# CIA activities by country

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an agency of the federal government of the United States that has carried out numerous confirmed and alleged activities across the world since its founding in 1947.

## Africa
### Angola

During the Angolan Civil War, the CIA supported UNITA against the communist MPLA as part of Operation IA Feature, funding UNITA with $32 million in cash and $16 million in weapons.

### Chad

Throughout the 1980s, the CIA supported dictator of Chad Hissène Habré as a counter to dictator of Libya Muammar Gaddafi. Habré later went to trial in 2015 in Senegal for crimes against humanity, torture and war crimes.

### Libya

During the War on Terror, the CIA and British MI6 cooperated with the Gaddafi regime. This included renditions of Libyan dissidents back to Gaddafi's regime, where they were often tortured. This was exposed from documents found in Tripoli during the 2011 Libyan Revolution.

### Niger

In 2018, a CIA drone base near Dirkou operating out of a small commercial airport was revealed by The New York Times.

### Somalia

The CIA has been alleged to have influenced the 1967 elections by financing Prime Minister Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal and other pro-western leaders. In 2003, the CIA began to covertly arm and finance Somali warlords opposed to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). From the CIA station in Nairobi, Kenya CIA agents would make frequent trips to Mogadishu by plane where they would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the warlords. The CIAs policy was evaluated as a failure, due to the ICU continuing to hold power. During the subsequent Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, the Bush administration expressed doubts about Ethiopia's ability to effectively use the new equipment it had been provided for the operation, prompting the further involvement of CIA agents. CIA paramilitary officers participated in combat alongside the Ethiopian military from the outset of operations against the Islamic Courts Union.
Alongside funding proxy wars in Somalia, the CIA has also financed a secret prison in Mogadishu, run by the Somali National Security Agency (now the National Intelligence and Security Agency), but entirely reliant on the United States. According to Somali government officials, American agents operate unilaterally in the country.

### South Africa

Former CIA agent and US diplomat Donald Rickard has claimed that the CIA helped arrest Nelson Mandela by informing South African police of his location in 1962, leading to the Rivona Trial and imprisonment until 1990. This is due to his associated with South African communists. In a 2016 article, the African National Congress claimed CIA interference in South Africa was ongoing.

### Sudan
## Americas
### Guatemala

The CIA has carried out a number of interventions in Guatemala, including:
* 1952: Operation PBFortune, a failed attempt to overthrow the democratically elected leader Jacobo Árbenz
* 1954: Operation PBSuccess, which overthrew Árbenz and led to decades of military rule in Guatemala
* 1954: Operation PBHistory, an attempt to prove a link between Árbenz and communism, while monitoring Latin American communists
Throughout the Guatemalan Civil War, the CIA trained the Guatemalan military, including during the Guatemalan genocide.
PBSuccess has been noted for radicalising Che Guevara towards Marxism.

### Nicaragua

The CIA armed the Contras against the Sandinista government in the aftermath of the Nicaraguan Revolution from 1981 to 1990. This was hugely controversial due to human rights violations by the Contras, alleged cocaine trafficking and the Iran–Contra affair.

### United States
## Asia and Oceania
### China

Between 2010 and 2012, 30 CIA sources in China were lost due to arrests and executions.

### Lebanon

William Blum has claimed that the CIA financed President Camille Chamoun during his run of the 1957 election. The CIA also funded the Arabic magazine Hiwar under the cover of the Congress for Cultural Freedom in the 1960s. Tim Weiner has claimed that during the Lebanese civil war that Christian leader Bashir Gemayel was on the CIA payroll and was a trusted source. The 1983 US embassy bombing in Beirut killed several 8 CIA agents and in 2023 the CIA called it the "deadliest day in CIA history". The role of the CIA in the 1985 Beirut car bombings has been debated.

### Vietnam
## Europe
### Austria

In late August 2024, the CIA was credited with warning Austrian authorities of a planned terrorist attack by ISIS at a Taylor Swift concert.

### Spain

The CIA was suspected by the Spanish government in the 2019 North Korean Embassy in Madrid incident in which the defector organization Free Joseon broke into the North Korean Embassy in Madrid and stole hard drives before handing them over to the FBI.