RUBIO'S PATH TO PURSUE MADURO

He has Trump's ear, wins over isolationists in bid to oust leftist leader of Venezuela.

- BY KATE LINTHICUM, MICHAEL WILNER AND ANA CEBALLOS

SCHNEYDER MENDOZA AFP/Getty Images

TROOPS patrol Venezuela's border Thursday. President Trump said the U.S. could strike Venezuelan targets.

In the early days of President Trump’s second term, the U.S. appeared keen to cooperate with Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian leader. Special envoy Ric Grenell met Maduro, working with him to coordinate deportation flights to Caracas, a prisoner exchange deal and an agreement allowing Chevron to drill Venezuelan oil.

Grenell told disappointed members of Venezuela's opposition that Trump’s domestic goals took priority over efforts to promote democracy. “We're not interested in regime change,” Grenell told the group, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.

But Marco Rubio, Trump’s secretary of State, had a different vision.

In a parallel call with Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, two leaders of the opposition, Rubio affirmed U.S. support “for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela” and called Gonzalez “the rightful president” of the beleaguered nation after Maduro rigged last year’s election in his favor.

Rubio, now also serving as national security advisor, has grown closer to Trump and crafted an aggressive new policy toward Maduro that has brought Venezuela and the United States to the brink of military confrontation.

Grenell has been sidelined, two sources told The Times, as the U.S. conducts an unprecedented campaign of deadly strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats and builds up military assets in the Caribbean.

Trump said Wednesday that he has authorized the CIA to conduct covert action in the South American nation, and that strikes on land targets could be next.

"I think Venezuela is feeling the heat," he said.