Nathalie Kittroweth

From The New York Times, I'm Nathalie Kitchela.

This is The Daily.

For months, President Trump has been ratcheting up the pressure on Venezuela with increasingly aggressive military actions that the administration claims are about targeting drug traffickers.

But behind the scenes, some U.S.

officials are pushing toward a very different goal, regime change.

Today, my colleague Anatoly Kermeneyev explains the battle being waged within the White House over whether to topple the government of Nicolas Maduro.

It's Thursday, October 23rd.

Anatoly, welcome back to the Americas.

You're in your old stomping ground in Caracas.

Just tell me how many times over the course of your career as a foreign correspondent, you've been in Venezuela awaiting the theoretical end of this longstanding regime now led by Maduro.

OK, let's get into this moment that we're in right now.

There have been so many boats that have been bombed in the Caribbean Sea at this point by the Trump administration that it's been hard to keep it straight.

We've seen more than two dozen people killed.

What's the latest on the ground in Venezuela?

Basically, the threat of military boots on the ground.

You said that the expectation is that this is the first phase of what we're seeing.

So what's the next phase?

Like, what's the sense of what the eventual endgame is here?

Right.

Ending a regime that the U.S.