President Donald Trump is prepared to use all aspects of American power to stop drug trafficking from Latin America, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at an Aug. 19 White House press briefing, when asked about the possibility of U.S. troops being deployed in Venezuela.
A reporter asked whether the United States is “looking at, possibly, boots on the ground there,” in light of reports on U.S. warships operating near Venezuela and around 4,000 U.S. Marines on board.
“What I will say, with respect to Venezuela, President Trump has been very clear and consistent; he’s prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice,” Leavitt began her response.
Leavitt’s comment came a day after The Epoch Times confirmed, with a White House source familiar with the matter, reports that U.S. naval and air assets would deploy to the southern Caribbean Sea as part of a heightened counternarcotics effort. Such a deployment could place those U.S. assets only a short distance from Venezuela’s northern coastline.
U.S.-Venezuela relations have been strained for years.
On Aug. 11, 2017, during his first term, President Donald Trump told reporters, “We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option, if necessary.”
The first Trump administration rejected Venezuela’s 2018 snap presidential election in which the country’s National Electoral Council declared Nicolás Maduro the winner. Trump took the further step of backing then-Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaidó’s move to position himself as the rightful head of state of Venezuela until new elections could be held.
Guaidó led a short-lived attempted uprising against Maduro on April 30, 2019.
Trump hosted Guaidó at his 2020 State of the Union Address and again the next day at the White House.
On March 26, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice stated Maduro was linked to both drug and arms trafficking and began offering a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Under President Joe Biden, the opposition to Maduro continued. The Biden administration rejected the results of Venezuela’s July 2024 presidential election, in which Venezuela’s National Electoral Council again declared Maduro the winner, amid accusations that the outcome was rigged for Maduro.
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice increased its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million. Making the announcement, Attorney General Pam Bondi accused Maduro of working with Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa cartel, and the Cartel de los Soles to “bring deadly drugs and violence into our country.”
This year, the State Department has listed Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa cartel as foreign terrorist organizations, and last month, the Treasury Department sanctioned the Cartel de los Soles as a specially designated terrorist organization.
“The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela; it is a narco terror cartel,” Leavitt said. “And Maduro, it is the view of this administration, is not a legitimate president. He is a fugitive head of this cartel who has been indicted in the United States for trafficking drugs into the country.”
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