Trump Signals Land Operations Against Venezuelan Narco Network

Donald Trump’s promise to take the U.S. anti-drug campaign against Venezuelan traffickers “onto land” marks a sharp escalation in Washington’s confrontation with Nicolás Maduro’s regime.

In a Thanksgiving video call to troops, he said about 85% of maritime drug traffic had been disrupted and suggested targeting networks inside Venezuela would be “easier” and would begin “very soon.”

The new push builds on a lethal campaign already under way. Since September, U.S. forces in Operation Southern Spear have carried out more than 20 air and missile strikes on 22 small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that Washington describes as drug-smuggling vessels.

At least 83 were killed and only two survived, making this one of the deadliest U.S. counter-narcotics operations in the region.

The strategy rests on Washington’s decision to label the so-called Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization.

U.S. Narco-Terror Push Raises Stakes With Maduro

U.S. officials accuse senior figures around Maduro of using the state, especially parts of the armed forces, to move cocaine toward North America and Europe with the help of criminal groups.

The designation does not declare war, but it opens the door to broader sanctions, asset seizures and more flexible use of military force.

On the ground and at sea, the build-up is visible. The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier has been deployed to the Caribbean with escort ships and fighter jets. B-52 bombers have flown “attack demonstration” missions near Venezuelan airspace.

A joint task force coordinates manned and unmanned vessels and drones to track suspected traffickers, while the CIA has reportedly been cleared for covert action inside Venezuela alongside quiet contacts exploring a possible negotiated exit for Maduro.

Caracas rejects every accusation, calling the Cartel de los Soles a fabrication and denouncing the sinkings as “extrajudicial executions” aimed at stealing Venezuela’s oil wealth. Human-rights lawyers question the legality of killing suspects at sea without public evidence or due process.

Yet years of economic collapse under a self-declared socialist project have left many Venezuelans and neighbors skeptical of Maduro’s narrative and inclined to see pressure on his circle as overdue, even as they fear any misstep that could turn a narco-dictatorship crisis into a wider regional conflict.

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