The U.S. imposed sanctions on three nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Thursday, as well as half a dozen ships accused of carrying oil from the country, as President Trump looks to inflict further pressure on the South American nation.
The new sanctions target Franqui Flores, Carlos Flores and Efrain Campo. Also included in the sanctions are Panamanian businessman Ramon Carretero Napolitano, six firms and six Venezuela-flagged ships suspected of transporting Venezuelan oil.
U.S. authorities seized control of a sanctioned oil tanker near Venezuela on Wednesday, an escalation of the recent pressure campaign that has seen thousands of U.S. troops deployed to the region.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control published the list of newly sanctioned individuals and entities on Thursday.
The sanctions are meant to deny them access to any property or financial assets held in the U.S., and the penalties are intended to prevent U.S. companies and citizens from doing business with them. Banks and financial institutions that violate that restriction expose themselves to sanctions or enforcement actions.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that “Nicolas Maduro and his criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury is holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes,” he said.
This is not the first time Maduro’s family has been involved in a political tit-for-tat with the U.S.
In October 2022, Venezuela freed seven imprisoned Americans in exchange for the United States releasing Flores and Campo, who had been jailed for years on narcotics convictions. The pair were arrested in Haiti in a Drug Enforcement Administration sting in 2015 and convicted the following year in New York.
Carlos Flores had been sanctioned in July 2017 but was removed from Treasury’s list in 2022 during the Biden administration years in an effort to promote negotiations for democratic elections in Venezuela.
The U.S.’s latest actions against Venezuela follow a series of deadly strikes the U.S. has conducted on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, which have killed at least 87 people since early September.
Mr. Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
In a sharp escalation of tensions between Washington and Caracas, the United States has seized a large Venezuelan oil tanker off the Caribbean coast, prompting fierce denunciations from the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
What To Know
Initial reports on Wednesday cited U.S. officials saying the Coast Guard carried out the tanker seizure under international maritime law, targeting vessels tied to alleged illicit PDVSA-linked crude shipments.
U.S President Donald Trump later confirmed the seizure, hinting that “other things are happening,” but offered no further details.
A senior Trump administration official described the move as a “judicial enforcement action on a stateless vessel” last docked in Venezuela.
Oil prices jumped on the news: Brent crude rose 0.8 percent to $62.35 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate climbed to $58.46.
Analysts warn the seizure may further strain U.S.–Venezuela relations and deter shippers already wary of handling sanctioned Venezuelan crude.
Maduro has long accused Washington of seeking to overthrow him and seize Venezuela’s vast oil reserves; the nation’s production has fallen from over 2 million barrels a day to roughly 1 million.
The seizure comes after Trump renewed threats of intervention by land, air, or sea, including a recent U.S. fighter jet flyover near Venezuelan airspace.
Caracas condemned the action as “international piracy” and “brazen theft,” accusing the U.S. of trying to control its natural resources.
Trump called the tanker the “largest ever” seized by the U.S.
Stay with Newsweek for all the latest updates on rising tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela.
President Trump on Saturday said that the airspace surrounding Venezuela should be considered closed, ratcheting up tensions with the Maduro regime and offering yet another sign that he is considering striking targets on land.
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump posted on Saturday morning.
For two decades, Venezuela cultivated anti-American allies across the globe, from Russia and China to Cuba and Iran, in the hope of forming a new world order that could stand up to Washington.
Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro is facing unprecedented American
military and diplomatic pressure to resign and leave his country peacefully. He is unlikely to take the offer.
The days when dictators could live in gilded exile with fortunes in secret Swiss bank accounts are mostly over, primarily because of global mechanisms for adjudicating human-rights abuses and tracking ill-gotten gains. The 63-year-old strongman doesn’t believe he will get lasting amnesty, analysts said, feeling only safe among the cadre of loyal military men with whom he has spent a decade surrounding himself.
Officials in the Trump administration on Saturday discussed the possibility of dropping leaflets on Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas as it seeks to weaken the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Among the potential avenues discussed regarding operations for Venezuela was dropping U.S. leaflets on Caracas as a kind of psychological warfare to pressure Maduro, multiple U.S. officials familiar with the talks told CBS News.
The operation, which was not yet authorized, could possibly take place Sunday, the officials said, which is Maduro’s 63rd birthday.
