(MENAFN) A CNN report on Sunday warned that a US-supported effort to replace Venezuela’s government could plunge the South American nation into turmoil or draw Washington into a prolonged effort to sustain a successor administration.

According to the outlet, the Pentagon has positioned naval vessels in the Caribbean and conducted contentious attacks on small boats it alleges are tied to narcotics trafficking from Venezuela.

Meanwhile, the White House continues to insist that Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is an unlawful, cartel-connected head of state, intensifying assumptions that direct military intervention could be approaching.

Nevertheless, if President Donald Trump were to decide on ousting Maduro by force, the United States would confront “fractured opposition elements and a military poised for insurgency,” as well as a probable “political backlash at home” for breaking Trump’s assurances to steer clear of additional overseas conflicts, CNN suggested.

Foreign policy hawks – among them Elliott Abrams, a long-time Republican human rights official known for backing US-friendly strongmen in Latin America – contend that Washington’s reputation is on the line.

“Trump is calling Maduro a narcoterrorist and a drug trafficker, and has assembled a huge armada,” Abrams told the network. “If he backs down now and Maduro survives, there goes all the ‘new Monroe Doctrine’ talk and the idea of being supreme in our own hemisphere.”

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