As if the Venezuelans didn't have enough to worry about. Dealing with the effects of the socialist Venezuelan government's interventionist policies has burdened the populace to its breaking point. The Central Intelligence Agency is now hinting it will add more to their plate by intervening deeper into Venezuelan affairs.

The CIA has been clear about U.S. efforts to destabilize, weaken, and even oust the Venezuelan government.

In a Q&A session hosted by the Aspen Institute Think Tank, the CIA director, Mike Pompeo, has said he's "hopeful" of a power shift in Venezuela and is working to understand the dynamics there, despite the State Department denying any U.S. involvement or seeking to hijack the Venezuelan government. While denying U.S. involvement in Venezuelan affairs, the State Department, since 2009, has transferred at least $49 million to opposition groups to oust Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, who recently blasted the CIA, as well as the Mexican and Colombian governments, for colluding with the U.S. to oust the Venezuelan government. "I demand the government of Mexico and the government of Colombia to properly clarify the declarations from the CIA and I will make political and diplomatic decisions accordingly before this audacity," Maduro stated.

According to Pompeo, "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."
Venezuela was also listed among North Korea, Russia, Iran, Iraq, and China, as an "enduring target" for the NSA, according to a 2007 document exposed during the Edward Snowden revelations back in 2013. Snowden's leaks highlighted Venezuela as a "main adversary of the United States in the Western Hemisphere," as a target for spying on officials and federal interest in preventing Venezuela from taking actions that "negatively impacts U.S. global interests."

The Venezuelan government, for years, has been plagued with its own internal problems. Many of Venezuela's previous state interventions; nationalizing industries, creation of artificial price controls, enforcing currency controls, all have backfired upon them, driving a once prosperous nation straight into economic demise. Socialist interventionism has eliminated incentive for importers to bring goods and jobs to the country.

The situation is driving Venezuelans to turn to the emerging black market to buy goods even from illegal vendors reselling goods, due to shortages. Things have worsened to where the government stopped enforcing some of its price controls on food at the time in certain areas of Venezuela bordering Colombia and Brazil where food was shipped in to ease the shortages, thus giving the chance for importers to ship eggs, milk, and flour, mitigating the disaster.