Trump receives proposals to strike Venezuela
Shafaq News – Washington, D.C.
On Thursday, Senior US military officials presented President Donald Trump with updated options for possible operations in Venezuela, including land strikes, according to sources familiar with White House meetings cited by CBS.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Kain, and other senior officials briefed the president on military options for the coming days, the sources said, adding that “No final decision has been made.”
At a defence summit in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Hegseth framed the administration’s campaign against drug traffickers as a central justification for potential action. He said, “My advice to foreign terrorist organisations is do not get on a boat if you are smuggling drugs to poison the American people,” adding, “We know you are a designated terrorist organisation, or a foreign terrorist or a smuggler — we will find you and we will kill you.”
White House spokespeople did not immediately comment, and a Pentagon spokesman declined to comment, the sources said.
US intelligence agencies contributed information to the planning of the possible operations, according to the officials.
Earlier this week, the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford entered the area of responsibility of US Southern Command, the military unit responsible for operations in the Caribbean and South America. The carrier has joined a force of destroyers, warplanes, and special operations assets already in the region.
Over the past two months, US forces have struck at least 21 vessels alleged to be transporting narcotics from South America to the United States (20 strikes to date, with a late-October operation that targeted two boats). At least 80 alleged smugglers were killed in those strikes. Two survived and were returned to their home countries, Ecuador and Colombia.
