President Donald Trump will meet with the National Security Council on Monday (the first) to talk about Venezuela, the White House announced amid the current crisis between Washington and Caracas.
- See also: Trump confirms phone conversation with Maduro; The American press talks about a “final ultimatum” to the Venezuelans
The United States deployed the world’s largest aircraft carrier in the Caribbean, along with other warships, fighter aircraft, and thousands of troops. The government says the displacement is part of anti-drug operations, although President Nicolas Maduro claims the goal is to overthrow it.
The meeting comes one day after the US President confirmed that he had a phone call with Maduro, who did not comment on the matter.
White House spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt did not respond to questions about whether Trump had made a final decision about possible US intervention.
Levitt also refused to rule out the possibility of deploying US troops on Venezuelan soil and maintained the White House’s ambiguity on the issue. He said: “There are options available to the president, and I will let him talk about them.”
In turn, Maduro led a march that included thousands of activists, who carried Venezuelan flags and the red shirts of the government party.
Maduro said in his speech: “We were born to win, not to be defeated!” “We want peace, but peace with sovereignty, peace with equality, peace with freedom. We do not want peace with slaves, and we do not want peace with colonies.”
He added, “We lived through 22 weeks of aggression that can be classified as psychological terrorism. 22 weeks put us to the test.”
The National Security Council is also meeting two days after Trump announced that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered “completely closed” and that six airlines canceled operations to the country. He had announced a few days ago that the United States would “very soon” begin targeting “Venezuelan drug traffickers” in operations “on the ground.”
The maneuvers in the Caribbean resulted in the deaths of 83 people and the bombing of at least 20 suspected drug smuggling boats. The United States has not yet provided evidence to support that the targets were in fact drug traffickers.
The White House has faced criticism over the second attack on survivors of the September 2 speedboat bombing. US media reported last week that two people survived the initial attack and were shot down in a subsequent attack to carry out an order from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
Levitt said that the admiral in charge of the operation, Frank Bradley, “acted within his authority and in accordance with the law in carrying out the attack to ensure the destruction of the boat and eliminate the threat to the United States.”
The September 2 attack — which left 11 people dead, according to Trump — was the first of about 20 subsequent attacks in the Caribbean and Pacific region. Critics of the operations say the bombings amount to extrajudicial executions, even if they target known drug traffickers.
Hegseth was increasingly questioned about these actions, and later indicated that the decision was Bradley’s.
“I support him and the decisions he made, both in the September 2 mission and in other instances since,” the Pentagon chief wrote this Monday in X, labeling Bradley an “American hero.”
Subsequent attacks that left survivors were followed by search and rescue efforts, recovering two people in one case and failing to find another later in October.