WASHINGTON, Oct 16, (AP): US President Donald Trump confirmed Wednesday that he has authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela and said he was weighing carrying out land operations on the country. The acknowledgement of covert action in Venezuela by the US spy agency comes after the US military in recent weeks has carried out a series of deadly strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean.

US forces have destroyed at least five boats since early September, killing 27 people, and four of those vessels originated from Venezuela. Asked during an event in the Oval Office on Wednesday why he had authorized the CIA to take action in Venezuela, Trump affirmed he had made the move. "I authorized for two reasons, really,” Trump replied. "No. 1, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America," he said.

"And the other thing, the drugs, we have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela, and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea.” Trump added the administration "is looking at land” as it considers further strikes in the region. He declined to say whether the CIA has authority to take action against President Nicolás Maduro.

Trump made the unusual acknowledgement of a CIA operation shortly after The New York Times published that the CIA had been authorized to carry out covert action in Venezuela. On Wednesday, Maduro lashed out at the record of the US spy agency in various conflicts around the world without directly addressing Trump’s comments about authorizing the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela.

"No to regime change that reminds us so much of the (overthrows) in the failed eternal wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and so on,” Maduro said at a televised event of the National Council for Sovereignty and Peace, which is made up of representatives from various political, economic, academic and cultural sectors in Venezuela.