The U.S. president has authorized CIA actions and military strikes, citing international drug trafficking linked to Venezuela.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Oct. 15 confirmed that he has authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela.
The decision would expand U.S. assets deployed to Venezuela, placing added pressure on the regime of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The development is the latest in a series of events amid growing tensions between the United States and Venezuela, including U.S. tariffs on countries that buy Venezuelan oil and strikes on boats off the waters of Venezuela, which the Trump administration stated were trafficking drugs.
The New York Times originally reported on the operations in a report citing unnamed U.S. officials. The administration accused Maduro of leading a narco-state that is facilitating the flow of drugs into the United States and has outlined a strategic goal of deposing Maduro, who has denied the accusations against him.
Trump said he authorized the operations for two reasons: criminals and drug trafficking.
“They have emptied their prisons into the United States of America … they came in through the border. They came in because we had an open border,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump has accused the Maduro government of releasing criminals from their prisons with the goal of getting them into the United States.
The United States has already placed pressure on Maduro via economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation, and legal actions.
The U.S. State Department, in August, doubled to $50 million its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest and conviction on drug trafficking charges. The bounty was originally set at $15 million in 2020.
Trump has also said that he is looking at potential land strikes on Venezuela to deter drug trafficking.
“We are looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” Trump said during a press briefing with FBI Director Kash Patel on Oct. 15.
Trump dismissed Coast Guard interdiction methods as “politically correct” but not working, as the administration continues to approach counter-narcotics as a national security imperative. A Pentagon disclosure recently made to Congress stated that U.S. engagements with drug cartels are a “non-international armed conflict.”
An increase in U.S. forces in the southern Caribbean Sea has seen American troops complete at least five strikes on vessels that the Trump administration stated were tied to drug trafficking.
