What covert actions has the US carried out in Venezuela since 2000?
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Executive summary
Since 2000 the public record shows a mix of U.S.-linked clandestine plots, private-actor-backed incursions, and in 2025 a confirmed program of CIA-authorized covert action aimed at Venezuela — alongside a series of U.S. lethal maritime strikes the administration frames as counter‑drug operations. Reporting and primary analyses document Operation Gideon in 2020, years of diplomatic and economic pressure, and unprecedented 2025 authorizations of covert CIA activity; available sources do not provide a fully transparent catalogue of all clandestine actions across the quarter-century [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Operation Gideon: a 2020 mercenary infiltration with U.S. connections
The most explicit clandestine episode in the public record was Operation Gideon in May 2020, an ill‑fated sea-borne incursion into Venezuela organized by ex‑special-operations veterans and the private security firm Silvercorp USA, which sought to remove Nicolás Maduro and involved Venezuelan dissidents and foreign recruits; the operation failed and its aftermath revealed links to opposition figures and murky external support networks [1].
2. Covert action acknowledged — the 2025 CIA authorization
In late 2025 the U.S. president publicly confirmed that he had authorized the CIA to carry out covert action inside Venezuela — an extraordinary admission because covert action is normally classified — and multiple outlets reported that authorization encompassed plans for sabotage, cyber, psychological and information operations to prepare the battlefield for broader pressure or possible military steps [3] [2] [4].
3. Maritime strikes and the gray zone between overt and covert
Since September 2025 U.S. forces have carried out repeated strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific that Washington says were drug-smuggling boats; reporting attributes at least dozens of strikes and scores of deaths to that campaign, and some analysts and human‑rights groups have described the operations as extrajudicial and raised legal questions about intent and targeting — these actions sit in a contested zone between declared military operations and covert influence campaigns [4] [5] [6].
4. Methods likely included: payments, propaganda, cyber and liaison with dissidents
Journalistic and policy reporting indicates that the CIA plans under consideration have included information operations, cyber activity and political influence to provoke or facilitate regime change, and past U.S. practice in other countries suggests covert programs may include clandestine payments, liaison with opposition and clandestine operational support; sources caution the drug‑trafficking justification offered publicly is contested by analysts who note limited evidence that Venezuela is a primary transit route for the most lethal fentanyl flows [7] [8] [2].
5. Oversight, legality and political controversy
Legal scholars and intelligence‑oversight commentators stressed that covert actions are subject to statutory notification to the congressional intelligence committees (the “Gang of Eight” framework) and that authorizing clandestine measures against a sitting foreign head of state raises novel legal and policy questions; Congress and human‑rights groups have been reported pressing for more information and scrutinizing whether U.S. strikes and covert measures comply with domestic and international law [7] [9].
6. What the record does not show — limits in reporting to date
Open-source reporting collected here documents the 2020 mercenary raid, explicit 2025 CIA authorizations, and a campaign of maritime strikes, but sources do not provide a comprehensive, declassified list of every clandestine activity undertaken by U.S. agencies in Venezuela since 2000, nor do they establish the full scope, chain of command, or operational details of covert programs prior to 2025; therefore any catalogue must acknowledge these evidentiary gaps [1] [2] [3].
Conclusion: an escalatory pattern, not a fully transparent record
The available evidence paints a pattern of escalating clandestine and paramilitary pressure culminating in the 2025 public confirmation of CIA covert action and a parallel lethal maritime campaign, set against a long history of U.S. interventions in the hemisphere and intense domestic debate over legality and strategy; however, the precise inventory of covert activities across 2000–2025 remains incomplete in public sources and subject to continuing investigation [9] [4] [2].