The US has sent three destroyers and will send four thousand Marines to patrol the waters around Venezuela in another step toward taking out the drug cartels, as promised by President Trump. In response, dictator Nicolas Maduro has reportedly activated 4.5 million militiamen.
The US has sent three destroyers and will send four thousand Marines to patrol the waters around Venezuela in another step toward taking out the drug cartels, as promised by President Trump. In response, dictator Nicolas Maduro has reportedly activated 4.5 million militiamen.
The three U.S. Aegis guided-missile destroyers include the USS Gravely, the USS John Dunham, and the USS Sampson, according to two anonymous US officials who spoke with the Associated Press on Tuesday. The Marines will be deployed “over the course of several months,” and will be supported by P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft, warships, and a nuclear-powered submarine that will patrol international waters and the skies, according to Reuters.
A senior official, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said the operation’s primary goals are intelligence gathering and surveillance, but also indicated that the units could serve as a platform for “targeted strikes” if authorized by President Trump.
Venezuela sees this as a possible prelude to war, which it may be. At the very least, it is Trump brandishing a very big stick concerning the cartels and stopping the fentanyl and drug pipelines coming out of Maduro’s domain that are killing Americans.
At long last, we may be seeing a return to the Monroe Doctrine, and communists in Latin America are being put on notice.
There is a $50 million bounty on Maduro’s head, whom the US does not recognize as the legitimately elected leader of Venezuela. The Trump administration has branded Venezuela’s regime as a “narco-terror cartel” and is demanding that Maduro be held accountable for it. That could include arrest or death, with either outcome acceptable.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the operation and remarked that the president “has been very clear and consistent” about using “every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice,” according to Fox News.
She also emphasized that “The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela. It is a narco-terror cartel. Maduro is a fugitive head of this cartel who has been indicted in the United States for trafficking drugs into the country.”
The Miami Herald noted, “Maduro and several of his top allies have been indicted by U.S. prosecutors for allegedly turning Venezuela into a narco-state through the so-called ‘Cartel of the Suns.’ Maduro has dismissed the charges as a “rotting rerun” aimed at justifying foreign intervention.”
Fox News reports that the Justice Department has already seized over $700 million in assets tied to Maduro. Those include two private jets and nine luxury vehicles. No wonder Chavez-lite is ticked.
The communist was indicted in New York in 2020 on narco-terrorism and cocaine importation conspiracy charges when the first bounty of $15 million was put on his head. He has held sham elections claiming he won democratically, when that could not be further from the truth. His opponents and detractors tend to wind up missing or dead as well. He has learned his lessons in power and thuggery well from Russia, China, and Cuba, which all support him.
4,000 Troops and 4,500,000 Militiamen: What to Know About the U.S.-Venezuela Standoff
The U.S. and Venezuela appear to be heading towards a standoff with neither country indicating a willingness to back down.
The Venezuelan government on Monday mobilized more than four million militia troops seemingly in response to reports of U.S. naval movements in the region.
“We defend our seas, our skies, and our lands. We liberated them. We guard and patrol them. No empire will touch the sacred soil of Venezuela, nor should it touch the sacred soil of South America,” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said in a televised address Monday.
Three U.S. Navy missile destroyers have been deployed to the waters off Venezuela, U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday.
“President Trump has been very clear and consistent. He’s prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.
Here’s what to know about the state-of-play between the U.S. and Venezuela.
Washington and Caracas broke off formal bilateral diplomatic relations in 2019 during Trump’s first term, after Trump backedopposition leader Juan Guaidó in the Latin American country’s presidential election. The U.S. government has not recognizedMaduro’s last two electoral victories, and the Trump Administration has repeatedly called Maduro’s presidency illegitimate, including as recently as Tuesday.
“I know it very well, and Venezuela is right now being run by a dictator,” Trump said in August last year, as he blamed the country for the flow of criminals and drugs into the U.S. and campaigned to crack down on it.
Democratic former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden also opposed the Maduro government, which has suggested jailing its opposition and has deported American journalists. During Trump’s first term, the U.S. imposed financial sanctions on Venezuela in 2017, 2018, and 2019. In 2020, Maduro was indicted in a New York federal court on charges of narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and other charges. And the tensions between Trump and the Venezuelan leader have only escalated during Trump’s second term.
Earlier this month, the Trump Administration doubled the reward to $50 million for information leading to Maduro’s arrest. The Administration also accused Maduro of being “one of the world’s largest drug traffickers” and the head of the so-called Cartel of the Suns, allegations that the Venezuelan government has rejected. The U.S. also alleged links between Maduro and Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, which Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said earlier this month her government has no evidence of. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the U.S. government had seized up to $700 million of assets with alleged links to Maduro on Aug. 13, including luxury goods, bank accounts, and private jets.
Trump has pushed to use the U.S. military to scuttle cartels. In February, he designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, as well as six groups in Mexico and MS-13 in El Salvador, as foreign terrorist organizations. The President signed a secret directive to the Pentagon to use military force against these cartels, sources told the New York Times earlier this month.
The Administration has sought to counter the inflow of drugs, especially fentanyl, through tariffs, such as imposing tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico, citing the countries’ “failure” to stop fentanyl smuggling into the U.S. And Trump issued penalty tariffs on countries that buy oil from Venezuela in March, highlighting the threat of Tren de Aragua to the U.S.
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