Cuba vows support for Venezuela after Trump authorizes covert CIA operations

MEXICO CITY

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel pledged support Thursday for Venezuela and its leader Nicolas Maduro after US President Donald Trump announced that he had authorized covert CIA operations in the South American country.

In a post on the US social media company X's platform, Diaz-Canel condemned Trump’s announcement..

“At a time when the empire and its misguided leader have approved covert CIA operations against #Venezuela, we express our solidarity with that brotherly nation, and especially with its President Nicolas Maduro,” he wrote.

“We are confident that Venezuela, through its popular, military and police unity, will once again overcome the threats and actions of the empire,” he added.

On Wednesday, Trump confirmed a report by The New York Times which said he secretly authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela.

Asked at a White House news conference whether the report was accurate, he responded affirmatively, saying he approved the actions for “two main reasons.”

“Number one, they (Venezuela) have emptied their prisons into the United States of America,” he said.

“And the other thing are drugs. We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela, and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea, so you get to see that, but we’re going to stop them by land also,” he added.

Maduro has been labeled by the US as an international drug trafficker and a “narco-terrorist,” though such accusations often lack clear evidence.

He “helped manage and ultimately lead the Cartel of the Suns, a Venezuelan drug-trafficking organization comprised of high-ranking Venezuelan officials. As he gained power in Venezuela, Maduro participated in a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Maduro negotiated multi-ton shipments of FARC-produced cocaine; directed the Cartel of the Suns to provide military-grade weapons to the FARC; coordinated with narcotics traffickers in Honduras and other countries to facilitate large-scale drug trafficking; and solicited assistance from FARC leadership in training an unsanctioned militia group that functioned, in essence, as an armed forces unit for the Cartel of the Suns,” said the US State Department.

The deployment of US troops in the Southern Caribbean and Puerto Rico and US airstrikes against alleged drug vessels off Venezuela's coast have escalated tensions, further inflaming reactions to Trump's comments.

Cuba, which faced a long-running campaign by the CIA of covert operations aimed at undermining and overthrowing the Cuban government, has taken a firm stance in solidarity with Venezuela.