Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro condemned Donald Trump’s authorization of covert CIA operations in Venezuela, calling it an “immoral” and “desperate” attempt at regime change.

The Nicolás Maduro regime said Sunday Venezuela has captured a group of alleged mercenaries with ties to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and accused Washington and Trinidad and Tobago of coordinating military exercises intended to provoke an armed confrontation in the Caribbean.

The government of Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro claimed in a Sunday statement that it captured an alleged “mercenary group” with “direct information” from the CIA. The statement from Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez accused the alleged group of planning a “false flag operation” from around nearby Trinidad and Tobago and accused the small island nation of performing ongoing “military exercises” under “the coordination,

Venezuela said it has captured mercenaries "with direct information" relating to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as Caracas accused neighboring Trinidad and Tobago of a "military provocation" by carrying out joint drills with the U.S.

The report comes amid tensions between the Trump administration and Venezuela over drug trafficking.View on euronews

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez claimed the mercenary group was captured “with direct information of the American intelligence agency, CIA.”

In a big bombshell report, it was revealed that a U.S. federal agent devised a covert plan to recruit Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s personal pilot to secretly divert the president’s plane so that U.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump secretly authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela, the New York Times reported today, citing unnamed senior American officials.

Venezuelan government officials floated a plan in which President Nicolás Maduro would eventually leave office, a bid aimed at easing mounting U.S. pressure on the government in Caracas.

Tensions in the Caribbean spiked after Venezuela announced that its security forces had captured what it described as a “mercenary group” allegedly connected to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).