Washington — President Trump confirmed a recent New York Times report that Venezuelan officials had offered the U.S. a huge stake in the country’s oil, gold and other natural resources to try to end U.S. actions taken against the country.
He said Friday of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, “He has offered everything. He’s offered everything,” Mr. Trump said. “You’re right. You know why? Because he doesn’t want to f*** around with the United States.”
Mr. Trump made the comments in the Oval Office during a meeting with his Cabinet and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Just two days ago, the president confirmed he has authorized the CIA to go into Venezuela and conduct covert operations in the country.
In recent weeks, the U.S. has conducted deadly strikes off the coast of Venezuela on vessels suspected of drug trafficking, killing more than two dozen people, according to figures released by the Trump administration. A boat the U.S. struck in the Caribbean on Thursday had survivors who are now on a U.S. Navy ship, a U.S. official told CBS News.
It’s highly unusual for an American president to confirm the existence of an ongoing CIA operation, as Mr. Trump did on Wednesday. CBS News senior White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe asked him, “Why did you authorize the CIA to go into Venezuela?”
“I authorized for two reasons, really,” Mr. Trump responded, accusing Venezuelans of having “emptied their prisons into the United States of America.”
“And the other thing are drugs,” he added. “We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela.”
The U.S. has been turning up the pressure on Venezuela in the past few months. The Justice Department has accused Maduro of leading a drug cartel that traffics drugs into the U.S. In August, the deparment increased the reward it’s offering for information leading to his capture, raising it to $50 million.
Mr. Trump has also deployed eight warships, a nuclear-powered submarine and fighter jets to the region as part of what he has said is an operation to combat drug smuggling into the United States. CBS News has also learned there are about 10,000 U.S. forces built up in the Caribbean either on ships or in Puerto Rico.