President Trump is ramping up military pressure on Venezuela’s authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro, raising the prospect of strikes inside the country, which would mark a major escalation from already controversial military attacks against alleged drug trafficking boats in international waters.

Trump’s confirmation on Wednesday that he authorized the CIA to carry out covert land strikes inside Venezuela is amplifying the possibility he could seek regime change in Caracas.

Such a move would return the U.S. to engagement in Latin America, where it pursued what is understood as a failed 20th-century policy of military intervention.

“One thing that's been surprising to me, is even sort of in private conversation, people are very, very careful with this issue,” a House Democratic aide told The Hill, requesting anonymity to comment on internal discussions.

“Nobody is at all concerned about Maduro himself. … I don't know anybody who's shedding a tear for the guy. … I think the general feeling is more fear, not the fear of Trump succeeding, fear of Trump failing in a way he hasn't predicted.”

At least one potential danger is whether Trump’s revelation of CIA operations in Venezuela will trigger blowback from Caracas.

“This is no longer a covert operation, maybe not even clandestine … if something goes wrong there’s no deniability for CIA operatives,” said Evelyn Farkas, executive director of the McCain Institute at Arizona State University and a former senior Pentagon official in the Obama administration.

“They will be seized and used as pawns by Maduro, as he has already done with countless Americans and Venezuelans, including our McCain Global Leader alumnus Jesús Armas, who sits in prison simply for going to a demonstration.”

Trump’s earlier diplomatic outreach to Maduro, through his envoy for special missions Richard Grenell, succeeded in bringing home at least seven Americans unjustly detained in the country and facilitating Caracas's acceptance of repatriation flights of migrants without legal status from the U.S.

But The New York Times reported on Oct. 8 that Trump ended diplomacy with Caracas.

Trump on Wednesday said he wants to stop drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

The Times reported Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as national security adviser, is leading the charge on a harder policy toward Maduro, ultimately with regime change as a goal.

Rubio’s

© The Hill