US President Donald Trump announced that the United States is preparing to launch a ground invasion against Venezuela, arguing the attack will be against drug cartels, but will likely target the socialist project.
“The drugs coming in by sea are like 5% of what they were a year ago, less than 5% … The land is going to be next,” Trump said during a press conference on transnational crime.
Trump also suggested that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth brief Congress on the forthcoming military action.
Earlier this week, Hegseth revealed that the US had conducted two lethal strikes on vessels in the eastern Pacific suspected of drug trafficking—following similar actions in the southern Caribbean.
Responding to questions about legality, Trump dismissed the need for congressional approval.”Well, I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war, I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country,” he said.
Trump also denied a Wall Street Journal report that the US had deployed B-1 bombers near Venezuelan airspace. The report cited US officials and flight tracking data indicating that the bombers flew close to Venezuelan territory from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas.
“No, it’s not accurate, it is false, ” Trump said, though he added, ” We’re not happy with Venezuela for a lot of reasons, drugs being one of them.”
CIA operations in Venezuela will fail: Defense Minister
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino responded sharply to the US escalation, warning that any CIA operation in the country would fail.
“They may deploy I don’t know how many CIA-affiliated units in covert operations… and any attempt will fail,” Padrino said during military exercises along Venezuela’s coast.
According to regional reports, nearly 40 people have been killed in recent US strikes on boats in the Caribbean—many of them fishermen or civilians, according to local governments and families, in what critics have called “Extrajudicial killings.”