In a dramatic escalation of tensions between the United States and Venezuela, President Donald Trump confirmed in October 2025 that his administration had authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct lethal covert operations against the government of Nicolás Maduro. This move, which comes amid a broader campaign of military and economic pressure, marks a new and dangerous phase in the long-standing struggle for influence in Latin America—a region historically shaped by U.S. intervention.
Speaking to reporters on October 21, Trump openly admitted to green-lighting the CIA’s covert activities in Venezuela, justifying the measure by alleging that the Maduro government was funneling criminals, asylum seekers, and narcotics into the U.S. via the southern border and Caribbean routes. "Land strikes will follow," Trump warned, signaling an intensification of hostilities. According to The New York Times, several U.S. officials confirmed that a new presidential finding had enabled the CIA to take lethal action and conduct other unspecified operations in the Caribbean region.
Venezuela’s Foreign Affairs Ministry wasted no time in condemning Trump’s "bellicose and extravagant" statements and his admission of CIA-led destabilization plans. In an emergency meeting at the United Nations Security Council, Venezuelan representatives decried what they described as regime-change efforts, warning of possible U.S. military attacks justified by "falsehoods" about Caracas’s involvement in drug trafficking.
The U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean has been visible and substantial. Since mid-August 2025, at least eight American warships, aircraft, and an estimated 10,000 troops have been stationed in the region, ostensibly to combat drug smuggling. The military campaign has included at least five deadly strikes on boats near Venezuelan coasts since September, resulting in 27 deaths, including six crewmen in the most recent attack announced by Trump himself on October 21 via Truth Social. The U.S. claims the victims were involved in narcotics trafficking and belonged to organizations designated as terrorist groups. However, Venezuela asserts that civilians have been killed, and families of the deceased in Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago say those lost were fishermen, not criminals.
Legal and human rights experts, as well as Democratic representatives in the U.S. Congress, have raised alarms that these actions constitute extrajudicial killings. They argue that the U.S. must adhere to formal procedures that guarantee due process and respect international law. In response, the Trump administration produced a classified legal opinion justifying the strikes, asserting that the United States is engaged in a "non-international armed conflict" with designated foreign terrorist organizations. The Senate recently rejected a resolution that aimed to limit Trump’s authority to conduct military operations in the Caribbean, leaving the president with a free hand to escalate the campaign.
The context of these developments is deeply rooted in a long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America. As highlighted by Monthly Review, Washington’s approach to the region has always been shaped by the Monroe Doctrine, a policy that reserves the hemisphere for U.S. geopolitical dominance. The record is clear: from the 1954 coup against Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala, to the 1973 overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile, to the invasions of Grenada and Panama, the U.S. has repeatedly intervened—sometimes overtly, sometimes through covert means—to shape the political landscape of Latin America.
Venezuela has been a particular focus of U.S. regime-change efforts since Hugo Chávez’s election in 1998. The 2002 coup attempt against Chávez, the crippling oil lockout of 2002–2003, and the funneling of millions of dollars to right-wing opposition groups under both the Obama and Trump administrations all point to a sustained campaign to undermine the country’s leftist government. In 2019, the Trump administration recognized Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate president—a move widely seen as an attempt to delegitimize and displace Maduro.
Economic pressure has been a critical part of the U.S. strategy. In 2015, President Obama declared Venezuela an "extraordinary and unusual threat to U.S. national security," paving the way for sanctions that would devastate the country’s oil industry. According to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), these sanctions caused Venezuela to lose between $17 billion and $31 billion in potential oil revenue, severely limiting its ability to import food, medicine, and other essentials. The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) described the 2019 sanctions as "possibly more draconian" than those imposed on Iraq before the 2003 invasion, noting the absence of humanitarian mechanisms to mitigate the effects. Venezuela’s GDP shrank by an estimated 74.3% between 2014 and 2021, making it the largest economic contraction in Latin American history.
The Trump administration has justified its actions by branding Maduro’s government as a "narco-terrorist" entity. A $50 million bounty was placed on Maduro’s head earlier in 2025 over alleged links to the so-called "Cartel de los Soles" and "Tren de Aragua"—both designated terrorist organizations by the U.S. However, reports from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have found that Venezuela is not a major drug-producing or shipping country. Most narcotics destined for the U.S. originate in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, traveling via Pacific routes and Central America.
Venezuela, for its part, has mobilized its armed forces, launching defense exercises and deploying troops to protect borders, airports, ports, and critical infrastructure. The Maduro government has repeatedly called for dialogue and de-escalation, but Washington has dismissed these overtures. Caracas also claims to have thwarted a "false flag operation" designed to provoke conflict with the U.S.—an allegation dismissed by American authorities, who note that the U.S. embassy in Caracas has been empty since 2019.
In the broader region, U.S. military activity has met with resistance. On October 14-15, U.S. Southern Command Chief Alvin Holsey visited Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada to discuss security cooperation. Antigua’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne made it clear that his country would not host U.S. military assets, reflecting regional unease over the growing American presence.
The campaign against Venezuela is widely seen as the continuation of a two-century project to maintain U.S. hegemony in Latin America. The stakes are not only economic—control of the world’s largest oil reserves—but also ideological. As Peoples Dispatch notes, the overthrow of Venezuela’s government would send a powerful message to other countries considering an independent path, reasserting U.S. dominance in the hemisphere.
Yet, public opinion in the United States appears wary of another foreign war. A bipartisan resolution led by Senators Adam Schiff and Rand Paul sought to block Trump from using force against Venezuela, reflecting a broader reluctance among Americans to become entangled in yet another overseas conflict. Whether this sentiment will ultimately restrain the administration’s ambitions remains to be seen, but the outcome will have profound consequences for Venezuela, the region, and the future of U.S. foreign policy.
As the crisis deepens, the world watches closely, aware that the next moves in this high-stakes confrontation could shape the fate of a nation—and perhaps the hemisphere—for years to come.