate any support of a potential U.S. invasion in its territory. We actually saw the government move to strip an opposition lawmaker of his nationality who is exiled because he has been speaking out in support of some type of military intervention in Venezuela. As for the Maduro government, we heard Nicolás Maduro there singing that John Legend song, the peace anthem. He has continually said he wants peace, he wants dialogue, but simultaneously he has been selling this idea that it would not be so easy for the United States. Ousting him would not be easy. We've heard from people in the government making comparisons to Vietnam, to Afghanistan, so clearly trying to sell this idea to the Trump administration that this would not be a quick operation, and I think the goal there is to dissuade Trump from taking any action at all.

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