“We’ll be starting to stop them by land also,” Trump said of Venezuelan drug traffickers. “The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon.”
Trump says meeting may happen with Maduro
President Trump says he may speak with Venezuela’s Maduro amid a pressure campaign on Venezuela that has included a massive U.S. military buildup.
Amid a buildup of U.S. military forces near Venezuela and strikes on alleged drug boats, President Donald Trump told U.S. troops on Thanksgiving that the military operation will soon include strikes on land.
“In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers,” Trump said during a call with military service members that alluded to the boat strikes, adding: “We’ll be starting to stop them by land also. The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon.”
Since early September, the Trump administration has attacked at least 21 boats traversing the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific in international waters, killing 83 people − many of them Venezuelans. Administration officials have said, without providing evidence, that those boats were attempting to carry narcotics to the United States.
The military campaign that has drawn criticism from legal experts, who question the legality of using deadly military force rather than trying to apprehend suspected trafficking vessels and their cargo. This week Senate Democrats escalated their demands that the Trump administration publicly disclose the legal justification for conducting the attacks.
“Few decisions are more consequential for a democracy than the use of lethal force,” the 13 senators, all members of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, wrote in a Nov. 24 letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Trump has said for weeks that he also is contemplating land strikes on targets within Venezuela. Tensions are high as the U.S. positioned its largest aircraft carrier, two guided missile destroyers, and a special operations ship near Venezuela. Around 12,000 troops are stationed in the area.
The Trump administration designated Cartel de los Soles, which it claims is headed by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, as a foreign terrorist organization on Nov. 24, as it turns up the heat on a longtime adversary.
Yet even as he contemplates escalating military action, Trump is leaving the door open to diplomacy, saying he may speak directly with with Maduro amid his pressure campaign on the Latin American leader.
“I might talk to him, we’ll see,” Trump said Nov. 25 when asked about Maduro while traveling aboard Air Force One to Florida.
Contributing: Cybele Mayes-Osterman and Josh Meyer, USA TODAY