Trump says the US will begin arresting Venezuelan drug traffickers by land ‘very soon’

U.S. President Donald Trump took advantage of a Thanksgiving video teleconference on Thursday with members of the Armed Forces to further intensify his rhetoric amid the growing military and verbal confrontation with Venezuela.

Trump threatened to begin detaining Venezuela’s “drug traffickers” by land “very soon,” continuing what he sees as a successful campaign in which the U.S. military has carried out extrajudicial killings in Caribbean waters. “The land is easier,” he said. “We warned them. Stop sending poison to our country,” he added, referring to drug trafficking for which he blames the Nicolás Maduro regime.

Since September 2, as part of an operation that Washington retroactively named Southern Spear, the United States has bombed at least 21 vessels and killed at least 83 people, mostly in Caribbean waters and near the Venezuelan coast. Beyond videos showing those alleged drug boats being blown up, U.S. authorities have provided no evidence in any of those attacks that the targets were involved in drug-trafficking activities. Nor have they provided information on the identities of the people killed.

Long weekend

“Of course, there aren’t too many [drugs] coming in by sea any more. People aren’t wanting to be delivering by sea, and we’ll be starting to stop them by land also,” Trump explained during the video teleconference with U.S. service members, which he joined from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, where he had traveled to spend the long Thanksgiving weekend.

The U.S. president accuses Venezuela of being involved in the illegal drug trade that has caused the worst drug crisis in the country’s history, largely due to fentanyl — even though it is proven that this powerful opioid arrives in the United States from Mexico and, to a lesser extent, from China, and not through the now-militarized Caribbean route. Behind that pretext, Washington analysts identify another strategy: increasing pressure on Nicolás Maduro’s government and ultimately forcing regime change.

The naval deployment in the Caribbean began in late August and has grown since. The addition of the USS Gerald Ford, the U.S. Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, marked a turning point in operations against those alleged drug boats a couple of weeks ago. What’s more, since last Monday, the State Department has officially classified the so-called Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organization. The Cartel of the Suns is a loosely defined criminal network that the U.S. alleges is run by Maduro. In the summer, U.S. authorities also doubled the reward for Maduro to $50 million.

Parallel to the military escalation, Trump has issued messages this week hinting at the possibility of negotiations between the White House and Maduro. The president suggested he would be willing to speak with the Venezuelan leader to “save lives,” but added that if things don’t go “the easy way,” he would have no problem achieving his goal “the hard way.”

It is still unclear whether such a conversation between the two leaders will take place. And even less clarity about when it could happen.

The idea that Trump is open to talks indicates that the U.S. president may be reconsidering a military intervention in Venezuela, despite pressure from part of his Cabinet, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the forefront. Both his most loyal base — the MAGA movement — and U.S. public opinion oppose the idea of a foreign intervention. Recent polls show that 70% of respondents would not look favorably on a military adventure in the Caribbean.

For his part, Maduro has shown ambivalent behavior in recent weeks, at least in public. The Venezuelan president alternates between railing against U.S. threats with calls for civilians to mobilize in defense of the Caribbean nation’s sovereignty and making appeals for peace and harmony — complete with songs and dances if necessary.

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