President Trump will do “whatever it takes” to defend the United States from Venezuela-based “terrorist” drug gangs, United Nations ambassador Mike Waltz vowed Thursday.
Waltz doubled down after Trump revealed he had authorized the CIA to start engaging in clandestine anti-government operations within Venezuela as he pushes ahead his drug smuggling crackdown.
“These are designated terrorist gangs,” Waltz told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
“President Trump is going to do whatever it takes and use all the tools in the toolkit from the intelligence community, from the Department of War, and of course, diplomatically, to defend US sovereignty against actions that are actively killing Americans.”
It comes after Trump on Wednesday confirmed his covert CIA orders and said he was weighing whether to start targeting Venezuelan drug cartels on land after already wiping out about half a dozen drug smuggling vessels at sea.
Meanwhile, Waltz went on to dismiss Venezuela’s complaints to the UN that the Trump administration was violating international law in the wake of the recent sea attacks.
“Venezuela can bring whatever they want to the UN,” Waltz said.
“You know it’s also part of the UN, is article 51 of the U.N. charter that enables a country to defend itself, and that’s what President Trump’s doing. He’s going to do it.”
Trump has already threatened to expand his anti-drug military operation to land-based targets after he first authorized the bombing of Venezuelan ships back on Sept. 2.
He said the attacks are believed to have killed at least 27 alleged “narco-terrorists.”
Trump has defended the move, arguing the US Coast Guard has been unable to stem the flow of drugs into the US for decades.
