Venezuelan officials on Tuesday accused Sen. Marco Rubio and the CIA of hatching a plan to overthrow the country's embattled president Nicolas Maduro and installing new leadership, McClatchy reports.
"What this group is trying to do with Venezuela is basically divide the government, recognize other leaders and foment a conflict with the Venezuelans. This is absolutely unacceptable," Venezuelan embassy official Carlos Ron said, McClatchy reports.
Maduro and his regime have thrust the country into conflict all by themselves, running the economy into the ground — despite owning the world's largest oil reserves — and recently attempting to change the constitution, seen by the U.S. as a dictatorship.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo recently provided some insight to where the U.S. stands on the situation in Venezuela.
"At any time you have a country as large and with the economic capacity of a country like Venezuela, America has a deep interest in making sure that it is stable, as democratic as possible," Pompeo said during a Q&A at a security conference in Aspen, Colo.
"And so, we're working hard to do that, suffice to say, we are very hopeful that there can be a transition in Venezuela and we the CIA is doing its best to understand the dynamic there," Pompeo said.
That's enough proof that a plot exists for Venezuela's foreign minister.
"There is a secret operation by the Central Intelligence Agency to split up a democratically elected government," Samuel Moncada said, according to McClatchy.