CIA Secretly Authorized for Lethal Covert Operations in Venezuela, NYT Reports

The White House has secretly authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct a wide range of covert operations, including lethal actions, in Venezuela and the Southern Caribbean, according to a stunning report from The New York Times citing senior administration officials. The secret authorization, known as a presidential “finding,” represents a dramatic and dangerous escalation in the U.S. pressure campaign against the government of Nicolás Maduro and drug trafficking cartels operating in the region.
This explosive revelation, published late Wednesday evening, provides a chilling new context for the rapidly escalating military standoff currently underway off the Venezuelan coast. Just hours ago, the U.S. deployed two B-52 strategic bombers on a show-of-force mission, prompting the Maduro government to scramble its own F-16 fighter jets and activate air defenses in Caracas. While publicly framed as a response to diplomatic tensions, the NYT report suggests these military maneuvers are the visible face of a much deeper and more aggressive covert war.
According to the officials who spoke with the Times, the presidential finding empowers the CIA to go far beyond traditional intelligence gathering. It greenlights a spectrum of deniable activities, which could include targeted assassinations of key government and cartel figures, sabotage of critical infrastructure, and arming and supporting anti-Maduro elements within the country.
The authorization gives the White House a powerful and deniable tool to destabilize the Maduro regime, a long-standing U.S. adversary. The official justification for the finding is the need to combat powerful drug trafficking cartels that use Venezuela as a transit hub. However, the senior officials made it clear that the pressure campaign is equally, if not primarily, aimed at the government of Nicolás Maduro itself.
This new policy of covert warfare explains the intense paranoia from Caracas last week, when it demanded an emergency UN Security Council meeting over fears of an “imminent” U.S. attack. While Washington dismissed the claims as “delusional,” this report suggests the Maduro government may have had intelligence pointing to this secret U.S. authorization, leading to its frantic diplomatic appeal.
The move marks a profound shift from a policy of economic and diplomatic pressure to one of direct, kinetic covert action. It plunges the United States into a shadow war in its own hemisphere, creating a volatile and unpredictable situation with a high risk of miscalculation. With U.S. bombers in the air, Venezuelan jets scrambled to meet them, and a secret CIA lethal finding now in play, the standoff in the Caribbean has become arguably the most dangerous international flashpoint on the globe.