Carlos Barria/Reuters
Much remains unclear about an apparent attempt to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela through a drone strike on Saturday, but the official position of the Trump administration is that that the U.S. had no part in it. “I can say unequivocally there was no U.S. government involvement in this at all,” John Bolton, President Trump’s national security adviser, told Fox News Sunday. Bolton suggested the apparent attack might be “a pretext set up by the Maduro regime itself” to divert discontent over “his authoritarian rule.” A State Department official said, “We are aware of the reports. U.S. Embassy Caracas has issued a security alert and we will continue to monitor events.”
The administration has taken a hostile position to Maduro’s left-wing government and, like the Obama administration before it, placed it under economic sanctions. (“The Maduro regime has proven tenacious and capable at maintaining power, and inflicting enormous pain on the Venezuelan people,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a June speech.) “If the government of Venezuela has hard information they want to present to us that would show a potential violation of U.S. criminal law, we’ll take a serious look at it,” Bolton said. — Spencer Ackerman