{"id":9148,"date":"2025-10-21T03:19:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T03:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/world-insights-u-s-secret-intelligence-operations-in-venezuela-anger-latin-america\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T03:19:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T03:19:47","slug":"world-insights-u-s-secret-intelligence-operations-in-venezuela-anger-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/world-insights-u-s-secret-intelligence-operations-in-venezuela-anger-latin-america\/","title":{"rendered":"World Insights: U.S. secret intelligence operations in Venezuela anger Latin America"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure class=\"image\"><figcaption><span>Men pass in front of a mural for President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, on Sept. 22, 2025. (Photo by Marcos Salgado\/Xinhua)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span><strong>Washington&rsquo;s &ldquo;shows of force&rdquo; ultimately reveal its own &ldquo;anxiety before a Latin America that no longer responds obediently to its designs,&rdquo; said Luis Ernesto Martinez, a Venezuelan social sciences professor.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>by Xinhua writers Tan Huiting, Tian Rui<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>MEXICO CITY, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) &mdash; Outrage has swept across Latin America after U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that he had authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Trump&rsquo;s confirmation on Wednesday came shortly after The New York Times reported the classified directive, saying the administration aims to remove the Venezuelan president from power, further straining Washington&rsquo;s ties with the region.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>OPERATIONS UNDER PRETEXT OF &ldquo;WAR ON DRUGS&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The unusual acknowledgement of the U.S. spy agency&rsquo;s secret operations followed a string of U.S. military strikes in recent weeks targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/12-weeks-jail-for-school-it-support-technician-who-took-upskirt-videos-of-teachers\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">&lt;div&gt;12 weeks' jail for school IT support technician who took upskirt videos of teachers&lt;\/div&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><span>The Pentagon has deployed eight warships, a nuclear-powered submarine and more than 6,500 troops to the Caribbean in what the White House claims is aimed at cracking down on drug smuggling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Since early September, at least five deadly strikes have targeted small vessels that Trump said &ldquo;intelligence&rdquo; confirmed were involved in narcotics trafficking, killing 27 people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&ldquo;Every boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives,&rdquo; Trump said at Wednesday&rsquo;s press conference. &ldquo;We are certainly looking at land now, because we&rsquo;ve got the sea very well under control.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Critics denounced the operations as &ldquo;extrajudicial killings&rdquo; that violated both U.S. and international law, with the French daily Le Monde warning that the United States&rsquo; unilateral strikes, conducted without Congress&rsquo;s approval, &ldquo;could amount to regime change in disguise.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Meanwhile, disputes also arose inside the Pentagon over the strikes&rsquo; legality, leading to the early retirement of Alvin Holsey, the admiral overseeing all U.S. military activity in the Caribbean and South America, who reportedly opposed further escalation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The end goal, American officials have said privately, is to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power, The New York Times reported recently. &ldquo;The United States has offered 50 million U.S. dollars for information leading to Mr. Maduro&rsquo;s arrest and conviction on U.S. drug trafficking charges,&rdquo; it said.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/migrant-acquitted-in-first-trial-over-us-border-military-zones\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">Migrant acquitted in first trial over US border military zones<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><span>Maduro said the United States &ldquo;is not waging a war on drugs, but a war for control of Venezuela&rsquo;s oil and sovereignty,&rdquo; denouncing the U.S. operations as a new form of colonial aggression.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>LATIN AMERICA UNITED AGAINST INTERVENTION<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Trump&rsquo;s announcement has prompted Latin American leaders to a collective defense of national sovereignty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People&rsquo;s Trade Treaty, grouping Latin American and Caribbean countries like Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, released a communique on Thursday, calling the CIA operations &ldquo;a direct violation of the principle of sovereignty, as well as a threat to International Law and the Charter of the United Nations.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&ldquo;There will be no room for war or interventionism in Our America,&rdquo; it noted, adding that the region will always be &ldquo;a land of peace, dignity, and resistance.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Friday expressed the country&rsquo;s solidarity with Venezuela on X. &ldquo;In moments when the empire and its misguided leader approve covert CIA operations against Venezuela, we express our solidarity with that brother people and, especially, with its President Nicolas Maduro,&rdquo; he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Thursday that &ldquo;no president from another country has the right to decide Venezuela&rsquo;s fate.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>On the same day, the Workers&rsquo; Party in Brazil condemned the U.S. move as &ldquo;an affront to sovereignty and a violation of international law,&rdquo; noting that the CIA &ldquo;has a long history of illegal and destabilizing operations in South America, marked by coups, repression and bloody dictatorships.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Similarly, Bolivian President Luis Arce called the CIA operations &ldquo;a clear act of intimidation,&rdquo; warning that &ldquo;a military escalation could endanger peace and stability across Latin America and the Caribbean.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Luis Ernesto Martinez, a Venezuelan social sciences professor, told Xinhua that Washington remains anchored in a unilateral view of power, unable to accept that Latin America is no longer its backyard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&ldquo;It is a warning to the entire region, a reminder that Washington remains willing to use military power as an instrument of foreign policy,&rdquo; he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>NEW PRETEXT, OLD SCHEME<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The authority to allow the CIA to carry out lethal operations in Venezuela and the broader Caribbean region has revived global debate over the CIA&rsquo;s long and controversial record in Latin America, marked by covert interventions, assassinations and support for coups throughout the 20th century.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Luis Ricardo Delgado, professor of Social Sciences at Venezuela&rsquo;s University of Carabobo, recalled that the CIA&rsquo;s covert operations in Latin America are &ldquo;nothing new,&rdquo; and in Venezuela&rsquo;s case, they have been &ldquo;particularly active since 1999.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>For the United States, Latin America has always been regarded as its &ldquo;exclusive sphere of influence,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;Therefore, interventionism has always been justified in pursuit of its geostrategic and geoeconomic agendas.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The professor also argued that the CIA&rsquo;s presence in Venezuela is &ldquo;an updated reissue of the Monroe Doctrine under new pretexts.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He added that whether framed as the &ldquo;defense of democracy&rdquo; or the &ldquo;fight against drug trafficking,&rdquo; such efforts share the same goal of maintaining political and economic control over countries in the region, especially those challenging U.S. hegemony &mdash; a constant for decades, regardless of which party holds power in Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Delgado urged Latin America to reaffirm its political and economic independence through solid integration mechanisms to overcome the &ldquo;tutelage&rdquo; that Washington seeks to maintain over the continent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Analysts warn the tension could escalate. With U.S. naval forces stationed off Venezuelan waters, regional militaries on alert, and communication between the United States and Venezuela largely frozen, even a minor incident at sea could spark a wider conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Across Latin America, the prevailing view is that regional issues should be resolved through dialogue and mutual respect, rather than through force or covert operations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Washington&rsquo;s &ldquo;shows of force&rdquo; ultimately reveal its own &ldquo;anxiety before a Latin America that no longer responds obediently to its designs,&rdquo; said Martinez, the Venezuelan social sciences professor.<\/span><span>&#9632;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><sub>World Insights: U.S. secret intelligence operations in Venezuela anger Latin America<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Men pass in front of a mural for President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, on Sept. 22, 2025. (Photo by Marcos Salgado\/Xinhua) Washington&rsquo;s &ldquo;shows of force&rdquo; ultimately reveal its own &ldquo;anxiety before a Latin America that no longer responds obediently to its designs,&rdquo; said Luis Ernesto Martinez, a Venezuelan social sciences professor. by Xinhua writers&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/world-insights-u-s-secret-intelligence-operations-in-venezuela-anger-latin-america\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;World Insights: U.S. secret intelligence operations in Venezuela anger Latin America&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}