Top U.S. officials were scheduled to gather at the White House to discuss Venezuela as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to defend its controversial dual attacks on drug smugglers in the Caribbean.
The meeting, scheduled for Monday, comes as the U.S. military continues to surge assets to the Caribbean, Reuters reported. This has raised concerns about a possible ground invasion aimed at overthrowing the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, despite mixed messages from President Trump in recent days.
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Last week, the US president said ground operations against Venezuelan criminal organizations could begin “soon.” This would add to a months-long offensive by the U.S. military against suspected Venezuelan drug smugglers in international waters in the Caribbean.
Days earlier, the United States designated Cartel de los Soles, which authorities describe as Maduro’s drug-trafficking cartel, a “foreign terrorist organization” (FTO). Experts reject this characterization, saying the “Cartel de los Soles” traditionally refers to a loose network of corruption within the Venezuelan government.
In a Saturday post on his Truth social account, President Trump said there should be a “total” closure of airspace over Venezuela, which some observers saw as final preparations for military action.
But on Sunday, President Trump told reporters not to “read too much into” the move.
Alan Fisher, Al Jazeera’s chief U.S. correspondent, said Monday in a report from Washington, D.C., that “no one really knows” why President Trump announced the airspace closures. He added that US media reports indicate that the announcement was made without notification from the Department of Defense.
“When asked about Air Force One,[Trump]said we shouldn’t read too much into it, but of course that didn’t stop the speculation, because typically a no-fly zone is established before any military operations take place,” Fisher said.
He added that many observers in Washington read this threat and accumulation of assets as an attempt to force President Maduro to flee the country before military action is taken. Some have expressed concern that Trump will pursue an “oil war,” pointing to his past comments about Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
“Of course, in all of this, Donald Trump has to balance out the MAGA[Make America Great Again]supporters, because he campaigned on the fact that he wasn’t going to get involved in what he called a stupid foreign war,” Fisher said.
Al Jazeera’s Phil Lovell, reporting from the US territory of Puerto Rico, which is a hub for the Caribbean military buildup, said there had been significant activity, but it remained difficult to determine whether any operations were imminent.
“We have about 15,000 or so military personnel in this part of the world as this preparation is going on,” Lovell said.
“We obviously have maritime systems as well. We currently have the world’s largest carrier strike group off the coast, the USS Gerald F. Ford… We also have the USS Winston S. Churchill and the USS Bainbridge,” he said.
New scrutiny on boat strikes
The pressure continues to mount as the Trump administration faces new pressure over a deadly attack on suspected Venezuelan drug smugglers in international waters in the Caribbean.
Last weekend, Republican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. House and Senate Armed Services Committees announced increased oversight of airstrikes.
This comes after the Washington Post and CNN reported last week that US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave verbal orders to kill everyone on board a boat suspected of smuggling drugs from Venezuela.
Military authorities then reportedly ordered a so-called “additional” attack on the ship, as two people appeared to have survived the initial attack.
Legal scholars have long said that U.S. attacks on ships carrying suspected “narco-terrorists” on the high seas may be illegal under both international and domestic law, but the Secretary of Defense is stepping on even shaky legal ground by explicitly ordering the military to kill the entire crew of the vessel.
A group of former U.S. military lawyers said in a letter that “if true” the order “constitutes a war crime, murder, or both.”
In response to the report, Hegseth said all military operations in the Caribbean “are in accordance with the laws of armed conflict.”
Since then, he has stepped up his resistance, posting on social media on Sunday a mock image of the children’s character Franklin aiming a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher at a boat.
President Trump told reporters on Sunday that Hegseth denied ordering the killing.
“He didn’t say that. I believe him 100 percent,” he said.
On Monday, the White House confirmed that a second attack had indeed taken place, with press secretary Caroline Leavitt saying that Adm. Frank Bradley had given the order for additional strikes.
Mr. Bradley “worked well within his authority and the laws directing the engagement to destroy the boat and ensure that the threat to the United States was eliminated,” Mr. Levitt told reporters. She characterized the attack as an act of “self-defense” by the United States.
Also on Monday, Venezuela’s National Assembly was scheduled to hold an extraordinary session to discuss the creation of a committee on strikes.
However, the meeting was postponed until Tuesday, with no reason given.
