Today, Thursday (11/13/2025), the United States announced a new phase of its military attack against drug smuggling, under the name Operation Southern Spear, after the arrival of the largest aircraft carrier in the world, the Gerald Ford, to the Caribbean.
“This mission defends our homeland, eliminates drug terrorists from our hemisphere and protects our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth announced on the X Network.
He said: “The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood, and we will protect it.”
The statement did not provide further details about this new phase, but experts in Washington highlight that the aircraft carrier, accompanied by its fleet of escort ships, significantly expands the United States’ military alternatives in the region.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced, on Wednesday, at the conclusion of the G7 ministerial summit in Canada, that Venezuela is “an illegitimate regime, and is essentially a drug trafficking organization that has seized power.”
“But look, this is an anti-drug operation. If they stopped sending boats loaded with drugs, there wouldn’t be any problem,” he added.
President Donald Trump himself was contradictory in a recent television interview, stating that he had no intention of going to war against Caracas.
Ground attacks
But when asked if he thought President Nicolas Maduro’s days in power were numbered, he replied: “I would say yes.”
The aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, along with its adjacent fleet of ships, joins the six ships already in the Caribbean and one in the Pacific.
So far, the 20 attacks against boats supposedly transporting drugs have killed at least 76 people. Trump indicated that ground attacks are being prepared on the horizon, in addition to indicating that the CIA may already be operating in the region.
Trump’s slogan was and remains “America First,” recalls Alexander P. Gray, CEO of American Global Strategies.
In the case of drug smuggling, the goal above all is to stop the arrival of drugs from the south.
“Given its relations with China and Russia, Venezuela is part of the great competition between powers around the world,” he explained at a panel of experts organized by the Atlantic Council in Washington on Thursday.
He added, “What (Trump) is saying is that before we can achieve success at the global level, we must succeed in our region, in the hemisphere in which we live.”
“From the point of view of the national leadership, they will continue this (deployment) for as long as possible until they achieve the goal they seek, which is to stop drug trafficking into the United States,” he said.
Peaceful transition
Douglas Farah, president of consultancy IBI and an expert in drug trafficking and security, explains to AFP that any attack on Venezuelan territory must take into account the possibility of collateral damage.
When selecting targets, “Puerto Cabello could be a possibility,” in this expert’s opinion. This is the most important seaport in Venezuela, and a transit point for drugs, according to experts.
But he warned, “I think it is very difficult to find important targets that could significantly change the balance of power in Venezuela if we decided to bomb it.”
If what this destabilizing strategy seeks is to overthrow Maduro’s government, “the goal must be a peaceful transition,” retired Gen. Laura Richardson, who served as head of Southern Command between 2021 and 2024, explained at the Atlantic Council.
To achieve this, it is necessary to maintain dialogue with the Venezuelan armed forces, recalls former Special Envoy to Venezuela (2019-2021) Elliot Abrams.
“One of the things the opposition has to say, and we have to say, is that Venezuela has long borders and a lot of violence, and it needs an army. I hope our covert CIA operation will do that,” he explained in the debate.
He concluded by saying: “They will not be harmed by the transition process. They will be happier.”
mg (AFP, Telemundo)
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