According to reports, President Donald Trump’s plan to fight drug trafficking is drawing near US warships in southern Caribbean waters and, as a result, they are approaching Venezuelan waters.
The Trump administration has accused Venezuela’s left-wing President Nicolas Maduro of being involved in cocaine trafficking and working with drug cartels. According to their claim that Maduro is “one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world,” the US Departments of State and Justice increased the reward for information leading to his arrest to $50 million on August 7.
Maduro has retaliated by urging millions of Venezuelans to join militias, saying that no empire will ever enter the country’s holy soil.
On Monday, the Venezuelan government announced that it is sending 15, 000 troops to its border with Colombia to fight drug trafficking, amid growing pressure from the Trump administration.
So why are US warships entering Venezuelan waters, and how are Latin American nations like Venezuela seeing this?
Why do Venezuelan waters have navy warships being sent by the Trump administration?
Multiple news reports say that the Trump administration has dispatched navy warships to the southern Caribbean, saying that these missions are intended to counter threats to US national security posed by organisations in the region that the US has designated as “narco-terrorist organizations”.
Trump reportedly ratified a secret order last month that would require the US to use force against a number of Latin American drug cartels that the US has labeled as international “terrorists.”
According to two sources with knowledge of the deployment, the US sent additional ships to the southern Caribbean on Monday, according to the Reuters news agency.
The sources told Reuters, on the condition of anonymity, that the USS Lake Erie, a guided missile cruiser and the USS Newport News, a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, will arrive in the region by early next week.
Three US Aegis-class guided missile destroyers were reported to be entering Venezuelan waters last week by numerous news outlets.
The USS San Antonio, USS Iwo Jima, and USS Fort Lauderdale were heading toward Venezuelan shore, according to two people who spoke to Reuters anonymously. They were carrying 4,500 US service members, among them 2, 200 Marines.
In both the reports, Reuters said that the unnamed sources refrained from disclosing the specific objectives of the deployments but indicated that recent military movements were intended to address threats to US national security posed by designated “narco-terrorist organizations”.
According to a news release from the US Fleet Forces Command on August 14, sailors and marines from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and Norfolk, Virginia had left. The mission’s details are not provided in the press release, and where the group is stationed.
The release says, “More than 4, 500 Sailors and Marines from the 22nd MEU comprise the force aboard the ARG’s three amphibious ships: flagship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7), and the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships USS San Antonio (LPD 17) and USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD 28)”.
Reporters inquired about the possibility of US ground forces in Venezuela on August 19 when Karoline Leavitt was contacted by the White House. She responded, “President Donald 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”.
Leavitt once more stated that the US does not recognize Maduro’s government as Venezuela’s legitimate one. The disputed election from last year was won by Maharo. The US and Venezuela have not had a formal diplomatic relationship since 2019.
How is Trump retaliating against drug trafficking?
Trump signed an executive order designating international drug cartels as “terrorist” organizations on January 21 for his inauguration day.
“In certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities”, the order says. Mexico objected to the order because it threatened to have US forces intervene against it.
Claudia Sheinbaum, the president of Mexico, responded that her country would work with the US to combat drug trafficking, but she insisted that the US would not intervene on its soil. “What we insist on is the defence of our sovereignty and our independence”, she said back in January.
Trump also claimed that Canada and Mexico failed to stop the highly addictive synthetic opioid fentanyl from entering the US, despite providing no proof for his claims.
Sheinbaum sent 10,000 National Guard personnel to the US-Mexico border to help with immigration regulation after Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexican imports.
On February 20, the US State Department designated eight international cartels as foreign terrorist organisations, including Mexico-based Cartel del Golfo, Sinaloa Cartel, Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, Carteles Unidos, La Nueva Familia Michoacana and Cartel del Noreste, California-based Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), and Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua.
29 drug cartel leaders were handed over to the US later in February.
What crimes is Maduro being charged with by the US?
US officials accused both Maduro and Venezuelan Minister of Popular Power for Interior Diosdado Cabello of collaborating with the Cartel de los Soles (“Cartel of the Suns”), a drug trafficking organisation that Washington has designated as a “terrorist” group. Similar to Maduro, Cabello is a member of the Venezuelan Socialist Party (PSUV) that is in power.
Maduro has earlier refuted the claims made by the Trump administration. The US government has not provided any evidence linking Maduro to drug cartels.
The US announced earlier this month that Maduro’s drug-related fines had been increased to $50 million. In a video released on August 7, US Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed Maduro had collaborated with the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel and the Venezuelan crime syndicate Tren de Aragua. “He is one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world”, Bondi said about Maduro.
Today, @TheJusticeDept and @StateDept will reveal a $ 50 MILLION REWARD for information leading to Nicolás Maduro’s arrest. pic . twitter.com/D8LNqjS9yk
The US increased the reward for Cabello’s arrest or prosecution from $10 million to $25 million earlier this year.
During Trump’s first term in 2020, Maduro and his close allies were indicted in Manhattan federal court on federal charges of “narco-terrorism” and conspiracy to import cocaine. Washington offered a $15 million reward for his arrest at the time. This bounty was increased to $25 million by the US President’s administration.
How has the Venezuelan government responded?
Cabello announced on Monday that Caracas will send 15, 000 troops to improve border security in the Colombian states of Zulia and Tachira.
The minister also announced the seizure of 53 tonnes of drugs so far this year, saying, “Here, we do fight drug trafficking, here, we do fight drug cartels on all fronts.”
Cabello stated that the enhanced security measures along the border with Colombia, aimed at “combating criminal groups”, will also include the deployment of aircraft, drones and riverine security, according to local media outlet Noticias Venevision. Colombian authorities should take similar measures to “sure peace along the entire axis,” Cabello urged.
According to Maduro, “from the north, the empire has gone mad and has renewed its threats to the peace and stability of Venezuela,” according to Caracas-based news agency Globovision.
“We are not fakes nor drug traffickers, and we will defend the dignity of beloved Venezuela”, Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez told a crowd of military recruits over the weekend.
What has the opposition’s leadership in Venezuela said?
In an X-post on Monday, opposition figure Marina Corina Machado described Maduro as the “head of the Cartel of the Sun.” Machado was disqualified weeks before last year’s election.
Henrique Capriles, the head of the opposition, warned against using force against Venezuela. Regardless of where it came from, “We firmly reject any force that might be committed against Venezuela.” The sovereignty of our country is sacred and must be unconditionally respected. No State can attack another, as it is clearly stated in the UN Charter and international law, because it would lead to the loss of lives,” he wrote on X.
Capriles, who lost to Maduro for president in 2013, asserted that regional harmony must be preserved.
“The government, currently in power, has the duty to open the doors and create the mechanisms necessary to prevent our crisis from worsening further”.
Between 2019 and 2022, Juan Guaido, the interim president supported by the West, backed the US’s actions against Venezuelan cartels. Both the Tren de Aragua and the Cartel of the Suns have already been labeled as terrorist organizations. Their leader is not hidden in the shadows: his name is Nicolas Maduro, a dictator responsible for this criminal network that drains Venezuela and threatens the entire region”, he posted a statement on X on Monday.
What words did other leaders from Latin America use?
Sheinbaum, a representative for Mexico, claimed earlier this month that there is no proof linking Maduro to the Sinaloa Cartel, which has its headquarters in her country and is named after the state of Sinaloa.
Source: Aljazeera
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