‘No doubt’ Trump wants to topple our government, Venezuelan official tells BBC

US President Donald Trump wants to turn Venezuela into a “colony” of the US, Venezuela’s attorney general has told BBC’s Newshour.

Tarek William Saab said on Sunday that calls for a regime change in Venezuela were a front to seize his country’s natural resources, including reserves of gold, oil and copper.

A close ally of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, Saab said there was “no doubt” the US was trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government, adding that it was the latest in a long line of “failed” operations.

The US is among many nations that do not recognise Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, after the last election in 2024 was widely dismissed as neither free nor fair.

Trump has also repeatedly raised the possibility of what he called “land action” in Venezuela, and said last week that the US is “looking at land now” after getting “the sea very well under control”.

At least 43 people have been killed in strikes on alleged drug vessels off the coast of South America, which Trump’s administration began authorising in early September as part of a purported war on drug traffickers.

US Congress members on both sides of the political aisle have raised concerns over the legality of the strikes and the president’s authority to order them.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters on Sunday that future land strikes were a “real possibility”, and that Trump told him he plans to brief members of Congress on future military operations when he gets back from Asia.

When asked about the possibility of a land invasion of Venezuela, Saab told the BBC 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.

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

Many analysts believe this is also part of a wider intimidation campaign seeking to remove President Maduro from power.

The Venezuelan leader has accused the US of “fabricating war” after it also ordered the deployment of the world’s largest warship to the Caribbean, the USS Gerald R Ford, which is yet to arrive.

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

It is officially visiting until Thursday to conduct joint training and exercises.

Venezuela’s government has since issued a statement condemning what it called “a military provocation by Trinidad and Tobago in coordination with the CIA”.

Venezuela also claimed that they had captured a “mercenary group with direct information from the US intelligence agency”, and alleged that a “false flag attack is underway” 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 opponent for it.

Venezuela’s President Maduro has made accusations of false flag attacks before, including a plan to plant explosives in the US embassy in Caracas in early October.

Additional reporting by Ione Wells