US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was considering strikes targeting Venezuelan cartels on land, triggering outrage and orders for large-scale military exercises from his counterpart Nicolas Maduro.
"We are certainly looking at land now, because we've got the sea very well under control," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if he was weighing strikes on land.
But Trump declined to confirm a New York Times report that he had secretly authorized the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela against Maduro.
Asked if he had given the CIA authority to "take out" Maduro, Trump replied: "That's a ridiculous question for me to be given. Not really a ridiculous question, but wouldn't it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?"
Venezuela is taking the threats -- open or clandestine -- seriously.
"No to war in the Caribbean...No to regime change...No to coups d'etat orchestrated by the CIA," the leftist leader said in an address Tuesday.
Under Maduro's direction, earlier Tuesday exercises were conducted across the entire Atlantic Caribbean coast of Venezuela, and other military activities are planned in the states on the border with Colombia.
In a message on the social network Telegram, Maduro said he was mobilizing the military, police and a civilian militia to defend Venezuela's "mountains, coasts, schools, hospitals, factories and markets."
Trump said on Tuesday that another strike on boats allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela had killed six "narcoterrorists."
At least 27 people have been killed so far in the US attacks.
Experts question the legality of using lethal force in foreign or international waters against suspects who have not been intercepted or questioned.
Colombia's President Gustavo Petro has said he believes some of those killed were Colombian.
Trump accuses Maduro of heading a drug cartel -- charges Maduro denies.
Ahead of ramping up military actions, the US Justice Department in August doubled a bounty for information leading to Maduro's capture to $50 million.
(With AFP inputs)
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