Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says the US President Donald Trump administration has approved “covert and terrorist operations” by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Latin American country.

Iran Press/America: “They (American officials) have given the CIA the green light to come with direct agents to [conduct] covert and terrorist operations against oil, electricity, military, electoral targets, and other dirty covert actions like those used by the CIA,” Maduro said in a televised address to the nation on Tuesday.

He said the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was an accomplice in Washington’s efforts to overthrow the leftist Venezuelan government.

“It (the US administration) has placed the DEA as the operator agency of the attack against Venezuela, what is new today is not that the DEA is involved with the Colombian drug trafficking group to attack Venezuela, the new thing is that they have approved that the CIA get involved in operations… terrorist attacks against Venezuela,” he added.

Earlier this month, Maduro announced the capture of a US spy near Venezuela's largest oil refinery, who was in possession of “heavy, specialized weapons and a large amount of cash.” 

The Venezuelan president noted that the spy, arrested in Falcón State, had been a communications operator at a CIA base in Iraq for a decade ending in 2016. 

Coinciding with the imposition of new US sanctions on Iran, as well as the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement condemning the US move.

The statement stated that the sanctions would not impede strong economic and trade ties between Venezuela and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

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