President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he had authorized the CIA to conduct unspecified operations inside Venezuela, an unusual public acknowledgment of U.S. intelligence activity abroad.
The announcement comes amid growing tension between Washington and Caracas. Earlier in the week, Trump said the U.S. military carried out a fifth strike on a boat in the Caribbean, which he claimed was smuggling narcotics to the United States.
When asked about giving the CIA the green light to operate in the South American nation, President Trump cited two reasons.
“No. 1, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America,” said Trump, according to NBC News. “And the other thing are drugs. We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela.”
The president was also asked whether the CIA was authorized to “take out” Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.
“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?” Trump said.
Trump added that the United States has not ruled out land operations to stem drug trafficking.
“Well, I don’t want to tell you exactly, but we are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” he said. “We’ve had a couple of days where there isn’t a boat to be found.”
NBC described Trump’s remarks as an “extraordinary and unprecedented acknowledgment” from a sitting commander in chief.
Multiple drug cartels from Venezuela and other countries in Latin America have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, in part over their role in the high death toll from fentanyl use.
Earlier this month, The Dallas Express reported that Texas authorities captured a Venezuelan gang member and a convicted child murderer who had previously escaped from law enforcement the month prior. Alexis Ramon Perozo-Monasterio, 36, was apprehended on Sept. 4 during Texas’s border security initiative, Operation Lone Star.