US President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States would begin ground attacks in the Caribbean on Venezuela “pretty soon,” raising the prospect of a US aerial bombardment of Venezuela.
“We knocked out 96% of the drugs coming in by water, and now we’re starting by land...” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding, “It’s going to be starting on land pretty soon.”
Trump’s threat Friday followed his declaration earlier in the week that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s “days are numbered.” When asked whether he would send ground troops into Venezuela, he refused to rule it out. The Wall Street Journal editorial board characterized Trump’s actions as a pledge to carry out regime change, writing that Trump is now “obliged to follow through” on his commitment to oust Maduro.
The administration’s threats are accompanied by an unprecedented buildup of military assets in the Caribbean. According to reports this week by The War Zone and Breaking Defense, the Pentagon is rapidly deploying advanced combat aircraft to former US bases in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic in preparation for airstrikes on Venezuelan territory.
F-35A stealth fighters from the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing have received federal mobilization orders to deploy to the Caribbean, The War Zone reported Thursday. The deployment of F-35As, which can carry 2,000-pound guided bombs and strike targets deep inside Venezuelan airspace, represents a significant escalation of the US military posture in the region. The War Zone noted that “the F-35A deployment is a major signal of what type of operations could be on the horizon.”
Six EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jets arrived at the former Roosevelt Roads naval base in Puerto Rico on December 10. According to Breaking Defense, the Growlers—which are designed to jam enemy radars and communications and suppress air defenses—are “possibly the most glaring sign that the U.S. is preparing for airstrikes as any over the last few months.”
HC-130J Combat King II combat search and rescue (CSAR) planes and HH-60W Jolly Green helicopters have also arrived at Roosevelt Roads. The War Zone reported that “the deployment of dedicated CSAR aircraft to the region is a sign that the Trump administration could be about to drastically increase its pressure on Maduro and go after the cartels inland with strikes. The aircraft are needed for rapid rescues of any aircrews that are lost during military operations, specifically over contested territory.”
Combined with the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group, more than 15,000 forward-deployed troops and scores of aircraft already in the region, the military buildup represents the largest American force in the Caribbean since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The US media is actively promoting regime change in Venezuela. In a fawning interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, María Corina Machado—the Venezuelan opposition figure who recently fled the country under US military protection to collect a Nobel Peace Prize in Norway—openly called for the overthrow of the Maduro government and praised Trump’s military build-up.
“I absolutely support President Trump’s strategy,” Machado declared. “We, the Venezuelan people, are very grateful to him and to his administration, because I believe he is a champion of freedom in this hemisphere.”
When asked whether she would welcome US military action in Venezuela, Machado replied: “I will welcome more and more pressure so that Maduro understands that he has to go, that his time is over.”
Machado dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump and stated that she believes “the regime has its days numbered.” She has previously outlined a $1.7 trillion privatization plan for Venezuela’s economy.
The Democratic Party has refused to condemn Trump’s moves toward regime change in Latin America. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, appeared on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. When host Martha Raddatz asked Warner “do you agree” with Trump’s “effort to oust the dictator” Maduro, Warner, replied, “I agree that the Venezuelan people want Maduro gone.”
Warner also justified the administration’s massacres of civilians on boats. Since September, US forces have killed at least 87 people in drone and missile strikes on vessels the administration claims are smuggling drugs. Democratic Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut said last weekend on “Face the Nation” that attacking survivors of destroyed boats “is a violation of the laws of war.”
Yet Warner declared that he is “reluctant to kind of reach the conclusion that some of my colleagues have that this was an illegal strike.”
On September 2, a strike that targeted survivors clinging to the wreckage of a destroyed boat has been characterized by independent experts as a potential war crime. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly told commanders to “kill everybody” on targeted vessels.
The administration’s claim that it is combating drug trafficking is a transparent fraud. Trump has threatened Colombian President Gustavo Petro, declaring “Petro is next”—making clear that the campaign extends to any Latin American government that fails to submit to Washington’s dictates.
The administration is also preparing an economic blockade of Venezuela. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the threat of further tanker seizures has already “paralyzed tanker traffic in and out of Venezuela.” On Thursday, a dozen ships waited outside Venezuela’s main oil port, but none moved to load crude. A Venezuelan port official told the Journal that employees around the country are calling in sick or skipping work as tensions escalate.
The tanker seized Wednesday was carrying roughly $80 million of oil, equivalent to about 5 percent of what Venezuela spends monthly on imported goods, “raising the prospect of shortages.” The Journal noted that the seizure “raises an existential crisis for a regime that runs on oil revenue.”
“If the U.S. seizes one tanker a month, that would push Venezuela into a recession,” Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodríguez of the University of Denver told the Journal.
The military buildup must be understood in the context of the administration’s National Security Strategy, which establishes the goal of “restoring American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” while denying China “the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities” in the region. Latin America is being targeted as a captive source of resources and a power base for US imperialism’s escalating confrontation with China.