U.S. military strikes on land targets inside Venezuela will begin “very soon,” President Donald Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Dec. 2, while warning that other countries could also be subject to strikes if they’re suspected of being involved in drug trafficking.
“We’re going to start doing those strikes on land too,” he said at the White House alongside his Cabinet officials, responding to a question on whether the military will strike inside Venezuela. “We know where they live. We know where the bad ones live, and we’re going to start that very soon.”
The president did not provide other details about the operation, but U.S. strikes inside the Latin American country would be an escalation in the conflict that has been brewing since September after the military conducted strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea that officials have said were carrying drugs into the United States.
Other countries that may be involved could also face military strikes, the president warned. “Anybody that’s doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack,” he said.
For the past few months, the Trump administration has also been ramping up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, accusing him of being the leader of the Cartel de los Soles, which he has denied. The U.S. government also recently labeled the cartel as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).
The State Department also said in a Nov. 16 statement that it believes the Maduro regime is illegitimate. Although Maduro was elected last year, international observers have said that the election was rigged in his favor.
“Cartel de los Soles by and with other designated FTOs including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel are responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe,” the statement said. “The United States will continue using all available tools to protect our national security interests and deny funding and resources to narco-terrorists.”
During a press event last month, Trump suggested that he had made up his mind on what action he would take against Venezuela, although he did not indicate at the time that he would launch strikes inside the country.
The administration has come under scrutiny this week over the Caribbean strikes as a result of reports citing anonymous sources claiming that in September, the military launched a second strike on a boat after an initial attack didn’t kill everyone aboard.
Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Dec. 2 defended the strikes and said that the actions are needed to curb drug smuggling into the United States. Both Hegseth and Trump said that neither was aware of a second strike on a suspected drug-smuggling vessel in the Caribbean in September.
“I didn’t know about the second strike. I didn’t know anything about people. I wasn’t involved, and I knew they took out a boat, but I would say this, they had a strike,” the president said.
Hegseth told reporters in the White House that he had “watched the first strike live” before he moved on to another meeting.
The remarks on Dec. 2 come two days after Trump confirmed to reporters that he had spoken with Maduro but offered no details about what the two had spoken about. It also comes days after Trump wrote on social media that airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered “closed in its entirety.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
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