President Donald Trump authorized the CIA to take steps that could lead to the overthrow of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
According to the report, Trump signed a covert “finding” authorizing the CIA to conduct aggressive operations targeting the Maduro regime and its alleged narcotics network.
The document, while not explicitly ordering regime change, empowers the agency to take actions that could “lead to that outcome,” U.S. officials told the Post.
Newsmax reached out to the White House for comment on the report.
“We would never comment on matters on intelligence, but President Trump has been clear that he is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding in to our country and to bring those responsible to justice,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told Newsmax in an email.
The report comes amid a sweeping escalation of U.S. military activity in the Caribbean, where dozens of warships, aircraft, and thousands of troops have been deployed as part of what Trump has called an “armed conflict” against international drug traffickers.
U.S. airstrikes have already destroyed several boats in international waters that Trump said were smuggling drugs from Venezuela, killing dozens of suspected traffickers.
“I authorized it for two reasons,” Trump said last week. “Venezuela was the worst abuser of open-border policies under Biden — sending prisoners and the mentally ill into our country. The other thing is drugs. We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela.”
Asked if he had approved efforts to “take out” Maduro, Trump replied, “That would be a ridiculous question for me to answer. But I think Venezuela is feeling the heat.”
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the president’s actions were aimed at “narcoterrorists bringing deadly poison to our shores,” and that Trump “will continue to use every element of American power” to stop drug trafficking.
Sources told the Post that the CIA has surged personnel into the region to collect intelligence, while the Pentagon has moved special operations units, including the Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, to Caribbean staging areas.
The operations, they said, are intended to fracture Venezuela’s military and pressure Maduro to step down, though they could expand into limited land strikes on trafficker sites inside Venezuelan territory.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been overseeing the broader campaign, which began as a counternarcotics effort but has evolved into an attempt to force Maduro’s removal.
Rubio, a longtime Maduro critic, has coordinated the effort alongside senior Trump aides Stephen Miller, Susie Wiles, and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi recently doubled the U.S. bounty on Maduro to $50 million, calling him “a narco-terrorist and fugitive from American justice.”
The Journal said the Pentagon has stationed eight Navy warships, an attack submarine, and advanced aircraft — including F-35B fighters, P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance planes, and MQ-9 Reaper drones — in the Caribbean. Nuclear-capable B-52 bombers also have conducted surveillance flights near Venezuelan territory in what U.S. officials describe as a show of force.
In response, The Wall Street Journal reported separately, Maduro has mobilized troops and claimed to have enlisted millions of civilians into militias.
Venezuelan state media has broadcast videos of older citizens training with rifles, while Maduro warned that “the people are ready for combat.”
Yet military experts say Venezuela’s armed forces are weakened by corruption, poor logistics, and low morale.
Despite the bluster, many observers see Trump’s escalation as a calculated bid to pressure the regime rather than launch a full-scale invasion.
Still, former U.S. diplomat Tom Shannon cautioned that the administration’s lack of transparency risks sliding the country into another open-ended conflict.
“If it’s just drug trafficking, fine,” Shannon told the Post. “But there’s an intimidation message here — and when you authorize covert action inside Venezuela, you’re taking this to a place where there’s no easy way back.”
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