Donald Trump has authorised covert CIA operations in Venezuela
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
US President Donald Trump has confirmed he has authorised the CIA to carry out secret operations in Venezuela, and that he is considering attacks on Venezuelan territory.
It follows a series of strikes by the US military against alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean, which have killed 27 people.
Also in the programme: A phone conversation between Putin and Trump ahead of President Zelensky’s visit to Washington - and the queen of de-cluttering, Marie Kondo, explains what the world doesn't understand about her native Japan.
(Photo: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro at a demonstration to mark Indigenous Resistance Day. Credit: Reuters /Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.5 | Hello, welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service coming to you live from London. I'm Paul Henley. |
| 0:16.4 | President Trump has suggested he plans to conduct more military and intelligence operations in Venezuela. |
| 0:22.1 | That's our main story today. Also, coming up in about 15 minutes, we'll be heading to Damascus, |
| 0:28.2 | where our senior international correspondent, Ola Geryn, has been meeting the people searching for justice |
| 0:33.5 | after 14 years of Syria's civil war. |
| 0:39.4 | When Bashar al-Assad is hanged, we will get our rights. |
| 0:44.3 | He is responsible for the officer who tortured my husband. |
| 0:49.0 | When we cut the head of the snake, our heart will heal, |
| 0:52.3 | and we will make peace with each other. |
| 0:58.8 | There is a real sense here of loss and of grief and of anger. Families want to know when the |
| 1:06.8 | guilty will be held to account and when they can hope for justice. |
| 1:11.3 | That full report in 15 minutes. |
| 1:13.2 | Now, in the past 24 hours, President Trump has confirmed that he authorised the CIA |
| 1:18.5 | to conduct covert actions in Venezuela, which could allow them to carry out lethal operations. |
| 1:24.8 | He claimed Venezuela had emptied its prisons into the U.S. and said there were |
| 1:28.9 | drugs coming in from the country. This is what he told the press on Wednesday. |
| 1:34.3 | We are certainly looking at land now because we've got the sea very well under control. |
| 1:38.6 | When they're loaded up with drugs, they're fair game. And every one of those ships were, |
| 1:43.0 | they're not ships, they're boats. |
| 1:44.7 | Why did you authorize the CIA to go into Venezuela? And is there more information you can share |
| 1:51.0 | about these strikes on the alleged? Well, I can't do that, but I authorized for two reasons, |
... |
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