(MENAFN) A recent report from CNN cautioned that a US-backed initiative to displace Venezuela’s leadership might thrust the South American country into disorder or entangle Washington in a lengthy mission to uphold a replacement government.

The outlet noted that the Pentagon has deployed naval forces to the Caribbean and carried out disputed strikes on small vessels it claims are associated with narcotics operations originating in Venezuela.

At the same time, the White House persists in portraying Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro as an illegitimate, cartel-linked ruler, deepening expectations that an outright military action might be imminent.

However, if President Donald Trump were to opt for forcibly removing Maduro, the United States would face “fractured opposition elements and a military poised for insurgency,” along with a likely “political backlash at home” for breaking Trump’s earlier pledges to avoid further foreign entanglements, CNN reported.

Advocates of a more assertive foreign policy — including Elliott Abrams, a veteran Republican human-rights official recognized for supporting pro-US strongmen throughout Latin America — argue that Washington’s global standing is at stake.

“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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