Saying the quiet part out loud

The administration is already adjusting existing sanctions to protect the alternative government Guaidó has begun erecting, a White House official said, and is expected to levy new sanctions against Maduro-connected entities.

[...]

The Trump administration would support safe passage to exile for Maduro if he chose it, one official said.

“We are not trying to arrest everybody; this is not about revenge,” the official said.

  WaPo

They think they COULD arrest Venezuelans in Venezuela, and particularly for political purposes?

“If that means Mr. Maduro and a few of his family and friends would want to spend time in another country, we would be happy to pay for the airfare.”

Consider yourself warned?

“We have been engaged with the same strategy: to build international pressure, help organize the internal opposition and push for a peaceful restoration of democracy. But that internal piece was missing,” the official said. “He was the piece we needed for our strategy to be coherent and complete.”

No shame. Out loud. We're staging a coup in a sovereign country. And the Post doesn't even bat an eye. In fact, it goes on to lay out the regretable obstacles.

But such a maneuver is easier said than done, as President George H.W. Bush found out when he tried a similar tactic to oust Panama’s then-President Manuel Antonio Noriega in 1989. As long as Maduro controls the Finance and Treasury ministries and the country’s central bank, alternative mechanisms would have to be established. Diversion of economic resources would also fail to address what U.S. officials said is the biggest obstacle: Maduro maintains control of the army and police, and could attempt to crush street protests, arrest or harm Guaidó, or interfere with the U.S. Embassy in Caracas.

[...]

The Trump administration hopes Venezuela’s armed forces switch allegiances, but there is no clear road map for what Trump would do if that does not happen.

[...]

“One could argue that we are on, if not an inevitable path, certainly a path toward intervention because of the dramatic nature of what we’ve done,” the former official said. “Telling a sitting president he is no longer president and recognizing somebody else. Next question: Okay, what comes next? To what extent are we actually prepared to continue to march down this road?”

[...]

The Pentagon did not buy into Trump’s previously implied threats of using military force in Venezuela. Former defense secretary Jim Mattis had argued that with major wars and deployments underway in the Middle East, along with possible conflict with North Korea, any discretionary use of force in the hemisphere was irresponsible.

And Mattis is out of the way now.

Trump’s declaration of support for Guaidó keeps faith with conservative Republican foreign policy hawks, including Vice President Pence, for whom the leftist dictatorship is a long-standing target on ideological and human rights grounds.

“By standing with the people of Venezuela, President Trump stands for freedom,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) tweeted after the U.S. announcement Wednesday.

It is not a dictatorship. Trump stands for freedom? How about the freedom to elect their own president?

Many Democrats praised the decision, too, including Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), a frequent Trump critic, who called it “an appropriate step.”

Yes, controlling the world's oil and smashing leftist governments are the two evergreen bipartisan policies.

“We must also remember that America’s support for democracy and human rights must apply universally if it is to be credible.”

Supporting democracy by overthrowing democratically elected heads of state. Orwell would be proud.

“Let me get this straight. The US is sanctioning Venezuela for their lack of democracy but not Saudi Arabia? Such hypocrisy,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) tweeted Wednesday. “Maduro’s policies are bad and not helping his people, but crippling sanctions or pushing for regime change will only make the situation worse.”

Khanna also responded to an expression of support for the policy from Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill) by saying, “US should not anoint the leader of the opposition in Venezuela during an internal, polarized conflict.”

He'll be ostracized soon enough.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.