[US media broke the news: US officials have discussed getting rid of Venezuela's president] # The US government has many plans for Venezuela # The US "Politico" published an article on the 12th, saying that a number of people familiar with the matter revealed that the US government had discussed taking tougher actions to force Venezuelan President Maduro to step down on the grounds of "combating drug trafficking cartels", and some even proposed to get rid of him directly.
In recent weeks, the U.S. military has striked its alleged “drug trafficking vessels” in the Venezuelan coast, killing more than twenty people and increasing military deployments in the region.U.S. officials have repeatedly accused Maduro of associations with drug trafficking groups, allegations strongly denied by Venezuela, while Maduro has accused the United States of attempting to overthrow the Venezuelan government.
The article quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying that while U.S. President Trump hasn’t publicly talked about a “regime change,” his team does want to put pressure on the Venezuelan leader to “fight drug trafficking” and force him to step down.
The official revealed that the Trump administration had “a lot of plans” to take action against Venezuela, including to strike targets suspected of being linked to drug trafficking groups in the country; but the official stressed that Trump had not yet ordered direct action against Maduro.
The article quoted U.S. officials as saying that officials in the Trump administration also believed that the U.S. might not need to take extreme measures to force Maduro down, and that we would put tremendous pressure on him ... it is likely that he would step down on his own under such pressure, and that we would not have to do anything,” the official said.
According to previous reports by Xinhua Agency, the United States recently deployed multiple warships in the Caribbean waters near Venezuela on the grounds of "fighting Latin American drug trafficking groups." Maduro said on September 1 that the United States is trying to "exert extreme pressure" on Venezuela through military means. Eight U.S. warships carrying a total of 1200 missiles and a nuclear submarine are "targeting" Venezuela, which is facing nearly 100 years."The biggest threat".