Venezuela 'captures CIA agents' amid fears of all-out war as GOP senator warns Trump's boat strikes set chilling precedent
By Elina Shirazi and Ross Ibbetson
Daily Mail
Oct 27, 2025
The Trump administration has stepped up its campaign of pressure against Venezuela by sending the US Navy destroyer USS Gravely to dock in Trinidad and Tobago over the weekend, just seven miles off Venezuela
Venezuela has claimed that it has captured CIA agents as America's presence in the Caribbean sparked a furious backlash from inside Donald Trump's own party.
Socialist tyrant Nicolas Maduro claimed on Sunday that the 'group of mercenaries' were preparing a 'false flag attack' intended to spark all-out war with the US.
The Venezuelan government did not release any evidence or details about the arrests, such as the number of suspects, their nationalities or where they were apprehended.
Caracas claimed that the plot was linked to the deployment of a US destroyer, the USS Gravely, to Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday — just seven miles from the coast of Venezuela. The warship is part of the largest US force assembled in the region since the Cold War.
It comes as Republican senator Rand Paul warned that Trump's strikes on 'narco-terrorist' boats from Venezuela were as bad as executions carried out by the despotic regimes of China and Iran.
'At this point, I would call them extrajudicial killings, and this is akin to what China and Iran does with drug dealers, they execute people without presenting evidence to the public, so it is wrong,' Paul told Fox News.
Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona echoed Paul's concerns, calling them 'sanctioned murder.'
Maduro's regime sharply condemned the 'military provocation', claiming that the CIA was working with the island nation to provoke war.
US forces have blown up ten boats and killed 43 people, since the start of September. A source close to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the strikes will continue until cartels 'stop in their tracks.'
A legal source close to Hegseth, familiar with plans on Venezuela, compared the authorization for the use of military force as a 'right to self–defense' codified in the UN charter
While most Republicans have remained quiet about the administration's repeated attacks on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, an increasing number of Democrats have condemned the approach, calling it reckless
The Pentagon on Friday announced the deployment of the USS Gerald R Ford — the world's most advanced aircraft carrier — to the Caribbean.
Maduro has accused the US of 'inventing a war,' while his government condemned the drills as a 'serious threat' and 'hostile act.'
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham voiced support for expanding operations 'from the sea onto the land' during a Face the Nation appearance.
But Paul has been the lone Republican to highlight the lack of congressional authorization for this military campaign.
'The Constitution says that when you go to war, Congress has to vote on it. The drug war is typically something we do through law enforcement,' he told Fox News.
Paul said lawmakers have received 'no information' — no names, no details on whether targets were armed. 'A briefing is not enough to overcome the Constitution,' he added.
Trump sparked concerns on Capitol Hill last month when he informed Congress that the US is now engaged in a 'non-international armed conflict'.
It allows the President to treat the cartel gangsters as 'unlawful combatants', meaning they can be killed or detained without a trial.
President Trump is also exploring new operations that would target cocaine production areas and drug smuggling routes inside Venezuela, CNN reported
A source close to Hegseth and familiar with the department's war plans says that the boat strikes in Venezuela will continue until they 'stop in their tracks'
The strikes primarily target smugglers from Venezuela where Maduro is not recognized as legitimate president by Washington.
A legal source close to Hegseth compared the military authorization to 'right to self-defense' under the UN charter: 'When you look at a boat filled with fentanyl, you have to look at it legally as if it were Al-Qaeda terrorists on a boat full of explosives.'
But Paul has made the point that the US government has provided no evidence that the targets were drug dealers.
'No one said their name. No one said whether they are armed and we've had no evidence presented,' he noted.
The White House declared the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang 'narco-terrorists' and said Trump will use 'every aspect of American power' to stop drug trafficking.
'Maduro is not a legitimate president. He is a fugitive head of a narco-terror cartel,' a spokesperson told Daily Mail.
Socialist tyrant Maduro has been flooding the airwaves with propaganda that Trump is a bloodthirsty fascist who plans to invade and has mobilized tens of thousands of reservists for the onslaught he claims is coming.
Trump earlier this month warned Maduro that he better not 'f*** around with America' as he spoke to reporters at the White House.
The administration also stated that it had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, a highly unusual disclosure.
The drug boat strikes have alarmed Democratic lawmakers and legal scholars, who see Trump testing the limits of the law as he expands the scope of presidential power.
The White House has not detailed what evidence it has against the vessels or individuals, has not said what type of munitions or platforms were used in the strikes or even what quantity of drugs the vessels were allegedly carrying.
Some former military lawyers say the legal explanations given by the Trump administration for killing suspected drug traffickers at sea instead of apprehending them fail to satisfy requirements under the law of war.
This requires several criteria to be met before taking lethal action - including first using non-lethal means like firing warning shots.
Legal experts have also questioned why the military is carrying out the strikes instead of the Coast Guard, which is the main maritime law enforcement agency.
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