User:Orgullomoore/rationale supporting title of 2020 Venezuelan Operation Gideon
"2020 Venezuelan Operation Gideon" is the proposed name that most closely conforms to the policy on article titles.
The policy laid out at Wikipedia:Article titles requires consideration of "all five of the criteria for article titles" (recognizability, naturalness, precision, concision, and consistency). Operation Gideon is the name that best satisfies these criteria.
Recognizability
editThe name "Operation Gideon" is more recognizable than saying, e.g., "2020 Venezuelan incursion," "2020 Venezuelan attempt to spark a popular uprising," "2020 Venezuelan botched coup," "2020 Venezuelan incident," or "2020 Venezuelan coup attempt."
Naturalness
editOperation Gideon is a natural way that readers are likely to look or search for and that editors would naturally use to link to the article from other articles based on the sources that address this topic.
Precision
editWhen sources want to be explicit about the event they are referring to, they invoke the name of "Operation Gideon." Even the BBC article that has been advanced in support of the campaign to move this page to "2020 Venezuelan coup attempt" says:
| “ | Operation Gideon was a deeply flawed coup attempt. | ” |
Notice that it does not say: "The 2020 Venezuelan coup attempt was deeply flawed."
Other examples illustrating this point follow:
- In this letter from the Special Rapporteur to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, footnote 1 says:
— Letter from Special Rapporteur to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 20 April 2021
| “ | The soldiers, Green Berets Airan Berry and Luke Denman, were arrested in May 2020, captured in what came to be known as Operation Gideon — a failed attempt to spark a popular uprising in Venezuela. | ” |
| “ | More than four dozen men who set out in motorboats on the first day of May from Colombia as part of a botched coup known as Operation Gideon, a doomed attempt at ousting Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, were betrayed by five companions who sold the exact landing coordinates shortly before departure, says a high-ranking insurgent. | ” |
- In this 2020-08-08 Reuters piece:
| “ | The sea incursion launched from Colombia, known as Operation Gideon, left at least eight dead. | ” |
| — Reuters 2020-08-08 | ||
- In this 2020-09-02 Washington Post article:
| “ | But the men deserted the ragtag effort, known as Operation Gideon, prior to the beach assault — one of them month before — viewing it as a suicide mission that lacked the necessary support from the U.S. | ” |
| — Washington Post 2020-09-02 | ||
These quotes show that, even when sources call it a coup attempt, an incursion, an attempt to spark a popular uprising, a botched coup, a ragtag effort, etc., when they want to specify which coup attempt, incursion, attempt to spark a popular uprising, botched coup, or ragtag effort, they invoke the codename "Operation Gideon." The above-quoted excerpts illustrate that "Operation Gideon" provides precision when an author is struggling with what to call this event. They show that "Operation Gideon," after the dust settled, is what the bizarre, murky, whatchamacallit of an event came to be known as.
Concision
editPursuant to the relevant policy page, [t]he title [should be] no longer than necessary to identify the article's subject and distinguish it from other subjects.
The title of "2020 Venezuelan Operation Gideon" is not unreasonably verbose. "Operation Gideon" is a concise way of referring to the botched maritime incursion and coup attempt that occurred in Venezuela in 2020.
Consistency
editMatches "when," "where," and "what" convention
edit"2020 Venezuelan Operation Gideon" is an improvement upon "Operation Gideon (2020)" insofar as it is a conventional "when", "where" and "what" title.
Application of WP:CODENAME
editAn article title of "2020 Venezuelan Operation Gideon" is, granted, not completely consistent with typical Wikipedia naming conventions in that it uses an operational codename, contrary to the guidelines found at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Military history. The relevant excerpt from the Manual of Style is:
| “ | Operational codenames generally make poor titles, as the codename gives no indication of when or where the action took place and only represents one side's planning (potentially leading writers to focus on that side's point of view). It is better to use an appropriate geographical name for the article, creating a redirect from the operational name, for all but the most well-known operations (such as Operation Barbarossa), or for military actions that were never carried out (such as Operation Green). | ” |
The emphasis should be placed on "generally," which implies that there will be exceptions. Attention should be paid to why codenames are generally bad titles: because they don't have a when or where and only represent one side. However, in the case of "2020 Venezuelan Operation Gideon," the when and where are given, and the third consideration is inapplicable because all sides refer to the event as Operation Gideon, regardless of whether they consider it a terrorist operation, a heroic freedom fighting mission, or a dumb idea. For example:
- Javier Nieto Quintero in the Twitter video, as reported by Infobae, announcing the operation on 3 May 2020:
—Javier Nieto Quintero announcing launch of operation on 3 May 2020
- Goudreau
| “ | Goudreau dubbed the plot “Operation Gideon” in a video posted online Sunday, in which he announced “a daring amphibious raid” was being launched on the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. | ” |
| — BuzzFeed News | ||
| “ | A former U.S. Special Forces soldier based in Florida but believed to now be in Colombia, Jordan Goudreau, claimed responsibility for orchestrating the failed operation he called “Operation Gideon.” | ” |
