WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump acknowledged Wednesday that he has authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela and said he is considering conducting ground operations against the country.
The authorization of covert operations in Venezuela by the U.S. spy agency comes after the U.S. military carried out covert operations in recent weeks. series of deadly attacks In response to suspicions of drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean. The US military Destroyed at least 5 boats Since early September, 27 people have died, including four on board. From Venezuela.
Asked at an Oval Office event Wednesday why he authorized the CIA to take action in Venezuela, Trump acknowledged that he had taken the action himself.
“There are actually two reasons why I approved it,” Trump responded. “First of all, they emptied prisons in the United States,” he said. “The other thing is drugs. A lot of drugs are coming in from Venezuela. venezuela drugs Please enter from the sea. ”
Trump added that the government was considering further attacks in the region and was “looking at land.” He declined to say whether the CIA had the authority to take action. President Nicolas Maduro.
Shortly after The New York Times reported that the CIA had been authorized to carry out covert operations in Venezuela, President Trump made an unusual admission of the CIA’s operations.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration Drug cartels declared illegal combatants It declared that the United States was now in an “armed conflict” with them, justifying the military action as a necessary escalation to stop the flow of drugs into the United States.
The move has sparked outrage in Congress from members of both major political parties, who say President Trump is effectively committing an act of war without seeking Congressional approval.
On Wednesday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said she supported cracking down on human trafficking but said the administration was going too far.
“The Trump administration’s approval of covert CIA operations, deadly attacks on boats, and threatened ground operations in Venezuela move the United States closer to a full-blown conflict with no transparency, oversight, or clear guardrails,” Shaheen said. “The American people have a right to know whether the administration is leading the United States into new conflicts, endangering military personnel, or promoting regime change operations.”
The Trump administration has yet to provide lawmakers with basic evidence to prove that the vessels targeted by the U.S. military were actually carrying drugs, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the government had not yet provided “hard evidence” that the ship was carrying drugs, only citing unclassified video clips of the airstrike posted on social media by President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Lawmakers have expressed frustration that the administration has provided few details about how it arrived at determining that the United States is engaged in armed conflict with cartels or which criminal organizations it claims are “illegal combatants.”
While the U.S. military has attacked some vessels, the U.S. Coast Guard has continued its typical practice of stopping vessels and seizing drugs.
President Trump did not explain the move Wednesday, saying the traditional approach is not working.
“Because we’ve been doing it for 30 years and it’s never worked, because they have faster boats,” he said. “These are world-class speedboats, but they’re not faster than a missile.”
Human rights groups have expressed concern that the attack violated international law and amounted to extrajudicial killings.
