Trump confirms the CIA is conducting covert operations inside Venezuela
[October 16, 2025]
By AAMER MADHANI
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump confirmed Wednesday that he has
authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela and
said he was weighing carrying out land operations on the country.
The acknowledgement of covert action in Venezuela by the U.S. spy agency
comes after the U.S. military in recent weeks has carried out a series
of deadly strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean.
U.S. forces have destroyed at least five boats since early September,
killing 27 people, and four of those vessels originated from Venezuela.
Asked during an event in the Oval Office on Wednesday why he had
authorized the CIA to take action in Venezuela, Trump affirmed he had
made the move.
“I authorized for two reasons, really,” Trump replied. “No. 1, they have
emptied their prisons into the United States of America," he said. "And
the other thing, the drugs, we have a lot of drugs coming in from
Venezuela, and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea.”
Trump added the administration “is looking at land” as it considers
further strikes in the region. He declined to say whether the CIA has
authority to take action against President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump made the unusual acknowledgement of a CIA operation shortly after
The New York Times published that the CIA had been authorized to carry
out covert action in Venezuela.
Maduro pushes back
On Wednesday, Maduro lashed out at the record of the U.S. spy agency in
various conflicts around the world without directly addressing Trump’s
comments about authorizing the CIA to carry out covert operations in
Venezuela.
“No to regime change that reminds us so much of the (overthrows) in the
failed eternal wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and so on,” Maduro said
at a televised event of the National Council for Sovereignty and Peace,
which is made up of representatives from various political, economic,
academic and cultural sectors in Venezuela.
“No to the coups carried out by the CIA, which remind us so much of the
30,000 disappeared,” a figure 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 to carry on with its coups? Latin
America doesn’t want them, doesn’t need them and repudiates them,”
Maduro added.
The objective is “to say no to war in the Caribbean, no to war in South
America, yes to peace,” he said.
Speaking in English, Maduro said: “Not war, yes peace, not war. Is that
how you would say it? Who speaks English? Not war, yes peace, the people
of the United States, please. Please, please, please.”
In a statement, Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday rejected “the
bellicose and extravagant statements by the President of the United
States, in which he publicly admits to having authorized operations to
act against the peace and stability of Venezuela.”
“This unprecedented statement constitutes a very serious violation of
international law and the United Nations’ Charter and obliges the
community of countries to denounce these clearly immoderate and
inconceivable statements,” said the statement, which Foreign Minister
Yván Gil posted on his Telegram channel.
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President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office at
the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP
Photo/John McDonnell)
Resistance from Congress
Early this month, the Trump administration declared drug cartels to be
unlawful combatants and pronounced the United States is now in an “armed
conflict” with them, justifying the military action as a necessary
escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States.
The move has spurred anger in Congress from members of both major
political parties that Trump was effectively committing an act of war
without seeking congressional authorization.
On Wednesday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, said while she supports cracking down on
trafficking, the administration has gone too far.
“The Trump administration’s authorization of covert C.I.A. action,
conducting lethal strikes on boats and hinting at land operations in
Venezuela slides the United States closer to outright conflict with no
transparency, oversight or apparent guardrails,” Shaheen said. "The
American people deserve to know if the administration is leading the
U.S. into another conflict, putting servicemembers at risk or pursuing a
regime-change operation.”
The Trump administration has yet to provide underlying evidence to
lawmakers proving that the boats targeted by the U.S. military were in
fact carrying narcotics, according to two U.S. officials familiar with
the matter.
The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on
the condition of anonymity, said the administration has only pointed to
unclassified video clips of the strikes posted on social media by Trump
and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and has yet to produce “hard
evidence” that the vessels were carrying drugs.
Lawmakers have expressed frustration that the administration is offering
little detail about how it came to decide the U.S. is in armed conflict
with cartels or which criminal organizations it claims are “unlawful
combatants.”
Even as the U.S. military has carried out strikes on some vessels, the
U.S. Coast Guard has continued with its typical practice of stopping
boats and seizing drugs.
Trump on Wednesday explained away the action, saying the traditional
approach hasn't worked.
“Because we’ve been doing that for 30 years, and it has been totally
ineffective. They have faster boats,” he said. ”They’re world-class
speedboats, but they’re not faster than missiles."
Human rights groups have raised concerns that the strikes flout
international law and are extrajudicial killings.
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Associated Press writer Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed
to this report.
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