| — Fox News | ||
| “ | Mr. Goudreau did not respond to requests from The Globe for comment. But he has told other newspapers in recent days the landing in Venezuela was part of a mission he called Operation Gideon, and that he had been in close communication with the two captured Americans. | ” |
| — The Globe and Mail | ||
- Maduro Administration
| “ | The criminals who entered our national territory came from Colombia. One of the assault teams landed in the state of La Guaira, where the country’s main airport is located, just 20 kilometres from the Venezuelan capital. However, “Operation Gideon”, as it was called by the mercenaries and terrorists, was thwarted by the Venezuelan authorities. The action of neighbouring communities in the areas infiltrated by the attackers, in coordination with the law enforcement authorities, led to the capture of most of this group of mercenaries and terrorists. This occurred following the identification of two boats in which at least 60 criminals arrived to execute their plan with large quantities of high-calibre lethal weapons in their possession. | ” |
| — Letter dated 13 May 2020 from Permanent Representative of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the United Nations | ||
— Prosecutor announcing arrest warrant issued against Juan Guaidó on 2023-10-05 [1]
- Luis Parra
— Últimas Noticias 2020-05-08
- Family of POWs
| “ | In early May 2020, Airan Berry and Luke Denman were taken hostage by the unlawful Maduro regime in Venezuela in a widely publicized incident which became known as “Operation Gideon.” | ” |
| — Mark Denman | ||
- Survivors
| “ | Roberto and his friends remember Operation Gideon, and to them it’s no joke. | ” |
| — VICE News 2021-10-26 | ||
- Journalists / News Articles
| “ | Operation Gideon is a staggering tale of hubris, incompetence and treachery. | ” |
| — BBC | ||
| “ | Both Berry and Denman are former U.S. Special Operations soldiers working for a private security firm based in Florida and run by former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, the man at the center of what was dubbed "Operation Gideon." | ” |
| — ABC News | ||
| “ | “Operation Gideon” was launched from makeshift training camps in neighbouring Colombia and left at least eight rebel soldiers dead while a total of 66 were jailed. Former Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, who operated a private, Florida-based security firm called Silvercorp USA, claimed responsibility for the failed coup d’etat. | ” |
| — Al Jazeera | ||
| “ | A third U.S. ex-Green Beret and Silvercorp founder, Jordan Goudreau, claimed responsibility for leading “Operation Gideon,” which was launched with an attempted beach landing before dawn on Sunday. | ” |
| — AP 2020-05-05 | ||
| “ | Operation Gideon — or the Bay of Piglets, as the bloody fiasco came to be known — ended with six insurgents dead and two of Goudreau’s former Special Forces buddies behind bars in Caracas. | ” |
| — AP 2022-03-28 | ||
| “ | It’s possible Goudreau saw the article and decided to act, because the mission to overthrow Maduro — dubbed “Operation Gideon” — began that same day. “Dollar signs and pride” are likely what led Goudreau to move forward with the plan, Mattos told me. “It talks.” | ” |
| — Vox 2020-05-11 | ||
| “ | The operation — called “Operation Gideon” — was launched from makeshift training camps in neighboring Colombia and left at least eight rebel soldiers dead while a total of 66 were jailed. | ” |
| — NY Times 2020-08-08 | ||
| “ | The 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion involved a failed operation by Cuban exiles trained by the CIA over several months to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government. Last year, an ill-fated attempt—dubbed Operation Gideon—to invade Venezuela and depose President Nicolás Maduro allegedly involved another Florida-based security firm. | ” |
| — Wall Street Journal 2021-07-14 | ||
| “ | Berry and Denman were sentenced last month to 20 years in prison for conspiracy, illicit weapons trafficking and acts of terrorism for their roles in “Operation Gideon,” a bungled operation in which several dozen defectors from the Venezuelan military and police attempted to reenter the country to capture Maduro. | ” |
| — The Washington Post 2020-09-14 | ||
Journal articles
| “ | The only attempt at an armed insurrection was Operation Gideon, a May 2020 operation ineffectively planned and executed by exiles who landed in Venezuela’s coastal town of Macuto with a handful of poorly trained armed men | ” |
| — Current History | ||
| “ | Operation Gideon, the armed assault that failed to unseat Maduro in early May 2020, illustrates the extent of both military disaffection and state-sponsored surveillance | ” |
| — Journal of Democracy | ||
| “ | The shambolic “Operation Gideon” even has a resemblance to an even more incompetent Bay of Pigs Invasion. | ” |
| — Chicago Policy Review | ||
International law and diplomacy context
| “ | The representative of the United States recalled that President Trump and Secretary Pompeo had made clear that the United States had not been involved in Operation Gideon and reiterated that the United States had not entered Venezuela, categorically rejecting any claims to the contrary, including the alleged armed incursion of 3 and 4 May | ” |
| — United Nations | ||
— United Nations is against any escalation in Venezuela 2020-05-20
101+ exceptions to WP:CODENAME
editAlso, no guideline can be followed 100% of the time, especially when an article title under consideration so closely meets the other four criteria. Among the numerous examples of existing exceptions to the rule are the following 101 (not exhaustive):
- Note: This is not an exhaustive list. See Special:AllPages?from=Operation