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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Trump\u2019s Maduro obsession
resurfaces with new CIA ops., troop buildup</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Al Mayadeen
English</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">October 29, 2025</div>
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<p>New revelations expose CIA cyberattacks and Trump\u2019s
growing frustration over failed efforts to oust Maduro,
as US military buildup hints at a looming confrontation.</p>
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<a
href="https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2025/10/29/bb89e5a1-bb2f-4ca6-aef8-a909967ae522.jpg?v=3&width=1000"
tabindex="0" moz-do-not-send="true"><img
src="https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2025/10/29/bb89e5a1-bb2f-4ca6-aef8-a909967ae522.jpg?v=3&width=1000&preset=w700"
alt="Trump\u2019s cyberwar: The covert US campaign to oust Maduro"
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Images of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
cover walls in downtown Caracas, Venezuela,
Thursday, Oct 16, 2025 (<em>AP</em>)
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<p>In the closing year of US President Donald Trump\u2019s
first term, the <a
href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/the-cia--a-covert-army-of-mayhem-across-the-world"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true">CIA secretly launched</a> a
cyberattack that crippled Venezuela\u2019s intelligence
service, targeting the digital backbone of President
Nicolas Maduro\u2019s regime, <em>CNN </em>revealed,
citing four individuals familiar with the covert
operation.</p>
<p>The same sources told <em>CNN</em> that the
operation had achieved complete success, adding that
it was a "throwaway"; the CIA\u2019s way of appeasing the
president\u2019s desire to act on Venezuela while steering
clear of more dangerous or direct measures against
Caracas.</p>
<p>This little-known episode was part of a <a
href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/donroe-doctrine--trump-s-neocolonial-drive-in-latin-america"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true">broader pattern of covert
maneuvers</a> aimed at placating Trump\u2019s insistence
on removing Maduro, efforts that ultimately deepened
his frustration as the Venezuelan <a
href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/venezuela-launches-coastal-defense-drills-amid-us-military-b"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true">leader stood strong</a>.</p>
<p>Today, those earlier tensions are reflected in the
president\u2019s renewed determination to take a harder
line in his second term. Since the summer, Washington
has amassed roughly 10,000 troops in the region and
dispatched an aircraft carrier from Europe. Trump has
openly discussed the possibility of direct strikes on
Venezuelan soil and has reportedly authorized new CIA
operations there. Recent \u201cattack demonstration\u201d
flights by US bombers off the Venezuelan coast
underscored the administration\u2019s readiness to project
power.</p>
<p>While officials continue to describe the buildup as
part of "an anti-narcotics campaign," the scale and <a
href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/venezuela-launches-coastal-defense-drills-amid-us-military-b"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true">scope of the deployment</a>
have fueled speculation of a looming regime-change
mission, the report stressed.</p>
<h2>Frustration and the military option</h2>
<p>Throughout his first term, Trump repeatedly demanded
military plans to escalate pressure on Maduro. But
both Pentagon and intelligence officials resisted such
moves, wary of plunging the US into another costly
regional conflict, <em>CNN </em>added, according to
multiple accounts.</p>
<p>In one 2019 meeting, a senior Pentagon official
reportedly struck the table in exasperation as White
House aides pushed for more aggressive options. \u201cIn
the first Trump administration, he said that all
options are on the table,\u201d recalled Jimmy Story, the
former top US diplomat to Venezuela. \u201cMany of the
options are now at the front door.\u201d</p>
<p>A former senior administration official summarized
Trump\u2019s current mindset bluntly: \u201cI told these guys I
wanted the military option in 2018 and 2019, they
didn\u2019t give me one. I want a real one now.\u201d</p>
<h2>'Get it done'</h2>
<p><a
href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/trump-may-expand--us-actions--agaisnt-venezuela--colombia"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true">Trump\u2019s fixation with
toppling Maduro</a> dates back to 2017, when he
first raised the prospect of military action during a
meeting with his national security advisor H.R.
