In 2019, the CIA, with the help of a cyber operation, disrupted the system of paying salaries to the Venezuelan military. This is described in the Wired article about the attempts of the Donald Trump administration to overthrow Nicolas Maduro and change the government in Venezuela. In addition to public pressure, sanctions, and support for Juan Guaidó, the Trump administration also acted through covert CIA operations.
The hacking of the system of payment of salaries to military personnel was one of the elements of the plan and was aimed at deepening the split between the political leadership and the professional military. According to Wired's sources, it is not clear exactly how the hack was carried out - completely remotely or with the involvement of agents on the ground. But allegedly this operation partially produced the desired effect and increased the dissatisfaction of the servicemen.
The article also describes the bureaucratic complexities of the U.S. fight against Maduro: Conducting electronic intelligence on Venezuela within the CIA required finding the right specialists and removing them from priority areas, which turned out to be difficult. The NSA, it is alleged, refused to divert resources from more important tasks at all.
The CIA also secretly distributed pro-democracy content targeting Venezuela on the Internet, but this operation is considered ineffective by Wired's interlocutors. In addition to digital methods, the article describes other planned or carried out actions that were aimed at weakening Maduro. But in the end, the coup did not take place.
Despite the CIA's involvement in these attempts, the article suggests that the intelligence agency, like other agencies, was reluctant to join the campaign to overthrow Maduro. The initiators of the policy towards Venezuela were hawks from Trump's entourage, primarily National Security Adviser John Bolton. Bolton, the only one who spoke to Wired not anonymously, criticized the CIA for being bureaucratic and lacking in preparedness to conduct covert operations on behalf of the United States. Other former officials also believe that more active CIA intervention between January and April 2019 could affect Maduro's fate.
What the article does not mention is the accidents in Venezuela's electricity industry, which began in March 2019. Maduro claimed that the blackouts occurred due to an American cyberattack. But reliable confirmation of this, as well as simply the connection between accidents and incidents in information systems, has not appeared.
The hacking of the system of payment of salaries to military personnel was one of the elements of the plan and was aimed at deepening the split between the political leadership and the professional military. According to Wired's sources, it is not clear exactly how the hack was carried out - completely remotely or with the involvement of agents on the ground. But allegedly this operation partially produced the desired effect and increased the dissatisfaction of the servicemen.
The article also describes the bureaucratic complexities of the U.S. fight against Maduro: Conducting electronic intelligence on Venezuela within the CIA required finding the right specialists and removing them from priority areas, which turned out to be difficult. The NSA, it is alleged, refused to divert resources from more important tasks at all.
The CIA also secretly distributed pro-democracy content targeting Venezuela on the Internet, but this operation is considered ineffective by Wired's interlocutors. In addition to digital methods, the article describes other planned or carried out actions that were aimed at weakening Maduro. But in the end, the coup did not take place.
Despite the CIA's involvement in these attempts, the article suggests that the intelligence agency, like other agencies, was reluctant to join the campaign to overthrow Maduro. The initiators of the policy towards Venezuela were hawks from Trump's entourage, primarily National Security Adviser John Bolton. Bolton, the only one who spoke to Wired not anonymously, criticized the CIA for being bureaucratic and lacking in preparedness to conduct covert operations on behalf of the United States. Other former officials also believe that more active CIA intervention between January and April 2019 could affect Maduro's fate.
What the article does not mention is the accidents in Venezuela's electricity industry, which began in March 2019. Maduro claimed that the blackouts occurred due to an American cyberattack. But reliable confirmation of this, as well as simply the connection between accidents and incidents in information systems, has not appeared.
