Trump authorises CIA covert operations in Venezuela, as he weighs direct attack

US President Donald Trump has authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela, deepening the US’s entanglement in the oil-rich South American country in a move that recalls American shadow wars of the 1970s and 1980s.

Trump confirmed media reports on Wednesday that he had authorised the CIA to conduct a range of secret activities which span from paramilitary operations to economic and media warfare that could be used to create instability and eventually topple the government of leftist President Nicolas Maduro.

“I authorised for two reasons,” Trump said when asked about the reports. He said that Maduro had directed Venezuelan prisoners into the US and added that “we have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela”.

While global observers have been consumed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Israel's genocide in Gaza, the US has slowly amassed a military armada in the Caribbean.

The US has deployed guided-missile destroyers, F-35 jet fighters, MQ-9 Reaper drones and special operations vessels to the Caribbean Sea, in what The Wall Street Journal reported is the largest American military buildup in the area since the 1989 invasion of Panama.

Some of the vessels are capable of launching Tomahawk Cruise missiles with a range of 2,500 kilometres. There are at least 10,000 US troops in the region.

'Looking at land strikes'

The US has been launching air strikes off the coast of Venezuela against what it claims to be drug-smuggling ships. Maduro’s government has denied the allegation and says the strikes are part of an effort to stage a regime change. At least one of the five vessels the US bombed in international waters was attacked as it was sailing back to the Venezuelan coast, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Trump said on Wednesday that he was weighing attacking Venezuela directly.

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“We are certainly looking at land now because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” he said. “We’ve almost totally stopped it by sea. Now we’ll stop it by land.”

Asked if he had given the CIA authority to "take out" Maduro, Trump replied: "That's a ridiculous question for me to be given. Not really a ridiculous question, but wouldn't it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?”

Trump has shown no hesitation in deploying military force, despite running for election as a non-interventionist candidate promising to end forever wars. Although some Republican and Democratic members of Congress have expressed concern with Trump’s use of force, they have put no real impediments in his path.

Under the US Constitution, the president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, but Congress has the power to declare war. After World War II, US presidents across the political aisle vastly expanded their ability to launch military operations without explicit congressional approval.

South America and CIA coups

Trump’s justification for military action in Venezuela is particularly opaque.

Earlier in October, the Trump administration sent notice to Congress claiming extraordinary wartime powers on the grounds that drug cartels in Venezuela were engaged in “hostilities” against the US. Trump labelled the drug cartels “terrorist organisations” and said the strikes were being conducted in self-defence.

South America was a hotbed for US covert operations, coups and proxy wars during the Cold War. In 1954, the CIA orchestrated a coup in Guatemala, and in 1973, it supported a coup that put Augusto Pinochet in power in Chile.

In the 1980s, the CIA trained, armed and financed Contra fighters against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. That covert war spilt over into the Middle East, with the Reagan administration secretly selling arms to the Islamic Republic in a bid to secure the release of US citizens during the Iran hostage crisis. Profits from the sales were used to fund the Contra fighters.

Maduro has governed Venezuela since the death of Hugo Chavez in 2013. He tolerates little dissent and has snuffed out opposition parties, including those backed by the US. He has ordered military exercises among civilians in preparation for a potential invasion.

"No to war in the Caribbean... No to regime change... No to coups d'état orchestrated by the CIA," Maduro said in an address on Wednesday.