WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuelan government officials have floated a plan in which President Nicolás Maduro would eventually leave office, a bid aimed at easing mounting U.S. pressure on the government in Caracas, according to a former Trump administration official.
The proposal, which was rejected by the White House, calls for Maduro to step down from power in three years and hand over authority to his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, who would complete Maduro's current six-year term that runs until January 2031, according to the official who was briefed on the plan but was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Rodriguez would not run for reelection under the plan, the official said, adding that the White House had rejected the proposal because it continues to question the legitimacy of Maduro's rule and accuse him of overseeing a narco-terrorist state.
The revelation of Maduro’s attempts to offer a plan to slowly ease himself out of power comes amid growing unease in the Venezuelan leader’s government that President Donald Trump could order military action to try to oust him.
Aspects of the Venezuelan effort were first reported by the Miami Herald earlier Thursday. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Speaking at a televised event Thursday, Maduro ridiculed reports that Rodríguez would be part of a plan to replace him as an attempt “to divide our people.”
He also mocked Trump’s confirmation Wednesday that the U.S. president had authorized the CIA to operate in Venezuela.
“Can anyone believe the CIA hasn’t been operating in Venezuela for the past 60 years?” Maduro said.
Rodríguez described the alleged plan for Maduro to step down as fake news Thursday.
“FAKE!!” Rodríguez wrote in English on her Telegram account. “More media that add to the garbage dump of the psychological war against the Venezuelan people.”
She added that Venezuela’s leadership is united.
Since early September, the U.S. military has carried out a series of strikes on alleged drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea, including against at least four boats that originated from Venezuela.
Those strikes followed Trump deploying three Aegis guided-missile destroyers to the waters off Venezuela as part of what the administration has framed as an effort to combat threats from Latin American drug cartels.
‘Psyops’ in play as White House tries to ‘create a fracture’ in Venezuela: expert
Trump on Wednesday took the unorthodox step of confirming to reporters that he had authorized covert CIA action in Venezuela. He added the administration “is looking at land” as it considers further strikes in the region. But he declined to say whether the CIA has authority to take action specifically against Maduro.
The Republican president's acknowledgement that he had greenlit CIA action further escalated tensions with the South American nation, already heightened because of the strikes on boats.
A commander-in-chief publicly addressing covert CIA operations is unlikely to be found in any spy manual. But analysts says it may have spurred a desired effect for the White House: creating even more unease among Maduro and his allies that their days may be numbered.
“It's psyops,” said Brian Fonseca, a scholar at Florida International University who studies Venezuela, using shorthand for psychological operations. “This is about putting pressure on the Maduro regime and trying to create a fracture among the country's political and military elite, and see if you can then get that fracture into dislodging Maduro from power."
Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term in January despite credible evidence that he lost last year’s election.
Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, noted that U.S. opposition to the Maduro government is not new, but declined to comment on Trump saying he's approved covert CIA operations in Venezuela.
“It was, and is, however, the policy of the Trump and Biden Administrations that Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela,” Cotton said in a statement.
Trump’s pressure campaign on Venezuela is likely designed to encourage Venezuela’s military leaders to drop their support for Maduro, leaving him with few allies and few options but to resign, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on drug trafficking and security issues.
That’s likely one reason why Trump took the step of announcing the CIA’s involvement publicly, she said.
“It’s clearer and clearer by the day that the purpose of these actions in the Caribbean is to bring down the Maduro regime,” Felbab-Brown said. “The administration is trying to create enough pressure on the military to abandon Maduro.”
A small group of top administration officials — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Trump aide Stephen Miller — have driven the push to carry out the fatal strikes.
Rubio, dating back to his days in the Senate, has advocated for taking a harder line on Maduro.
During Trump’s first term, Maduro was indicted on U.S. federal drug charges, including narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. This year, the Justice Department doubled a reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million, accusing him of being “one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world.”
Trump has focused attention on the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which he claims is serving as a “front” for Maduro, and said members of the gang were in the first boat targeted last month. No details on alleged affiliations have been released in the other strikes.
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AP writers Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations, Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela, and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed reporting.
