United States increased pressure on the Nicolás Maduro regime and its criminal allies in the region on Tuesday. Following direct orders from President Donald Trump, the U.S. Armed Forces launched a naval strike in international Caribbean waters that resulted in the elimination of 11 members of the narcoterrorist cartel Tren de Aragua, a group designated by Washington as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization" serving Caracas.
Trump himself confirmed the operation through his Truth Social account, where he shared a video of the naval operation led by Southern Command (SOUTHCOM):
"This morning, following my orders, the U.S. military carried out a kinetic strike against Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists positively identified in the Southern Command's area of responsibility. (...) The strike resulted in the death of 11 terrorists. No member of the U.S. Armed Forces was injured. Let this serve as a warning to anyone considering importing drugs into the United States. BEWARE!" the president wrote.
According to official information, the criminal group was traveling in a vessel loaded with illegal narcotics bound for U.S. territory when it was intercepted and neutralized. Although Washington avoided disclosing the precise location or technical details about the weaponry used, sources from the Department of Defense told the EFE agency that it was a "precision strike" carried out as part of anti-drug operations in the Caribbean.
El narcodictador, Nicolas Maduro.
At the White House, Trump provided further details in the afternoon: "We have had a large amount of drugs coming into our country for a long time, and these come from Venezuela. They leave Venezuela in large quantities. Many things are coming out of Venezuela, so we eliminated the ship."
The military action was also confirmed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who emphasized: "Today the United States Army carried out a lethal strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug vessel that had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by an organization designated as narcoterrorist."
The operation, part of a broader deployment, includes eight military ships equipped with missiles and a nuclear-powered submarine deployed by Washington in the Caribbean near the Venezuelan coast. The stated objective is to cut off the flow of drugs at its root and directly confront criminal organizations linked to Chavismo.
Donald Trump, presidente electo de Estados Unidos.
In response, Nicolás Maduro asserted that Venezuela is facing the "greatest threat seen in America in the last one hundred years" and declared that the country would go "to arms" in the event of a "military aggression." The Chavista dictator also decreed a state of maximum alert, denouncing alleged threats from Washington.
The background of this direct clash runs deep: since the diplomatic break between Caracas and Washington in 2019, the Trump administration has accused Maduro of leading a narcoterrorist cartel responsible for mass killings, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and destabilizing violence on the continent. With this new operation, the White House reinforces its message of "zero tolerance" against those who attempt to use the Caribbean Sea as a corridor to flood United States with drugs.
