Maduro condemns Trump’s threat of ground attack
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has condemned Trump’s threat of a ground attack after the United States seized an oil tanker near Venezuela.
President Donald Trump this week boasted about the first U.S.-reported ground attack on Venezuela, overlooking a CIA-led operation that retired intelligence experts said was an unusual move.
Although the United States has carried out covert invasions in Latin America in the past, it is unusual for a U.S. official, let alone a president, to publicly acknowledge them, former CIA and military intelligence officials told USA TODAY. The CIA has historically conducted covert operations to avoid public knowledge.
Rick de la Torre, a former CIA Latin America chief, said that for President Trump to mention the attack, as he did twice this week, would send a “serious message to President (Nicolas) Maduro” that “the United States can reach out and touch him if it wants to.”
President Trump first mentioned the attack in a Dec. 26 WABC radio interview, in which he said two days earlier that the U.S. had “destroyed” a “large facility where ships come from,” but did not say where the attack took place. Pressed on the matter by reporters at a Dec. 29 event at Mar-a-Lago with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said the U.S. had attacked “the area of the pier where drugs are loaded onto boats.”
“It hit all the boats and has now reached the execution area,” he said.
First CNN and then The New York Times reported later that day that the CIA carried out a drone attack in December against a pier in Venezuela that the United States suspected of being used by the gangster Torren de Aragua to load drugs onto boats. The Trump administration designated Torren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization.
U.S. government agencies have not confirmed whether the operation took place. The CIA declined to comment, and the Pentagon referred questions to the White House. The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
President Trump talks about other covert operations in South America
This month is not the first time President Trump has publicly discussed the CIA’s actions in Venezuela. He informed reporters in October that he had authorized the CIA to operate in the country.
The Trump administration has waged much of its campaign to remove President Maduro from power in public. Retired intelligence officials characterized these announcements as a psychological operation intended to signal to Venezuela’s leaders and those around them that the United States was under siege.
Bird’s-eye video footage of more than 20 U.S. ship attacks in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that killed more than 100 people has been shared by government authorities and official military social media accounts. Video shows the boat being consumed by smoke and flames.
The exception is a second attack on a boat on Sept. 2 that left the sailor killed and two survivors shown dead, according to lawmakers. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth viewed the unedited video and said it would not be released to the public despite requests from Democratic lawmakers who called the second attack disturbing and morally unjustified.
Trump administration officials also posted videos on social media of the seizure of two oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela earlier this month. The first video showed American soldiers descending from helicopters and attacking the ship. A second, more than seven-minute video posted by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem showed the helicopter descending onto the tanker from multiple angles.
“Shadow and Mirror”
Retired CIA and military intelligence officials told USA TODAY that President Trump’s disclosures about covert operations in Venezuela were likely intended to signal to Mr. Maduro and his allies that the United States was prepared to escalate the conflict.
“It’s all shadows and mirrors,” said Mr. de la Torre, former Latin America bureau chief.
Still, Delatorre said it’s unclear what President Trump’s recent announcements have achieved. He said Maduro must already “suspect that U.S. special forces and the (intelligence) community are actively conducting operations against him and his regime.”
Christopher Costa, a former military intelligence officer and senior counterterrorism official during Trump’s first term, said it was the president’s “prerogative” to announce operations.
“This remains another way of telling President Maduro: It’s time for him to resign,” added Costa, who is now executive director of the International Spy Museum.
Costa said it was unlikely that any government agency would confirm Trump’s attack announcement because it falls under the president’s legal authority to order covert operations, unlike traditional military operations conducted by the Pentagon.
He said that for President Trump, “covert action is seen as a third option” alongside diplomacy and military action.
Seth Krumrich, a former special operations Army colonel and current vice president of the security firm Global Guardian, said it was “really unusual” for a president to announce a covert operation.
Covert operations do not have the same surveillance requirements as traditional military operations. These are triggered by directives called “Presidential Observations” and reported through the Congressional Intelligence Committees. They also include the possibility of plausible deniability, meaning that if they come to light, the U.S. government is under no legal obligation to admit involvement.
Krumlich said Trump’s choice was noteworthy: “The whole point of[these secret CIA agencies]is that they can’t be held accountable.”
