With CIA strike, signs Trump is ‘shaping the battlespace’ in Venezuela
WASHINGTON— The day after Christmas is usually quiet in the nation’s capital. But President Trump’s decision to acknowledge a U.S. covert attack on Venezuelan territory in an interview with an anonymous local news outlet on Friday set off a turmoil in sleepy Washington that has become the president’s trademark.
Officials working on the administration’s Latin America policy, who closely followed reports of refinery fires and other interesting events across Venezuela, could not immediately understand which target the president was talking about, three sources familiar with the matter told The Times.
Trump would later detail that the attack targeted “the dock area where they load drugs onto boats.” But initial confusion within his own government showed that the circle within the West Wing was deciding whether to climb the ladder toward war with Caracas.
Trump initially confirmed that he had authorized CIA activities in Venezuela during a call with reporters in October. While the administration is obligated to report covert CIA operations to Congress, the use of military force requires more robust Congressional authorization.
“I actually authorized it for two reasons. First, they evacuated their prisons to the United States,” Trump said at the time. “And the other thing is, drugs, we have a lot of drugs coming from Venezuela, and most of the Venezuelan drugs come by sea.”
The strike came after Venezuelan authorities increased the number of U.S. citizens detained, The New York Times first reported Friday. Caracas had released 17 Americans and permanent residents held in notorious Venezuelan prisons at the beginning of the Trump administration.
Evan Ellis, who served in early planning for Trump’s State Department policy on Latin America, the Caribbean and international narcotics, said “it’s unclear whether the original plan was for this operation to be publicly announced in an interview by the president.” Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictatorial president, was “absolutely confused about this,” he said.
“It would make sense for them to do something like this instead of a military strike, especially now that there’s a delicate line between military operations and other things,” Ellis added. “To the extent the president agrees, my sense is that they are fulfilling their mission to shape the battlefield in support of broader national objectives.”
But Trump has not yet spelled out the full scope of those goals, leaving observers wondering whether regime change in Venezuela is his true, ultimate goal.
Trump has repeatedly told the media that Maduro’s days in power are numbered. The administration refers to him and his regime as an illegitimate narco-state that terrorizes American communities. The United States recognized the democratic opposition in Venezuela as its rightful government on a bipartisan basis until Trump’s first term and the Biden administration.
But a military war against the drug trade would make little sense targeting Venezuela, which is the source of only some of the illegal drugs smuggled into the United States. Trump has hinted at other reasons driving his calculations in recent weeks.
Over the past four months, the Trump administration has slowly increased its pressure campaign on Maduro, targeting boats allegedly carrying narcotics and drug traffickers in international waters before announcing a blockade of Venezuelan oil tankers. As a result, Venezuela’s oil exports have fallen by half over the past month.
On Wednesday, the Treasury Department also sanctions imposed Lawsuits have been filed against four companies operating in Venezuela’s oil sector or escorting oil tankers.
“The Maduro regime is increasingly dependent on a shadow fleet of vessels around the world to facilitate sanctioned activities, including sanctions evasion, and to generate revenue from its destabilizing operations,” the ministry said in a statement. “Today’s action also signals that those involved in Venezuelan oil trade continue to face significant sanctions risks.”
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has deployed nearly a quarter of the U.S. naval fleet in the Caribbean since the summer; This is, in Trump’s words, a “massive navy” unique in the region.
Although Venezuela’s current oil production is modest, the country has the world’s largest known oil reserves and offers significant potential access to future strategic partners. China is now the largest importer of Venezuelan oil, and at least one tanker facing a US blockade has sought protection from Maduro’s chief military ally, Moscow.
Discussing the blockade in his meeting with journalists, Trump said he spoke with senior US oil executives about what the Venezuelan market would look like if Maduro was no longer in power. And he suggested the US government would keep the seized barrels, recalling Trump’s 2010s campaign for the US to control oil fields as spoils of the war in Iraq.
Trump said last week that “we will keep” the 1.9 million barrels of Venezuelan oil in the first tanker seized. “Maybe we will sell it. Maybe we will keep it. Maybe we will use it in strategic reserves. We are keeping it.”
“We also keep the ships,” he added.
