Trump Administration Authorizes Covert CIA Action In Venezuela

The Trump administration quietly greenlit a covert CIA operation in Venezuela against socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The CIA will now be authorized to carry out lethal operations in Venezuela, according to the news outlet. It is not clear, however, if there are any looming plans against Maduro or his regime.

President Donald Trump confirmed the plan during a press conference Wednesday, stating that he authorized enhanced action over Venezuela’s role in criminal migrants crossing the southern border and the trafficking of lethal drugs killing Americans.

“They’ve allowed thousands and thousands of prisoners, people from mental institutions, insane asylums emptied out into the United States, we’re bring[ing] them back. But that’s a really bad thing,” Trump said, adding, “Many, many countries have done it, but not like Venezuela, they were down and dirty.”

Trump also said that the United States will not only interdict drugs at sea, but also “by land.”

“We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come through the sea, so you get to see that, but we’re gonna stop them by land also.”

“I think Venezuela’s feeling heat, but I think a lot of other countries are feeling heat too. We’re not going to let this country, our country, be ruined because other people want to drop their worst. They have given us their worst, they’ve loaded up our country with prisoners, with mentally ill people that are seriously ill, criminally ill, and we’re not gonna take it,” Trump said.

The Trump administration is already beefing up the presence of troops in the region, according to the Times.

Most of the 10,000 U.S. troops stationed in the Caribbean are currently in Puerto Rico, while some Marines are on amphibious assault ships and a submarine in the region.

The Trump administration has taken out several drug cartel vessels in recent months, killing 27 suspected narco-terrorists in five kinetic strikes.

Maduro has called the strikes “a military attack on civilians who were not at war and were not militarily threatening any country,” while accusing the Trump administration of “seeking a regime change” in Venezuela.

Wes Tabor, who was in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s office in Caracas in 2012, recently told The Daily Wire that the Trump administration is “squeezing” the drug cartels.

“The permissive environment they long enjoyed is evaporating,” he said.

The United States has also offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest and conviction on drug trafficking charges, citing his alleged ties to transnational gangs and cartels.

Earlier this month, President Trump called for an end to diplomatic talks with the Maduro regime over the dictator’s refusal to step down from power, according to the Times.