Trump Administration Met With, But Rebuffed, Venezuelan Officers Who Said They Were Plotting a Coup, Officials Say by Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe – Washington Post
The Trump administration met several times last year and early this year with Venezuelan military officers purporting to be dissidents plotting a coup against President Nicolás Maduro, but ultimately rebuffed their requests for assistance, according to U.S. officials.
The operation was small and closely held, according to one senior official, who described the meetings as “all listening. We listen to anyone who wants to talk to us.”
President Trump, both publicly and privately, has raised the possibility of U.S. military action in Venezuela, although aides have repeatedly dissuaded him, according to a number of officials and people familiar with the episodes, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss foreign policy and intelligence matters.
Maduro has frequently accused the United States of plotting with his opponents, and of economic and actual warfare against him…