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CIA was behind a drone strike last week on a pier believed to be used by Venezuelan drug cartelsaccording to two people familiar with the details of the operation who requested anonymity to discuss the confidential matter.
The first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since The United States began strikes in September marks a significant escalation of the administration’s months-long campaign of pressure on President of Venezuela Nicolás Madurogovernment. Venezuelan officials have not acknowledged the strike.
American president Donald Trump first mentioned the operation in an interview Friday with John Catsimatidis on WABC radio in New York, saying the US had ejected some sort of “large object that the ships come from” from the machine.
Speaking to reporters on Monday while hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump added that the operation targeted “the wharf area where they load the ships with drugs.” But the president declined to comment when asked whether the attack was carried out by the military or the CIA.
CIA and White House officials also declined to comment further on the matter. Col. Allie Weiskopf, a spokesman for Special Operations Command, which oversees US operations in the Caribbean, said in a statement that “Special Operations did not support this operation to include intelligence support.”
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The strike is escalating what started as mass buildup of American personnel in the Caribbean Sea beginning in August, followed by at least 30 US military raids on alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Recently, Trump ordered a quasi-blockade aimed at seizing sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.
CNN first reported the CIA’s involvement in the operation.
Trump has threatened for months that he could soon order strikes on targets on the Venezuelan mainland. He also took the unusual step of publicly admitting that he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela.
The administration is required to report the CIA’s covert actions to senior Congressional officials, including the chairman and members of the Senate and House intelligence committees. But Trump, entrusting what appears to be the first ground attack of the Venezuelan campaign to an intelligence agency, could count on the action to face less scrutiny from lawmakers than a military coup.
“I authorized it for two reasons, really. Number 1, they emptied their prisons in the United States of America,” he said in October when he confirmed to reporters his authorization for the CIA to operate. “And the other thing, drugs, we have a lot of drugs coming from Venezuela, and a lot of Venezuelan drugs come across the sea.”
All this time, Trump kept repeating that Maduro’s days in power were numbered. The Venezuelan leader and members of his inner circle are under federal indictment in the United States as of 2020 on narco-terrorism and other charges.
Maduro has denied the accusations. The US Department of Justice this year doubled the reward to $50 million for information leading to his arrest.
The Venezuelan president did not mention the CIA operation during an hour-long speech Tuesday at an international leadership school for women.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
