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(Reuters) -The two main leaders of Venezuela's opposition are increasingly divided over looming U.S. actions targeting the country, even as a crackdown against opposition figures continues, politicians and analysts say.
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has conducted at least 14 strikes on small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific since early September, killing dozens of people, in what it says are targeted strikes against drug smugglers.
Trump, whose government has given few details about the attacks, has also authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela and said there will be land action in the country soon. On Friday, he said he is not considering strikes within Venezuela.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who has been indicted by the U.S. on drug and corruption charges that he denies, accuses Trump of seeking regime change and says the Venezuelan people and armed forces will stop any attempt to unseat him.
Maduro was inaugurated for a third term this year despite vote tallies that show the opposition's candidate resoundingly won the 2024 election.
Faced with a U.S. military buildup in the region that includes an aircraft carrier strike group, guided missile destroyers, fighter jets and a nuclear submarine, the two main opposition factions now differ on what should happen next.
One group, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, has aligned closely with Trump, arguing Maduro represents a direct threat to U.S. national security, despite intelligence reports casting doubt on that view, and backing the U.S. deployment.
But another, led by two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, rejects armed U.S. intervention and advocates renewed negotiations with Maduro's government and Trump, despite the limited success of previous talks.
The splintering, amid a years-long government crackdown on the opposition that includes arrests, exile and legal persecution, leaves many opposition supporters at home and abroad at a loss.
"We are in a very undesirable position as Venezuelans because how can we back one position or the other?" asked one political analyst in Venezuela, who asked not to be named for fear of government retribution.
Capriles' efforts are not enough of a challenge to Maduro, said the analyst, while Machado is dependent on help from Trump, who blames Venezuelans in the U.S. for crime and has revoked migrant protections for them. "There is no happy ending."
CAPRILES CALLS FOR NEGOTIATIONS
Machado adviser Magalli Meda insists the opposition remains united under the eight-party Unitary Platform, the group that backed Machado and then her replacement in the 2024 presidential election, after a court barred her from running.
"Never before has the country been united around a single agenda: the freedom of Venezuela," Meda said.
Many opposition figures, including Machado, have gone into hiding since the 2024 contest, while others, including several of her close allies, have been jailed.
The government has asked the country's top court to cancel the citizenship of Leopoldo Lopez, a former opposition leader now living in Spain, for calling for a military intervention, though the constitution prohibits the removal of citizenship from Venezuelans by birth.
One ruling party-allied politician said this week that he has sent the court a list of 20 citizenship revocation requests, including Machado.
For his part, Capriles, a former Miranda state governor who in May won a seat in the ruling party-controlled National Assembly in an election that was boycotted by much of the opposition, including Machado, says negotiations should resume.
Capriles, who says Machado's faction is "extremist", told Reuters he is determined to fight for change, despite being denounced as a sellout by some in the opposition who said taking part in the legislative election rewarded Maduro for clinging to power.
Though he congratulated Machado on her Nobel win, Capriles said there are "profound differences" between their positions.
"I continue to believe that negotiation will always be better for Venezuela's future," he said.
The prime minister of Qatar, which has hosted previous talks between the government and opposition, said this week that his country was ready to mediate between Maduro and the U.S., but that nothing solid was ongoing.
Three rounds of negotiations between the opposition and government since 2019 have led to detainee releases and a deal on conditions for the 2024 election.
So far, Machado seems to retain more support.
A Panterra poll in August found 70% of Venezuelans are opposed to the ruling party. Sixty percent of those respondents supported U.S. backing for Machado's leadership, while only 16% favored negotiations with Maduro.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Daniel Wallis)
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