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Georgetown Americas Institute

February 17, 2026

Chinese and Latin American Responses to the U.S. Intervention in Venezuela

Event Series: China and the Global South

RSVP Required
Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores on an official visit to Brazil. Photo: Palácio do Planalto/Ricardo Stuckert/Flickr

In early January 2026, the United States launched a strike in Venezuela, capturing the incumbent president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. In response, the United Nations Security Council convened a meeting to discuss the intervention at the request of China, Colombia, and Russia. In addition to garnering condemnation from other countries, how do other neighboring Latin American countries view this U.S. action? What are the takeaways for Chinese leaders in Beijing who had long been close partners of Venezuela? This webinar brings together a panel of experts to discuss Chinese and Latin American perceptions of this intervention and what lessons might be learned.

This is event is co-sponsored by Georgetown University’s Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues and Georgetown Americas Institute.

Featuring

Guo Jie is an associate professor at the School of International Studies at Peking University. Her research focuses mainly on Latin American politics and diplomacy, China-Latin America relations, as well as comparative politics. Guo holds a Ph.D. in law from Peking University, and she previously worked as a Chinese fellow and visiting scholar with institutions such as the Kettering Foundation and Inter-American Dialogue (United States), Universidad del Pacífico (Peru), Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil), Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Colegio de México (Mexico).

Leland Lazarus is the founder and CEO of Lazarus Consulting LLC, advising companies and governments on navigating geopolitical risks around China’s engagement in the Western Hemisphere. He previously served as associate director of national security at Florida International University’s Gordon Institute of Public Policy. He also previously served as the special assistant and speechwriter to commanders of U.S. Southern Command (Department of Defense) and worked as a U.S. State Department diplomat in China and the Caribbean.

Oliver Della Costa Stuenkel is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) in Washington, DC, a non-resident fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and a professor of International Relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in São Paulo. His research focuses on geopolitics and the global order, Brazilian foreign policy, Latin American politics, and emerging powers. He is the author of several books on geopolitics, including The BRICS and the Future of Global Order and Post-Western World: How Emerging Powers Are Remaking Global Order (2020). 

Evan Medeiros (moderator) is the Penner Family Chair in Asian Studies at the School of Foreign Service and a senior fellow with the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University. Medeiros has in-depth experience in U.S. policy toward the Asia-Pacific from his time on the National Security Council as director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia, and then as special assistant to the president and senior director for Asia under President Barack Obama.