Venezuelan official says Trump wants to topple government ‘without a doubt’

There is “no doubt” that US President Donald Trump is trying to topple Venezuela’s government, the country’s attorney general told the BBC.

Tarek William Saab, a close ally of President Nicolas Maduro, says Trump wants to turn Venezuela into a US “colony”.

Trump has accused Maduro of being the leader of a drug-trafficking organization, which he denies, and there are fears in Venezuela that the US military buildup is aimed at ousting Trump’s longtime opponent.

The U.S. says it has killed at least 43 people in strikes on suspected drug boats off South America, and Trump said the U.S. was “now looking at land” after getting “the sea very well under control.”

Asked about the possibility of a ground invasion of Venezuela, Saab told the BBC’s Newshour program that “it shouldn’t happen, but we are prepared.”

He added that Venezuela is “still ready to resume dialogue” with the US, despite the “illegitimate” fight against drug trafficking.

The US is among many nations that do not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader after the latest elections in 2024 were widely dismissed as neither free nor fair. Opposition counting from polling stations showed its candidate won by a landslide.

But Saab said the US wants regime change in Venezuela, accusing it of hoping to seize the country’s natural resources, including reserves of gold, oil and copper.

Members of the US Congress on both sides of the political aisle have expressed concern about the legality of Trump’s boat strikes and his authority to order them.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters Sunday that future ground strikes were a “real possibility” and that Trump had told him he planned to brief members of Congress on future military operations when he returned from Asia.

Over the past two months, the US has steadily built up a force of warships, warplanes, marines, spy planes, bombers and drones in the Caribbean, which has been shaped as part of a crackdown on drug trafficking and “narco-terrorists”.

Many analysts believe it is also part of a wider campaign of intimidation aimed at removing President Maduro from power.

The Venezuelan leader has accused the US of “faking war” after also ordering the deployment of the world’s largest warship to the Caribbean, the yet-to-arrive USS Gerald R Ford.

On Sunday, the guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely arrived in Trinidad and Tobago, a two-island nation just off the coast of Venezuela, as part of the largest US military deployment to the Caribbean in decades.

Officially visiting until Thursday for joint training and exercises.

The Venezuelan government then issued a statement condemning what it called a “military provocation by Trinidad and Tobago in coordination with the CIA.”

Venezuela also claimed to have captured a “group of mercenaries with direct information from the US intelligence agency” and claimed that a “false flag attack was taking place” in the waters between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago.

A false flag operation is a political or military action carried out with the intention of blaming an adversary for it.

Venezuelan President Maduro has made accusations of false flag attacks before, including a plan to plant explosives at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas in early October.

Additional reporting by Ione Wells