U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed that he authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to carry out covert operations inside Venezuela, escalating tensions with the South American nation. Speaking from the White House on Wednesday, Trump cited drug trafficking and the alleged release of prisoners into the U.S. as the main reasons behind the authorization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The revelation has sparked outrage among Venezuelan leadership, particularly amid recent U.S. military actions in the Caribbean. At least five operations have been conducted in the past few weeks, targeting suspected drug vessels and leaving 27 people dead. United Nations human rights experts have condemned the actions as \u201cextrajudicial killings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump also hinted at potential U.S. ground operations in Venezuela to disrupt drug trafficking routes. \u201cWe\u2019re stopping them at sea, and we\u2019ll stop them on land too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tensions between Washington and Caracas have been high since Venezuela\u2019s disputed election last year, which left President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s legitimacy under question by the international community. Maduro has called for peace but also warned of rising threats as U.S. military presence in the region grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A New York Times<\/em> report stated that the CIA now has the green light to conduct unilateral or coordinated military actions in Venezuela. However, it remains unclear whether such plans are currently underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked directly about the CIA’s role during a press briefing, Trump responded, \u201cI gave the authorization for two reasons. One, they emptied their prisons and sent people here. Two, drugs. A lot of drugs come in from Venezuela\u2014mostly by sea, but we\u2019ll stop them on land too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though Trump did not confirm whether the ultimate goal was to oust Maduro, the U.S. government previously offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Tuesday, six people were killed in a U.S. strike near Venezuela\u2019s coast. Trump later defended the action on his social media platform Truth Social<\/em>, claiming intelligence confirmed the boat was involved in drug trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro condemned the rising hostilities in a televised speech Wednesday night, warning against foreign-led regime change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSay no to U.S.-backed coups that remind us of the failed wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya,\u201d Maduro said. \u201cTo the American people, I say: Say no to war. Say yes to peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to the growing threat, Maduro ordered military drills in Caracas suburbs and Miranda state, and called for the full readiness of the army, police, and civilian militias to protect the oil-rich nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed that he authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to carry out covert operations inside Venezuela, escalating tensions with the South American nation. Speaking from the White House on Wednesday, Trump cited drug trafficking and the alleged release of prisoners into the U.S. as the main reasons behind the authorization. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6558,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6554\/revisions\/6558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}