Covert Action Crosses a Line

The U.S. drone strike on a Venezuelan docking facility represents a clear escalation in Washington’s campaign against President Nicolás Maduro’s government, moving for the first time from maritime interdiction to direct action on Venezuelan soil. According to two people familiar with the operation cited by the Associated Press, the Central Intelligence Agency was responsible for the strike, a claim later echoed by CNN. Venezuelan authorities have not acknowledged the attack.

The operation is the first known direct strike inside Venezuela since the United States began intensified operations in September, following a major buildup of U.S. personnel in the Caribbean Sea starting in August. Since then, U.S. forces have carried out at least 30 strikes on vessels described by Washington as drug-smuggling boats operating in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

“A Dock Area” Targeted

President Donald Trump publicly referenced the strike in two separate appearances. In an interview Friday on WABC radio in New York, Trump said the United States had destroyed a “big facility where ships come from.” He later expanded on that account Monday while hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort, stating that the target was a “dock area where they load the boats up with drugs.”

When pressed by reporters on whether the strike was conducted by the U.S. military or the CIA, Trump declined to specify. The CIA and the White House also refused to comment. Colonel Allie Weiskopf, a spokesperson for U.S. Special Operations Command, said in a statement that “Special Operations did not support this operation to include intel support,” underscoring that the action fell outside conventional military channels.

Oversight, Secrecy, and Escalation Control

By assigning the operation to the CIA, the administration appears to have relied on covert action authorities rather than overt military force. Under U.S. law, covert CIA actions must be reported to senior members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, but they typically attract less public scrutiny than military strikes. Trump has previously acknowledged authorizing CIA operations inside Venezuela, an unusual level of disclosure for covert activity.

“I authorized for two reasons, really,” Trump said in October. “No. 1, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America. And the other thing, the drugs.” He added that “a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea,” framing the campaign as a counter-narcotics effort.