United States ruler Donald Trump has confirmed that he’s authorized the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) to conduct operations in Venezuela. Trump said the operations are covert in nature and will mark a sharp escalation of tensions between the two countries.

The U.S. has already committed obvious war crimes against Venezuelan citizens, and President Nicolas Maduro has vowed to retaliate if violence is used within the country’s borders.

According to a report by Reuters, The New York Times first reported the classified directive, citing U.S. officials familiar with the decision. Sources say that the Trump administration’s Venezuela strategy aims to remove Maduro from power. The administration has offered $50 million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest and conviction on drug trafficking charges.

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Trump told reporters that he authorized CIA operations in Venezuela to prevent migration to the U.S. and drug trafficking. “I authorized for two reasons, really,” Trump said. “Number one, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America…they came in through the border. They came in because we had an open border,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “And the other thing are drugs,” Trump said.

This is a disturbing shift. As most people applaud the “end” of the Hamas-Israel war, it appears that one with Venezuela is quietly brewing under the surface.

“We are looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” Trump said. Reuters could not independently determine what specific actions Trump has authorized, and the White House declined to elaborate on the president’s comments.

As far as the war crimes are concerned, J.D. Vance, the current vice president, was unconcerned that the U.S. is treading in choppy waters with regard to its foreign policy.

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Venezuela has postulated its own reasons as to why the U.S. is focused on Venezuela right now. The ruling class in Caracas said that Trump’s remarks constituted a violation of international law and said U.S. actions were aimed at legitimizing a “regime change” operation with the goal of seizing the country’s oil resources.