In a recent development, President Donald Trump has refrained from disclosing the extent of his stringent policy on Venezuela.
The President, on Wednesday, revealed that he had sanctioned covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operations within the South American nation, as reported by The New York Times. "We are certainly looking at land now, because we've got the sea very well under control," Trump stated, shedding light on his administration's latest move against Nicolas Maduro's regime.
According to the Western Journal, when probed by a reporter about the boundaries of the CIA authorization, specifically if it included the authority to remove Maduro, Trump responded, "Oh I don't want to answer a question like that. 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?" He further added that Venezuela was "feeling heat."
The President justified his focus on Venezuela, citing that Venezuelan officials "have emptied their prisons into the United States of America" and that "we have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela." This comes in the wake of several weeks of U.S. military operations targeting vessels transporting drugs off the Venezuelan coast.
The New York Times report suggested that administration officials privately confirm the objective of driving Maduro from power. This appears to align with the policy goals of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The report also highlighted the presence of 10,000 U.S. troops in the Caribbean, within operational distance of Venezuela, including eight U.S. Navy warships, a submarine, and a Marine amphibious assault unit.
The Washington Post reported that the issue of regime change in Venezuela is still under debate within the administration. The current CIA efforts in the region are primarily focused on intelligence gathering in the context of the Trump administration's war on drug cartels.
CIA Director Ratcliffe has established the Americas and Counternarcotics Mission Center to address drug-related issues, led by an experienced official who supports direct action and "is feeling pretty empowered," according to a former CIA official.
Venezuela's Foreign Ministry has labeled Trump's announcement of CIA activity as "a grave violation of international law and the United Nations Charter." Trump's administration has consistently exerted pressure on Maduro, claiming that he unlawfully retained power despite last year's election results.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Venezuelan opposition leader Mara Corina Machado has expressed support for Trump's efforts. She stated that Maduro has transformed Venezuela into "a real threat to the national security of the United States," as reported by CNN. She emphasized the need to cut off the flows of drug trafficking, gold trafficking, arms trafficking, and even human trafficking, which she claims support Maduro's criminal narco-terrorism structure.
Machado believes that the regime change her country needs involves "applying [and] enforcing the law, cutting those flows that come from these criminal activities" to end Maduro's "war" on the Venezuelan people. "We need the help of the President of the United States to stop this war, because it is about human lives," Machado asserted.
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