
Ali Moshiri, Chevron’s former top executive for Venezuela and a longtime Washington interlocutor on energy matters, warned the CIA before Nicolás Maduro’s ouster that a direct handover of power to the opposition led by María Corina Machado could produce an unstable transition because she lacked control over the security apparatus and the state’s real power centers, according to a report published on Sunday. In that assessment, Moshiri recommended that the United States back Delcy Rodríguez as the more viable figure to manage the immediate succession.

Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez met on Thursday in Caracas with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, holding talks focused on security and cooperation, US intelligence sources confirmed to EFE.

Former CIA counterintelligence officer Aldrich Ames, whose nearly decade-long betrayal of the United States stood as one of the most catastrophic security breaches in history, died in federal custody on Monday at the age of 84.

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.

Argentina's Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona is facing calls for his resignation after a video was leaked showing him offering to help former CIA agent Timothy Ballard clean up his public image. Ballard, who inspired the film Sound of Freedom, has been accused of sexual violence by former employees of his anti-trafficking organization, Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.).

As the United States intelligence apparatus seems to be expanding throughout the region, Uruguay's Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber Thursday admitted the South American country exchanged information with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Australia was involved in espionage operations in Chile during the seventies, in support of the United States CIA agency activities conspiring against the democratically elected government of Socialist Salvador Allende, ousted by the military 48 years ago.

President-elect Joe Biden on Monday announced William Burns as his pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, tapping a retired veteran diplomat who helped lead secret talks with Iran.

A Spanish private security firm, which is under investigation in Madrid, spied on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on behalf of the CIA while he was inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, El Pais daily reported Friday.

The United States claimed on Tuesday that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was on his way out, saying he had a plane ready and that senior officials were plotting to oust him, even as the leftist firebrand appeared to survive a military uprising.