Donald Trump said he is considering launching strikes on Venezuelan soil and that he has authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations in the country, escalating the US’s military campaign in the region.

Since early September the US military has struck five speedboats in the Caribbean that the White House alleged were carrying illegal drugs, killing 27 people. Most recently, Trump on Tuesday said the US killed six alleged narco-terrorists in a strike on a boat in international waters off the coast of Venezuela.

The US’s strikes are widely seen as an effort to pressure Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro, who Trump considers illegitimate and the head of a drug cartel. Many western countries regard him as having stolen last year’s election.