The Vatican's secret plan negotiated with the US for Maduro's exile before the raid: “Let him go and enjoy his money” / What was Putin's role

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was offered several escape routes before his capture during a spectacular raid by US special forces on January 3, and one of them was the offer made by the Vatican, according to the Washington Post.

On Christmas Eve, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the papal second-in-command and longtime diplomatic mediator, urgently summoned Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, to obtain details of America's plans in Venezuela, according to government documents obtained by The Washington Post.

He asked, during the meeting with the ambassador, whether the United States would only target drug traffickers or if the Trump administration was, in fact, seeking regime change. Nicolas Maduro needed to go, Parolin acknowledged, according to the documents, but urged the U.S. to offer him a way out.

For several days, the influential Italian cardinal tried to reach out to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an attempt to prevent bloodshed and destabilization in Venezuela. In his conversation with Burch, a Trump ally, Parolin said Russia was ready to grant asylum to Maduro and asked the Americans to be patient for Maduro to be persuaded to accept the offer.

“What was proposed to Maduro is to go and enjoy his money,” he told the Washington Post. a person familiar with the Russian offer. “Part of that demand was for Putin to guarantee security.”

A week later, Maduro and his wife were captured by US special forces in a raid that killed around a dozen people. They were transported to New York to stand trial for drug trafficking.

The meeting in the Vatican was one of many failed attempts – by the Americans and intermediaries, the Russians, the Qataris, the Turks, the Catholic Church and others – to prevent a diplomatic crisis and find a safe haven for Maduro ahead of Saturday's US raid to capture him, the US capital-based daily said.

“It is disappointing that parts of a confidential conversation have been released that do not accurately reflect the content of the conversation itself, which took place over the Christmas period,” the Vatican's press office said in a statement to The Post.

Attempts to find a solution for Maduro continued until the last moment. He reportedly received a final warning just days before the US operation to capture him, according to a person familiar with the offer. But the autocrat refused to yield.

“He didn't accept the deal,” another source said. “He was going to sit there and watch people cause a crisis.”

Maduro's successor, chosen by the CIA

All the while, the US was focusing on a plan for his successor, turning to Maduro's number two, Delcy Rodríguez. It was a sea change for President Donald Trump, who during his first term had sanctioned Rodríguez and her brother, Jorge, then seen in Washington as interchangeable members of Maduro's ruling cabal.

But a more pragmatic view began to take shape as senior members of the administration questioned the ability of opposition leader María Corina Machado to win the support of the military and other power bases long controlled by followers of the late Hugo Chávez, the founding father of the country's socialist state.

Trump's thinking was partly influenced by a recent classified CIA assessment that concluded Maduro loyalists would be more successful in running a post-Maduro government than Machado and her team, according to a senior White House official and a person familiar with the matter.

The content of the assessment, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, found that Machado would have difficulty defeating the pro-regime security services and was passed on to Trump by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, the senior White House official said.

Shortly thereafter, the official added, Trump selected Rodríguez as Maduro's successor on the recommendation of top intelligence and security officials.