Attacks on land targets as part of what Washington calls “the campaign against drug trafficking” begin “soon”, but will not necessarily take place only in Venezuela, according to Donald Trump. It could also be carried out in other countries, as the American president announced this year during an appearance at the Despacho Oval. The Republican president said that these coups, which he has been announcing for weeks, are directed against a series of specific people – “horrible people,” they have called – and not against a country.
Asked if there was anything that could prevent the attacks, Trump replied: “I don’t want to say it. And immediately he continued: “There are no lone attacks against Venezuela. There are no ground attacks against horrible people who are bringing drugs into our country and killing our people… We have lost 300,000 people, this is a war like no other. Nothing has been seen like this. So it doesn’t have to be in Venezuela. The people who are bringing drugs into our country are the targets,” he said. declared the president. In the United States, tensions in the Caribbean continue to rise due to the prospect that the campaign of attacks against alleged narco-boats near Venezuelan territorial waters could turn into some kind of land offensive in the Caribbean country.
Tensions are coming to a head after the United States government became aware of the presence of a tanker loaded with crude oil from Venezuela off that country’s coast and indicated it is proposing to confiscate other similar vessels to attack Venezuela’s energy sector, its largest economic engine and main source of support in times of crisis. Washington confirmed it would jettison the oil cargo once the necessary legal requirements were met.
Although the United States maintains that its goal is to dismantle drug cartels, several of which have been included in its list of international terrorist organizations, Caracas and many experts believe that the real goal of Casa Blanca is to force the downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration considers the Chavista leader to be the leader of drug trafficking in his country. He also claims that he is an illegitimate representative who committed fraud in the July 2024 presidential elections. María Corina Machado, the main opposition leader, was unable to participate in these rallies because she was disqualified by Chavismo, which is why she supported the candidacy of veteran diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, now exiled in Spain. Machado has lived in hiding since then and this week relied on help from the United States to leave Venezuela and travel to Oslo, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
In his statements this month, Trump declined to specify which people he was referring to as possible targets, or in which territories attacks could be carried out. On other previous occasions he mentioned Mexico or Colombia, and in another moment of his comments in the Oval Despacho he alluded to the country governed by President Gustavo Petro: “Colombia has at least three cocaine factories.
The US representative also wanted to confirm whether the US plans to be wary of more active Venezuelan oil companies. “It wouldn’t be very smart to say that,” he told reporters. “We’re supposed to keep this a little secret,” he added. Last July, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions against members of Maduro’s family – three of his nephews -, against six shipping companies and against the media of the ships of these companies, accused of transporting Venezuelan oil.
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