United States President Donald Trump said on Thursday that operations by North American forces will begin “very soon” to “ground detention” a large number of Venezuelan drug traffickers, as part of tensions between Washington and Caracas and speculation about possible US military intervention in the Latin American country.
“You may have realized that people don’t want to deliver shipments by sea, and we’re going to start stopping them by land as well,” the White House tenant said in a remote conversation with soldiers on duty for Thanksgiving. “By land, it’s easier, but that will start very soon.”
Just before those words, Trump acknowledged the troops for their work. “You are the backbone of the American Air Force,” he said. He praised, saying: “In recent weeks, you have worked to discourage Venezuelan drug traffickers (…) from sending their poison to the United States,” claiming that they “kill hundreds of thousands of people annually.”
In this sense, he insisted that “there are many, of course,” but stressed that “there are not many arriving by sea anymore, as you have probably noticed,” before putting the estimate of alleged drug transfers by sea at 85 percent.
The Donald Trump administration, which allowed the CIA to operate in Venezuela, has used the Cartel of the Suns’ alleged role in drug trafficking as one of its main assets to justify attacks against alleged drug boats in Caribbean waters, although it has also extended to the eastern Pacific, adding at least 83 deaths in 21 operations in total.
These attacks, which come within the framework of the so-called “Operation Lance South,” are in addition to the increased US military presence in the region, which included the deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford, the largest in the US Navy.