Illustrative image. (U.S. Army)
United States President Donald Trump has shown openness to engage with Venezuela, all while his military expanded presence in the Caribbean Sea with carrier strike groups.
Speaking to reporters on November 16, Trump suggested that future talks with his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro could be on the table.
“We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out,” Trump said, adding: “They would like to talk.”
Pressed for more details, he replied: “Venezuela would like to talk. What does it mean? You tell me, I don’t know… I’d talk to anybody.”
Earlier on the same day, the U.S. State Department said it would classify “Cartel de los Soles” as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) Washington claims that Maduro is the head of the criminal organization, more known as the “Cartel of the Suns” in English.
“Cartel de los Soles by and with other designated FTOs including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel are responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
The escalation against Venezuela began back in August, when the Trump administration doubled the reward for the arrest of Maduro to $50 million on drug trafficking charges and dispatched an amphibious ready group led by the USS Iwo Jima landing helicopter dock to the Caribbean Sea to counter drug cartels.
Also on November 16, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, joined USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean. The carrier reached the Southern Commander (SOUTHCOM) area of responsibility earlier this month.
The Ford brought the total number of U.S. troops in the Caribbean to around 12,000 on nearly a dozen Navy ships in what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has dubbed “Operation Southern Spear.”
Rear Adm. Paul Lanzilotta, who commands the Ford’s carrier strike group, said in a statement it will bolster an already large force of U.S. Navy warships to “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the Western Hemisphere.”
The U.S. military has already targeted some 21 boats alleged to be carrying drugs in both the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean. The strikes, which began in September, have so far claimed the lives of at least 83 people, all alleged drug traffickers.
The most recent strike, announced by SOUTHCOM on November 16, was the first to be carried out as a part of the Joint Task Force Southern Spear. It hit a boat in the international waters of the eastern Pacific a day earlier and claimed the lives of three people.
The latest developments show mixed signals from the U.S. to Venezuela. On one hand, the U.S. military is now fully ready to attack the country, and recent reports revealed that Trump has been briefed on such operations more than once in recent days. On the other hand, Trump appears to be open to talks with Maduro.
While the Trump administration has been using the drug problem as a pretext to pressure Caracas, it is likely eyeing the country’s oil reserves, the largest in the world. A deal that opens this sector for investment by American companies could be more attractive for Trump than a risky regime change military operation.
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this is what the iranians should do to the traitors putler and assad in the middle of moscow.
the stupid russians would think zelensky killed them anyway. do you agree with me? would the russians think that the ass and vlad putler were killed by the ukrainian army if iranians in the middle of moscow….
venezuela urgently needs to contact and bring in some hundreds of qualified old military commanders from old north vietnam and vietcong grandpas to get knowledge on effective tunnel-system building in jungle areas as well as jungle warfare itself. do it now, before the time is up!
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how comes spam is always at the top of all comments?
its very strange that one of the financier for killing of russians nests on this site. can it be because its run on norwegian child killers servers ?
putler betrayed syria that he got a picture with erdogan at the brics meeting in kazan
kazan seems like khazar and kazakh to me. if your namesake kallas were worth anything, she would send european soldiers to ukraine to force all the russians out of ukraine.
china will produce blue body bags yellow stars – cheap – no problem.
and he knows full well that they are not guilty. the democrats don’t care, but they will care about them if they can put trump in prison for a very long time. the dead are worth more than the living if the democrats can put trump in jail because of them. say what you will.
trump is a flaming piece of damaged goods…nobody can trust this kosher sausage stroker..he destroyed his administration credibility in less than a year. i think that beats braindead biden
dump killed innocent fishermen.
if the democrats have the chance to put him in jail, that will be a nice indictment.
if the iranians did to traitors pulter and the ass i would toast with champagne.
either way, the muscovites would think the ukrainian military was to blame.
because of the dirty traitors vlad putler and the ass hezbollah is cut off from iraq and the sea.
the russian jewish shame (putler) is so great that it has become bigger than russia.
last time i check russia still has bases in syria. bashar assad wife was sick, he is not interested in politics. he is a family man. he allowed syria to rot from inside. this is not duty for iran or russia to fix. next generation of syrians will be fighting the zionist cancer. no security for palestine means no security for jews
it’s like a play that repeats, venezuelans should *never* negotiate.
just ask the iranians how their last negotiation with the us turned out.