After last week’s US-backed coup failed to install Juan Guaido in power in Venezuela, Guaido remains keen to be supported by the US, and told Italian newspaper La Stampa that he would “probably accept” a US offer to invade.

Though the Trump Administration has constantly threatened to invade Venezuela in recent months, it appears they have yet to explicitly make an offer to Guaido to do so. Clearly the US would want to use such an acceptance as cover for a unilateral invasion.

Yet the Trump Administration has so long taken the liberty of speaking for Guaido in the international community, it probably feels his imprimatur is less about what Guaido says, and more about what the administration can claim he’d want.

The US has hoped that threatening the existing Venezuelan government and the international community would eventually see the regime change happen. As that continues to fail to work, however, hawks in the administration have been pushing for a direct US military involvement.

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Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com.