The authorization may give the CIA the ability to conduct operations in the region, including lethal strikes against suspected drug traffickers or broader operations that could lead to the overthrow of Nicolas Maduro’s government.

These authorizations, known by the technical name “presidential findings,” have previously led to drone strikes, funding or arms deliveries to insurgent groups, and even regime change efforts in other countries.

However, most of these actions remain classified or secret.

Under U.S. law, presidents can authorize covert actions if the operations are “necessary to support identifiable foreign policy objectives important to U.S. national security.”

Once that is determined, the information must be shared with the Senate and House intelligence committees and, in major cases, with the “gang of eight,” which is made up of leaders from both parties and ranking members of the intelligence committees.

But that notification, which is expected to be detailed and outline legal risks, does not mean congressional approval is required.

Congress can only block such operations through legislation or by limiting their funding.

In practice, the authorization can be as specific—or as broad—as the president deems necessary.

“The standard that the authorities have is set out in the authorization,” Mick Mulroy, a former CIA officer, explained to the BBC.

“But there really are no limitations and it doesn’t need congressional approval,” he adds.

“Slippery Slope”

Any restrictions on CIA actions are made through executive orders, which, according to Mulroy, “means the president can just write a new executive order and change it.”

Once approved by the president, CIA actions can take the form of targeted killings, covert operations, actions to influence local politics, or help equip armed groups trying to overthrow other nations’ governments.

In December 1979, for example, a presidential finding signed by Jimmy Carter allowed the CIA to fund Afghan guerrillas fighting the Soviet invasion of their country.

Just a few years later, another finding—this time from President Ronald Reagan—allowed the CIA to extend covert aid to the contras, the rebels who were trying to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Recent discoveries have revealed global operations against al-Qaeda after the September 11, 2001, attacks, as well as Operation Timber Sycamore, a CIA-led operation to train and support Syrian rebels in their fight against the Assad regime.

In other Latin American countries, including Guatemala, Chile, and Brazil, the US helped overthrow governments as part of its fight against communism or propped up governments that were oppressive and committed human rights violations.

“We don’t have a very admirable record,” Dexter Ingram, the former director of the State Department’s Office of Countering Violent Extremism, told the BBC.

“There’s a long history, and it’s not always positive. I think we have to look at our history: it’s a very slippery slope,” he added.

The Venezuela Case

It remains unclear whether the CIA is conducting covert operations, planning them, or simply having them as a contingency plan in the region or the country.

Earlier this week, Trump justified authorizing the CIA and the bombings of vessels in the Caribbean by noting that “large quantities of drugs” are circulating from Venezuela to the U.S.

But the operations would be covert and take different forms against a variety of targets.

Suspected members of the Tren de Aragua and the Cartel of the Suns, organizations designated by the U.S. as terrorists, could be targets of paramilitary operations or drones.

Marc Polymeropoulos, a 26-year CIA veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and oversaw clandestine missions around the world,He told the BBC that the “find, fix, and terminate” methodology the agency developed during the “global war on terror” could easily be applied to these so-called criminal networks.