{"id":503119,"date":"2025-10-16T03:22:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T03:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/503119\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T03:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T03:22:11","slug":"trump-authorises-cia-operations-in-venezuela-says-mulling-land-attack-donald-trump-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/503119\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump authorises CIA operations in Venezuela, says mulling land attack | Donald Trump News"},"content":{"rendered":"

United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed that he has authorised the\u00a0Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to carry out covert operations in Venezuela.<\/a><\/p>\n

He added that his administration was also mulling land-based military operations inside Venezuela, as tensions between Washington and Caracas soar over multiple deadly US strikes on Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean Sea in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Trump held a news conference with some of his top law enforcement officials, where he faced questions about an earlier news report in The New York Times about the CIA authorisation.\u00a0One reporter asked directly, \u201cWhy did you authorise the CIA to go into Venezuela?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI authorised for two reasons, really,\u201d Trump replied. \u201cNumber one, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing,\u201d he continued, was Venezuela\u2019s role in drug-trafficking. He then appeared to imply that the US would take actions on foreign soil to prevent the flow of narcotics and other drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela,\u201d Trump said. \u201cA lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea. \u200aSo you get to see that. But we\u2019re going to stop them by land also.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s remarks mark the latest escalation in his campaign against Venezuela,\u00a0whose leader, Nicolas Maduro<\/a>, has long been a target for the US president, stretching back to Trump\u2019s first term in office.<\/p>\n

Already, both leaders have bolstered their military forces along the Caribbean Sea in a show of potential force.<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan government hit back at Trump\u2019s latest comments and the authorised CIA operations, accusing the US of violating international law and the UN Charter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of US actions is to create legitimacy for an operation to change the regime in Venezuela, with the ultimate goal of taking control of all the country\u2019s resources,\u201d the Maduro government said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Earlier, at the news conference, reporters sought to confront Trump over whether he was trying to enforce regime change in Caracas.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes the CIA have authority to take out Maduro?\u201d one journalist asked at the White House on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I don\u2019t want to answer a question like that. That\u2019s a ridiculous question for me to be given,\u201d Trump said, demurring. \u201cNot really a ridiculous question, but wouldn\u2019t it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?\u201d<\/p>\n

He then offered an addendum: \u201cBut I think Venezuela\u2019s feeling heat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claiming wartime powers<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s responses, at times meandering, touched on his oft-repeated claims about Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Since taking office for a second term, Trump has sought to assume wartime powers \u2013 using laws like the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 \u2013 by alleging that Venezuela had masterminded an \u201cinvasion\u201d of migrants and criminal groups onto US soil.<\/p>\n

He has offered little proof for his assertions, though, and his statements have been undercut by the assessments of his own intelligence community.<\/p>\n

In May, for example, a declassified US report revealed that intelligence officials had found no evidence directly linking Maduro<\/a> to criminal groups like Tren de Aragua, as Trump has alleged.<\/p>\n

Still, on Wednesday, Trump revisited the baseless claim that Venezuela under Maduro had sent prisoners and people with mental health conditions to destabilise the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany countries have done it, but not like Venezuela. \u200aThey were down and dirty,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

The authorisation of CIA operations inside Venezuela is the latest indication that Trump has been signing secret proclamations to lay the groundwork for lethal action overseas, despite insisting in public that he seeks peace globally.<\/p>\n

In August, for instance, anonymous sources told the US media that Trump had also signed an order allowing the US military to take action against drug-trafficking cartels and other Latin American criminal networks.<\/p>\n

And in October, it emerged that Trump had sent a memo to the US Congress asserting that the country was in a \u201cnon-international armed conflict\u201d with the cartels, whom he termed \u201cunlawful combatants\u201d.<\/p>\n

Many such groups, including Tren de Aragua, have also been added to the US\u2019s list of \u201cforeign terrorist organisations\u201d, though experts point out that the label alone does not provide a legal basis for military action.<\/p>\n

Strikes in the Caribbean Sea<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the US under Trump has taken a series of escalatory military actions, including by conducting multiple missile strikes on small vessels off the Venezuelan coast.<\/p>\n

At least five known air strikes<\/a> have been conducted on boats since September 2, killing 27 people.<\/p>\n

The most recent attack<\/a> was announced on Tuesday in a social media post: A video Trump shared showed a boat floating in the water, before a missile set it alight. Six people were reportedly killed in that bombing.<\/p>\n

Many legal experts and former military officials have said that the strikes appear to be a clear violation of international law. Drug traffickers have not traditionally met the definition of armed combatants in a war. And the US government has so far not presented any public evidence to back its claims that the boats were indeed carrying narcotics headed for America.<\/p>\n

But Trump has justified the strikes by saying they will save American lives lost to drug addiction.<\/p>\n

He has maintained the people on board the targeted boats were \u201cnarco-terrorists\u201d headed to the US.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, he again brushed aside a question about the lack of evidence. He also defended himself against concerns that the bombings amount to extrajudicial killings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they\u2019re loaded up with drugs, they\u2019re fair game,\u201d Trump told reporters, adding there was \u201cfentanyl dust all over the boat after those bombs go off\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWe know we have much information about each boat that goes. Deep, strong information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Framing the bombing campaign in the Caribbean as a success, Trump then explained his administration might start to pivot its strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aWe\u2019ve almost totally stopped it by sea. Now, we\u2019ll stop it by land,\u201d he said of the alleged drug trafficking. He joked that even fishermen had decided to stay off the waters.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aWe are certainly looking at land now because we\u2019ve got the sea very well under control.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed that he has authorised the\u00a0Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to carry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[6178,32,3274,12,37887,49,978,286,659,8518],"class_list":{"0":"post-503119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-conflict","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-latin-america","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-nicolas-maduro","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-us-canada","16":"tag-usa","17":"tag-venezuela"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115381701532527602","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}