Trump Confirms CIA Conducts Covert Operations Inside Venezuela: NPR

Washington – US President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that he had allowed the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct secret operations inside Venezuela, and said that he was considering carrying out ground operations in the country.

The recognition of the secret work carried out by the US spy agency in Venezuela comes after the US military in recent weeks carried out a series of deadly strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean. US forces have destroyed at least five boats since early September, killing 27 people, and four of those ships were coming from Venezuela.

When asked during an Oval Office event on Wednesday why he allowed the CIA to operate in Venezuela, Trump confirmed that he had taken that step.

“I allowed for two reasons really,” Trump replied. “No. 1, they have emptied their prisons in the United States of America,” he said. “The other thing is, drugs, we have a lot of drugs coming from Venezuela, and a lot of Venezuelan drugs are coming by sea.”

Trump added that the administration is “looking to the ground” as it considers further strikes in the region. He declined to say whether the CIA had the authority to take action against President Nicolas Maduro.

Trump made the unusual acknowledgment of a CIA operation shortly after The New York Times reported that the CIA had been authorized to carry out covert operations in Venezuela.

Maduro backs down

On Wednesday, Maduro criticized the US spy agency’s record in various conflicts around the world without directly addressing Trump’s statements about allowing the CIA to carry out secret operations in Venezuela.

“No to regime change that reminds us too much (of coups) in the failed eternal wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc.,” Maduro said at a televised event of the National Council for Sovereignty and Peace, which consists of representatives of various political, economic, academic and cultural sectors in Venezuela.

“No to the coups carried out by the CIA, which are very reminiscent of the 30,000 disappeared,” a number estimated by human rights organizations such as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo during the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983). He also referred to the 1973 coup in Chile.

“How long will the CIA continue its coups? Latin America does not want or need them and is disavowing them,” Maduro added.

He added that the goal is to “say no to war in the Caribbean, no to war in South America, yes to peace.”

“Not war, yes peace, not war. Is that how you would say it? Who speaks English? Not war, yes peace, people of the United States, please. Please, please, please,” Maduro said in English.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry rejected “the hostile and exaggerated statements made by the President of the United States, in which he publicly admitted to carrying out operations that allowed work against peace and stability in Venezuela.”

The statement, published by Foreign Minister Ivan Gale on his Telegram channel, said: “This unprecedented statement constitutes an extremely serious violation of international law and the United Nations Charter and forces the community of nations to condemn these clearly immoderate and unreasonable statements.”

Resistance from Congress

Early this month, the Trump administration declared the drug cartels illegal combatants and declared that the United States was now in “armed conflict” with them, justifying military action as a necessary escalation to stop the flow of drugs into the United States.

The move angered members of Congress from both major political parties that Trump was committing an act of war without obtaining authorization from Congress.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Wednesday that while she supports cracking down on human trafficking, the administration has gone too far.

“The Trump administration’s authorization of covert CIA action, carrying out lethal strikes on boats and hinting at ground operations in Venezuela brings the United States closer to outright conflict without transparency, oversight, or clear guardrails,” Shaheen said. “The American people deserve to know whether the administration is leading the United States into another conflict, putting military service members at risk or continuing the process of regime change.”

The Trump administration has not yet provided key evidence to lawmakers proving that the boats targeted by the US military were in fact carrying drugs, according to US officials familiar with the matter.

The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the administration only referred to unclassified videos of the strikes that Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media, and had not yet provided “conclusive evidence” that the ships were carrying drugs.

Lawmakers expressed frustration that the administration provides few details on how to decide that the United States is in armed conflict with gangs or criminal organizations that claim to be “unlawful combatants.”

Even when the US military carried out strikes on some ships, the US Coast Guard continued its usual practice of stopping boats and confiscating drugs.

Trump on Wednesday clarified the measure, saying the traditional approach did not work.

“Because we’ve been doing this for 30 years, and it’s never been effective. They have faster boats,” he said. “They are world-class speedboats, but they are not faster than rockets.”

Human rights groups have raised concerns that the strikes violate international law and constitute extrajudicial killings.