Beginning August 14, it has been widely reported in multiple media that the U.S. either is assembling for deployment, or has already sent a force of 4,000 sailors and Marines manning three guided-missile destroyers, accompanied by P-8 spy planes, and “at least one attack submarine,” to the southern Caribbean, specifically off the coast of Venezuela. The mission of the military taskforce is said to be combatting drug cartel activity.
The reports follow a crescendo of Trump administration actions over the past month (1) designating drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere to be “armed terrorist organizations”; (2) reportedly secretly authorizing the U.S. military to take action against those cartels; and (3) asserting that the U.S. does not recognize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as the legitimate President but as the head of the Cartel de los Soles, consequently increasing the bounty for his capture and/or conviction to $50 million.
Brazil’s daily O Globo reported on August 18 that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio “confirmed that a naval and air operation led by the U.S. Southern Command is underway,” and that Rubio had specifically mentioned the Cartel de los Soles, and described the Venezuelan government as a “criminal enterprise” and a threat to U.S. security, adding, “Anything that is a threat to the national security of the United States will be confronted.”
Asked the next day if the administration was considering putting “boots on the ground” in Venezuela, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt added to the military threat: “President Trump has been very clear and consistent. He is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding our country and to bring those responsible to justice. The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela, it is a narcoterror cartel. Maduro, in the view of this administration, is not a legitimate president. It’s a fugitive head of a cartel who has been indicted in the U.S. for trafficking drugs into the country.”
