Trump says he has authorised secret operations in Venezuela
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
US President Donald Trump has confirmed a report that he authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, provoking outrage from the South American nation's leader. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro says 'no to regime change'
Also in the programme: As more Palestinians return to what is left of their homes in Gaza City, we talk to one university student who's just taken his exams in the street; and the story of Oscar Wilde's library card -- it's now being returned, 130 years after it was cancelled when he was sent to prison. We speak to his grandson.
(Photo: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro speaks during an event commemorating Indigenous Resistance Day in Caracas, Venezuela, 12 October 2025. Credit: Miguel Gutierrez/ EPA/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:09.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.6 | We're coming to you live from London. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm James Menendez. |
| 0:16.2 | And we're going to begin today with Venezuela and confirmation from President Trump |
| 0:20.1 | that he'd authorised the CIA to |
| 0:21.9 | carry out secret operations there and that the US was now considering strikes on Venezuelan |
| 0:28.3 | territory. Over the last few weeks, the US military has conducted a series of strikes against |
| 0:33.0 | alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean. 27 people have been killed. |
| 0:38.9 | It's also deployed about 10,000 troops to the region and several ships and landing craft. |
| 0:44.5 | Well, this is what Mr. Trump had to say on Wednesday. |
| 0:47.4 | We are certainly looking at land now because we've got the sea very well under control. |
| 0:51.7 | When they're loaded up with drugs, they're fair game. And every one of |
| 0:55.3 | those ships were, they're not ships, they're boats. Why did you authorize the CIA to go into |
| 1:00.5 | Venezuela? And is there more information you can share about these strikes on the alleged drug box in |
| 1:06.8 | the Caribbean? I can't do that, but I authorized for two reasons, really. Number one, they have emptied their prisons into the |
| 1:12.7 | United States of America. They came in through the, well, they came in through the border. They came in |
| 1:19.7 | because we had an open border policy. And the other thing of drugs, we have a lot of drugs coming in |
| 1:24.1 | from Venezuela. And a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea, |
| 1:27.8 | so you get to see that. But we're going to stop them by land also. |
| 1:32.3 | However, most of the drugs flowing into the U.S. go through other routes via Mexico and the |
| 1:37.0 | Pacific. And that's led many to conclude that the real reason for the military buildup and the |
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