An exclusive report from the Associated Press (AP) recently unveiled a covert U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) programme, known internally as Operation Money Badger, that targeted high-ranking officials in Venezuela, including President Nicolás Maduro. This surveillance programme, potentially violating international law, has been operating, at least, since 2013 and was expanded in 2018. The AP report is based on a memo from 2018 that was mistakenly included in the documents released during a bribery case against several DEA agents.
The AP report postulates that the expansion of this operation was initiated in reaction to the controversial 2017 re-election of Maduro. The US weighed in on this re-election, claiming alleged occurrences of election interference and instances of lethal protests. Subsequently, the US imposed severe sanctions against high-ranking individuals and institutions in Venezuela, pressuring Maduro to step down. The United Nations criticized these sanctions, citing exacerbation of pre-existing issues.
The Operation Money Badger entailed deployment of numerous undercover DEA agents to monitor officials suspected of creating a ‘narco state’. The term ‘narco state’ applies to a state wherein the economy is heavily or entirely dependent on the illegal sales or trafficking of illicit drugs, with concurrent government operations mostly driven by the same industry. However, it remains uncertain whether the operation still persists.
While no public responses have been offered by either US or Venezuelan government on the matter, Maduro hinted toward ‘conspiracies’ in a recent speech commemorating the revolution anniversary. Challenging these ‘conspiracies’, Maduro called for sustained upright conduct and continued defense of the sovereignty of the country.
Previous instances of the US spying foreign leaders have been reported. Former Danish Defense Minister revealed in 2022 about the US National Security Agency (NSA) and FE (the Danish intelligence ministry)’s surveillance activities targeted at various European officials, including the former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In 1986, The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled the US funding and backing of an attempted coup by the Contras in Nicaragua as illegal, marking this case as a global guidepost against covert interference in a sovereign government.
For more details about this case, visit here.