Published On 16/10/2025
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Last update: 06:08 (Mecca time)
US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he is considering launching strikes on Venezuelan territory targeting drug cartels, after a series of US raids targeted boats that Washington says are used to smuggle drugs from Venezuela to the United States.
Trump told reporters at the White House in response to a question about whether he was considering launching strikes on Venezuelan territory, “We are definitely considering (the idea of launching strikes) on land now, because we control the sea very well.”
But the US President refused to confirm the accuracy of information published by the New York Times stating that he secretly allowed the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to carry out secret operations in Venezuela against the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
Asked whether he had allowed the CIA to “neutralize” Maduro, Trump said, “That’s a silly question. That’s not really a silly question, but wouldn’t it be silly for me to answer it?”
In Caracas, Maduro delivered a speech in which he denounced what he described as coups instigated by the CIA.
The Venezuelan president said, “No to war in the Caribbean (…) No to regime change, which reminds us too much of the failed eternal wars in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq (…) No to the coups instigated by the CIA.”
Raids at sea
On Tuesday, Trump announced that six people were killed in a new American raid that targeted a boat off the coast of Venezuela, which the United States confirms was being used to smuggle drugs into its territory.
This is the fifth raid of its kind announced since the beginning of last September, when tensions sharply escalated between Washington and Caracas. These five raids resulted in the deaths of at least 27 people.
The legality of launching raids in foreign or international waters against suspects who have not been arrested or questioned remains controversial.
Washington deployed eight warships and a nuclear-propelled submarine in the southern Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela, in a mission it said was aimed at combating drugs.
These steps inflamed the existing tension with Maduro, who announced the holding of exercises to test readiness to deal with disasters or armed conflict.