MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Caracas angered by CIA clearance to target Venezuela

Maduro's government said a complaint would be filed at the UN

After The New York Times revealed that US President Donald Trump authorized the CIA to carry out covert actions in Venezuela, the Bolivarian regime in Caracas issued a fierce response.

“How long will the CIA's coups d'état continue?” wondered President Nicolás Maduro, who linked this news to past South American coups and denounced the policy as a pursuit of “regime change.”

Additionally, the Chavista government expressed “extreme alarm”, calling the authorization a “very serious violation of international law and the United Nations Charter” and a risk to regional stability.

Caracas asserted that the ultimate goal of the policy is to “appropriate Venezuelan oil resources” and warned that the US is also attempting to “stigmatize Venezuelan and Latin American migration.”

Maduro's administration announced it would file a complaint with the UN Security Council and the Secretary-General, demanding accountability and urgent measures to prevent military escalation in the Caribbean, which was declared a zone of peace in 2014.

Venezuelan Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez warned that military aggression against the country, which holds the largest oil reserves on the planet, would severely impact the “international energy formula.”

The CIA was cleared to conduct covert and potentially lethal operations against Venezuela, either unilaterally or as part of a broader deployment. This authorization came while Washington stationed 10,000 troops (mostly in Puerto Rico), along with eight warships and one submarine, in the Caribbean.