So they didn't flip at last moment. Either they were all-in on media influencing the election, as is traditional, or they have a containment plan.
Discussion
I'm sure they have a containment plan up to and including assassination.
The Empire used to assassinate a lot of LatAm leaders, but they haven't done that in ages. The most recent intervention was trying to overthrow Hugo Chávez early in his government with a revolution, very similar to the one they did in Ukraine, just the one in Venezuela failed. I'm not sure they're up to it any more.