Exclusive: CIA moves to establish foothold in Venezuela following Maduro’s capture | CNN Politics
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The CIA is quietly working to establish a permanent US presence on the ground in Venezuela, spearheading the Trump administration’s plans to exert its new-found influence over the country’s future, according to multiple sources familiar with the planning.

The CIA is quietly working to establish a permanent US presence on the ground in Venezuela, spearheading the Trump administration’s plans to exert its newfound influence over the country’s future, according to multiple sources familiar with the planning.

The department has begun taking initial steps towards reopening the embassy.

The US withdrew its diplomats and suspended operations at the embassy in Caracas in 2019. The Venezuela Affairs Unit has been operating with a team of US diplomats at the embassy in Bogota.

In the short term, US officials may operate out of a CIA annex, prior to the opening of an official embassy, allowing them to start making informal contact with members of different factions of Venezuela’s government as well as opposition figures and target third parties who may be threats, the source said, drawing a parallel to the agency’s work in Ukraine.

The US has routinely sent CIA directors or top intelligence officials to have sensitive meetings with world leaders to discuss sensitive matters that are based on US intelligence collection. CIA Director John Ratcliffe was the first senior Trump official to visit Venezuela after the Maduro operation, meeting with interim President Delcy Rodríguez and military leaders there earlier this month.

Part of Ratcliffe’s message to the new leadership during his trip: Venezuela can no longer be a safe haven for America’s adversaries.

It remains to be seen how the Venezuelan people will respond to a more overt CIA presence in the country post-Maduro. For years, Maduro cast the CIA as a convenient boogey man, repeatedly accusing the agency – without evidence – of attempting to topple his regime as he clung to power despite US opposition.

Now, the CIA has helped supplant Maduro and is poised to help actively manage the Trump administration’s dealings with Venezuela’s new leadership.

CIA officers were on the ground in Venezuela in the months leading up to the operation targeting Maduro. In August, the agency had covertly installed a small team inside the country to track Maduro’s patterns, locations and movements, which helped bolster the operation earlier this month, sources familiar with the plans said.