NYT: Trump would have authorized CIA action in Venezuela — but opens the door for negotiation

WASHINGTON — With the largest U.S. aircraft carrier now positioned in the Caribbean, President Donald Trump has approved additional measures to pressure Venezuela and prepare for the possibility of a broader military campaign, according to multiple sources briefed on the matter.

Trump authorized CIA plans for covert actions inside Venezuela, operations that could prepare a battlefield for future actions, these sources said. At the same time, he authorized a new round of negotiations through informal channels that, at one point, resulted in President Nicolás Maduro offering to step down after a delay of a few years, a proposal rejected by the White House.

It is unclear what these covert actions would be or when they might be carried out. Trump has not yet authorized combat forces on Venezuelan soil, so the next phase of the administration’s escalating pressure campaign on Maduro could be sabotage or some type of cyber, psychological or information operation.

The president has not yet made a decision on the broader course to follow in Venezuela, nor has he publicly articulated his ultimate goal beyond stemming the flow of drugs from the region. Military and CIA planners prepared multiple options for different contingencies.

Military planners drew up lists of possible drug facilities that could be attacked. The Pentagon is also planning attacks on military units close to Maduro. Trump held two meetings in the White House Situation Room last week to discuss Venezuela and review options with his top advisers.

Any covert action by the CIA would likely occur before these military strikes.

Both the White House and the CIA declined to comment on Trump’s order.

Even as Trump ordered the CIA to prepare multiple possible covert operations inside Venezuela, he also reopened negotiations through informal channels with Maduro after briefly halting those talks last month, people in the know said.

In these informal talks, Maduro signaled a willingness to offer access to the country’s oil wealth to American energy companies.

Trump acknowledged those conversations, to some extent, on Sunday.

“We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how this plays out,” Trump said.

While Trump emphasizes Venezuela’s role in drug trafficking or illegal immigration when he discusses the issue publicly, he has privately discussed the country’s enormous oil reserves and American companies’ access to them.

Venezuelan officials have told Americans that Maduro could be willing to step down from power after a two- to three-year transition, according to people in the know. Any delay in Maduro’s departure is unacceptable for the White House.

But despite the apparent impasse, negotiations through informal channels show that a diplomatic solution is still possible.

People familiar with the discussions say it is unclear which outcome the president prefers. Trump could accept a diplomatic agreement to expand American companies’ access to Venezuelan oil, he could push for a resolution that allows Maduro to leave power voluntarily, or he could demand that the United States remove the Venezuelan dictator by force.

Even with the outcome uncertain, the White House defined a strategy of increasing pressure on Maduro, while offering Trump options on how to conclude the campaign against Venezuela.

Dubbed “Operation Southern Spear,” the massive deployment of U.S. naval forces in the Caribbean is the largest since the Cuban missile crisis and blockade of Cuba in 1962. The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford arrived in the Caribbean over the weekend, and there are now 15,000 troops in the region, including Marines on amphibious ships and personnel at military bases in Puerto Rico.

But the military buildup is just the most visible part of a multifaceted pressure campaign.

The State Department announced that, effective November 24, it will designate the Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization. While the Cartel de los Soles is not a cartel in the traditional sense, this is a way for the Trump administration to label a large part of the Maduro government as a terrorist organization, potentially paving the way for military action but also putting pressure on the government.

Trump’s recent public comments reflect uncertainty about the outcome, even as he ramps up the pressure. Trump said on Monday that he did not rule out sending ground troops to Venezuela and left open the possibility of direct negotiations with Maduro.

“I’m not ruling anything out,” Trump said. “We just have to take care of Venezuela.”

The United States has launched 21 known attacks on vessels that the administration says were trafficking drugs, killing at least 83 people. Trump has said there is enough intelligence to justify the attacks, but officials have not provided detailed evidence about the vessels’ cargo.

These attacks were carried out without congressional authorization, drawing criticism from legal experts and Democrats in Congress who say the administration is intentionally targeting civilians who may be suspected of crimes but are not combatants.

Trump, at least after the first attacks in October, said the U.S. was targeting fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid that has caused tens of thousands of overdose deaths. But military officials, in closed meetings with Congress, acknowledged that the vessels were transporting cocaine, not fentanyl.

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