McMaster at his Bedminster golf resort. \u201cI\u2019m not going
to rule out a military option for Venezuela,\u201d he told
reporters afterward.</p>
<p>That demand resurfaced repeatedly. By 2019, Trump\u2019s
frustration had reached a boiling point. \u201cGet it
done,\u201d he told national security advisor John Bolton,
referring to Maduro\u2019s ouster. \u201cThis is the fifth time
I\u2019ve asked for it,\u201d Bolton later wrote in his memoir.</p>
<p>Inside the administration, it became increasingly
clear that both the Pentagon and the CIA were uneasy
about using force. CIA Director Gina Haspel, sources
said, opposed direct agency involvement in operations
against Maduro, resisting White House pressure for
covert action.</p>
<p>Divisions between civilian and military leadership
left US policy adrift. Officials debated how best to
undermine Maduro without repeating Cold War-era
failures that had tarnished the CIA\u2019s legacy in Latin
America. </p>
<h2>The Guaidó gamble</h2>
<p>By 2019, Washington shifted toward a strategy of
bolstering opposition leader Juan Guaidó, recognizing
him as Venezuela\u2019s legitimate president after a widely
condemned election handed Maduro another term. More
than 50 nations followed suit.</p>
<p>\u201cThe regime was shaky, and we thought the opposition
had a good chance,\u201d one former senior official told <em>CNN</em>.</p>
<p>But optimism quickly faded. Guaidó never gained
control of the military, protests fizzled, and a
failed coup in spring 2019 left him a symbolic figure
without real power.</p>
<p>Trump\u2019s anger was palpable. He viewed both Guaidó and
his own advisors as having let him down. \u201cIn his mind,
Guaidó and the opposition failed him,\u201d said a former
White House official. \u201cBut so had his own government,
they\u2019d backed a losing horse.\u201d</p>
<h2>Covert operations and cyberwarfare</h2>
<p>After Guaidó\u2019s collapse, Trump\u2019s attention drifted,
but his stance hardened. White House officials began
exploring covert methods, cyberattacks, sabotage, and
intelligence gathering to weaken the regime.</p>
<p>Plans for a dedicated Coast Guard cyber unit focused
on <a
href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us-launches-three-strikes-on-4-vessels-in-eastern-pacific--k"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true">targeting alleged
Venezuelan-linked narcotics</a> networks were
floated but never implemented amid legal and
bureaucratic constraints. Another idea, a cyber
strike against a hydroelectric dam, was quickly
dismissed as impractical.</p>
<p>According to one former White House official, the
hope was that enough disruption could trigger
fractures within Venezuela\u2019s armed forces, potentially
prompting defections. But critics inside the
administration derided the approach as directionless.
\u201cOpposition doesn\u2019t have a plan. We don\u2019t have a
plan,\u201d the official said. \u201cHope is not a plan.\u201d</p>
<h2>Hawks ascendant</h2>
<p>At one stage, some officials thought Trump might
soften his stance. Special envoy Richard Grenell
reportedly met Maduro multiple times to negotiate the
release of detained US citizens. But those talks ended
abruptly when Trump ordered Grenell to stand down,
handing control of the Venezuela file to Secretary of
State Marco Rubio, a leading advocate of regime
change. \u201cThen the hawks took over,\u201d said Story. \u201cSo
now it\u2019s \u2018maximum pressure\u2019 to another level.\u201d</p>
<p>As the US military presence has grown, the
administration has conducted a <a
href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/un-experts-slam-us-strikes-on-venezuela-as--extrajudicial-ex"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true">series of lethal strikes on</a>
small boats leaving Venezuelan ports, which it claims
were tied to narcotics trafficking. Yet the Pentagon
has offered no evidence to support that assertion.</p>
<p>Story said he would be \u201cvery surprised\u201d if US ships
stationed in the Caribbean weren\u2019t used \u201cin some way\u201d
against the Maduro government. \u201cIt\u2019s not a force
capable of invading the country,\u201d he explained, \u201cbut
it could potentially be a force capable of doing a
highly sophisticated rendition of senior leadership.\u201d</p>
<h2>Political gamble</h2>
<p>For all the saber-rattling, Trump remains sensitive
to the optics of meddling, as per the report. Having
long criticized <a
href="https://english.almayadeen.net/videos/trump-s-dni-pick-speaks-her-mind-on-the-us-invasion-of-iraq"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true">US failures in Iraq</a> and <a
href="https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/afghanistan-withdrawal-was-complete-failure-of-us-leadership"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true">Afghanistan, he is acutely</a>
aware of the risks of alienating voters wary of
another foreign conflict.</p>
<p>Ultimately, one former White House official told <em>CNN
</em>that<em> </em>the president could frame any
outcome as a victory.</p>
<p>\u201cThis is wag the dog,\u201d the official said. \u201cThis is
anything you want it to be.\u201d</p>
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