Venezuela floated a plan for Maduro to slowly give up power, but was rejected by US, AP source says

WASHINGTON AP Venezuelan executive personnel have floated a plan in which President Nicol s Maduro would eventually leave office a bid aimed at easing mounting U S pressure on the regime 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 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 mentioned adding that the White House had rejected the proposal because it continues to question the legitimacy of Maduro s rule and accuse him 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 cabinet that President Donald Trump could order military action to try to oust him Aspects of the Venezuelan effort were first published by the Miami Herald earlier Thursday The White House did not respond to a request for comment Rodr guez described the alleged plan for Maduro to step down as fake news Thursday FAKE Rodr guez 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 discovered 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 explained 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 referendum Tom Cotton the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee noted that U S opposition to the Maduro governing body is not new but declined to comment on Trump saying he s approved covert CIA operations in Venezuela It was and is however the framework of the Trump and Biden Administrations that Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela Cotton mentioned in a report Trump s pressure campaign on Venezuela is likely designed to encourage Venezuela s military leaders to drop their assistance for Maduro leaving him with limited allies and scarce options but to resign explained Vanda Felbab-Brown a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on drug trafficking and measure issues That s likely one reason why Trump took the step of announcing the CIA s involvement publicly she declared 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 announced The administration is trying to create enough pressure on the military to abandon Maduro A small group of top administration functionaries 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 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 states is serving as a front for Maduro and mentioned members of the gang were in the first boat targeted last month No details on alleged affiliations have been circulated in the other strikes