Trump believes Maduro’s days as Venezuela’s leader are numbered

U.S. President Donald Trump believes Nicolás Maduro’s days as Venezuelan leader are numbered, but he also “doubts” that his country will go to war with the Caribbean nation. He made these remarks in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, recorded last Friday and broadcast on Sunday, in which the anchor questioned him about the situation between the two countries and the U.S. military presence in the region.

Asked by journalist Nora O’Donnell about the large concentration of U.S. warships deployed in international waters of the Caribbean, bordering Venezuelan territorial waters, and whether there will be a war between the two countries, Trump replied: “I doubt it. I don’t think so. But they’ve been treating us very badly, not only on drugs.”

The U.S. president went on to repeat his usual claims that the Chavista regime has emptied its prisons and sanatoriums in order to send convicts and the mentally ill to the United States.

When the journalist asked him if he believed Maduro’s days as Venezuelan leader were numbered, Trump replied, “I would say yeah. I think so, yeah.” But he declined to elaborate.

Since September 2, the United States has carried out at least 16 extrajudicial attacks against vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific, which it claims, without providing evidence, were attempting to transport drugs to U.S. territory. At least 64 people have been killed in these strikes, and there are only three known survivors: a Peruvian citizen and a Colombian national who were repatriated to their countries, and a third person who was rescued alive in an attack last Wednesday.

Initially, the Trump Administration justified these operations as essential to fighting the drug cartels, with which the White House considers it to be in an “armed conflict.”

But gradually, Trump has been hinting that this campaign may be a cover for an attempt to bring down Maduro. His administration accuses the Venezuelan president of being a drug kingpin, maintains that Venezuela is a narco-state, and has doubled the reward for the Chavista leader’s capture to $50 million. The U.S. president has authorized the CIA to conduct covert missions in the Caribbean country and frequently says that the current campaign against the boats is entering a “second phase” on land.

When O’Donnell asked him about the possibility of land strikes, the president declined to give a clear answer. “I’m not saying it’s true or untrue. I wouldn’t be inclined to say I would do that, but I don’t talk to a reporter about whether or not I’m going to strike.”

The United States maintains a dozen ships in the Caribbean, carrying 10,000 troops and F-35 fighter jets. In the coming days, they will be joined by the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, the largest and most modern in its fleet. The nuclear-powered Ford has a crew of 5,000.

The most recent attack reported by the United States took place on Saturday, according to a social media post by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. All three people on board were reportedly killed in the attack.

As usual, Hegseth has not provided specific details about the identity of the crew, the type of drugs they were allegedly transporting, or the criminal gang that, according to the United States, controlled the vessel.

The post merely asserts that the alleged drug-running boat was operated by a “designated terrorist organization.” In February, the State Department added the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to its list, along with six Mexican cartels: Sinaloa, Jalisco New Generation, Northwest and Gulf, as well as La Nueva Familia Michoacana and Carteles Unidos.

“This vessel, like all the others, was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth wrote.

The Secretary of Defense accompanied his message on social media, as has also become customary, with a video showing the moment the U.S. missile hit the vessel.

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