Spanish
Caracas.- The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, assured this Thursday that the Donald Trump Government ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to "end" Venezuela, after the US president confirmed that he authorized the institution to carry out covert operations in the South American country.
"The United States Government decides to send the CIA to Venezuela. (...) Never has any previous Government, since the CIA exists, publicly said that it was sending the CIA to kill, overthrow, and destroy countries," Maduro stated at a national congress of cooks, broadcast by the state channel VTV.
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Likewise, the Chavista leader indicated that "for the first time in history" a government in the United States says it has "given authorization and order to go and attack a country", but, he added, Venezuelans are united in the face of what he called a "crude and gross interventionist policy for a change of regime" in Venezuela. "They with their psychological warfare want to frighten the people, divide the people, want to demoralize the people, want to harm our country (...). Here the people are firmly united," he expressed. Maduro asserted that the CIA has "conspired" against Venezuela for the last 26 years, since the beginning of the government of the late President Hugo Chávez - who assumed power in 1999 and died in March 2013 - and also throughout his own administration. In this regard, it was pointed out that the 10 Americans that Venezuela handed over last July to the United States were "convicted and confessed CIA terrorists", referring to the exchange agreed upon for the release of 252 Venezuelans who were detained in El Salvador, where they arrived after being sent by the Trump government in March. This Wednesday, Maduro's Executive stated that it views with "extreme alarm" the use of the CIA as "a threat" against Venezuela, a set of actions that, it said, are part of "maneuvers" that seek to "legitimize an operation" of "regime change" in the South American country.Trump confirmed that day, as already reported by The New York Times, that he authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela because, he said, the leaders of that country have "emptied their prisons" to send prisoners to the United States. He also accused Caracas of trafficking drugs to US territory, which the Maduro government has rejected.
The New York Times newspaper revealed that the Trump Administration authorized the CIA to carry out lethal operations in Venezuela as well as in the Caribbean Sea, in an increase of its actions against the Maduro Government with the aim of "removing him from power". According to the newspaper, which cites U.S. officials as sources, the CIA could take covert actions against Maduro or his Executive, either unilaterally or jointly, as part of a broader military operation. However, it is still unknown whether the agency is already planning any action or if they are conceived as a contingency plan. The North American country currently has 10,000 soldiers in the region, the majority at bases in Puerto Rico, as well as a contingent of Marines on amphibious assault ships. In total, it has eight warships and a submarine in the Caribbean.