The Washington Post was first to report on the proposed leaflet operation.
Over the past few months, the U.S. has ratcheted up the pressure on Maduro in multiple ways, including an extensive military buildup in the region, live fire exercises, and strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.
When asked Monday, President Trump said he wouldn’t rule out sending U.S. troops into Venezuela.
“No, I don’t rule out that,” the president said. “I don’t rule out anything. We just have to take care of Venezuela.”
For his part, Maduro on the same day said he would be open to “face-to-face” discussions with Mr. Trump.
Last month, Mr. Trump also confirmed that he has authorized the CIA to go into Venezuela and conduct covert operations.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gestures as he arrives for the projection of a biographical series at the National Theatre of Venezuela in Caracas on Nov. 22, 2025.
Juan BARRETO /AFP via Getty Images
The Pentagon has conducted at least 21 strikes since early September, killing at least 80 people. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the strikes are designed to target cartels and drug traffickers, although it has not provided evidence that the vessels struck so far were carrying drugs.
There are currently about 15,000 U.S. troops in the region. A Navy official told CBS News last week that the U.S. had four military ships in the western Atlantic, including the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s most advanced aircraft carrier, and three guided missile destroyers. It had another seven military ships in the Caribbean, the official said, which included two guided missile destroyers, two guided missile cruisers, an amphibious assault ship and two amphibious transport dock ships.
Maduro, who has led Venezuela since 2013, faced an international outcry when he declared victory in Venezuela’s presidential elections in July 2024 despite results showing he had lost by a large margin to the opposition candidate.
The U.S. is one of several nations that does not recognize him as Venezuela’s president. The Trump administration has accused him of operating a cartel that funnels drugs into the U.S., and has offered a $50 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
House Democrats have introduced a bill that calls for funding to be cut off for American operations against Venezuela. Former top diplomat to Venezuela, Ambassador James Story, joins CBS News with more on why the U.S. may be building up military presence in the Caribbean.
For more than two decades, a loose-knit group of Venezuelan generals and senior officials has enabled the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine to the U.S. and Europe,
American and Colombian officials say.
While nearly all cocaine is produced in neighboring Colombia, Venezuela plays an important role in allowing the drug to move through its territory and then onto ships and planes that traffic it to Europe, the Caribbean and the U.S., the officials have said.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro indicated Monday that he is open to direct talks with the Trump administration, calling for diplomacy instead of confrontation as the U.S. Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier joined almost a dozen other American warships off his country’s shores in a tense standoff.
The administration accuses Maduro of facilitating drug trafficking into the United States, but the Venezuelan leader says the U.S. is trying to overthrow him.
“Those who want to speak with Venezuela will speak,” Maduro said in Spanish, adding in English: “Face-to-face.”
The Venezuelan leader made the remarks on his television program, which aired in Venezuela on Monday. He was asked by an interviewer about reports that President Trump was considering speaking with him.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks during an event in Caracas, Venezuela, Nov. 15, 2025.
Pedro Mattey/Anadolu/Getty
“Venezuela’s position is unwavering: Absolute respect for international law. We firmly reject the threat or use of force to impose rules between countries,” Maduro said. “We reaffirm what the U.N. Charter, our Constitution, and our people say: Only through diplomacy should free nations understand each other. Governments must seek common ground on mutual interests only through dialogue.”
Maduro’s comments came hours after President Trump said he would be willing to talk with the Venezuelan leader, while not ruling out deploying U.S. troops on the ground in Venezuela.
Mr. Trump accuses Maduro of working in conjunction with drug cartels that traffic narcotics into the U.S., and the Venezuelan leader has been indicted in a U.S. court on narco-terrorism charges. President Trump recently told CBS News’ 60 Minutes that he believed Maduro’s days in power were numbered.
Maduro has denied all accusations that he works with cartels and said he believes the drug trafficking claims are a pretext for a U.S. military operation to remove him from power.
Maduro has “done tremendous damage to our country, primarily because of drugs, but really because we have that problem with other countries too, but more than any other country, the release of prisoners into our country has been a disaster,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday. “He’s emptied his jails. Others have done that also. He has not been good to the United States. So we’ll see what happens. At a certain period of time, I’ll be talking to him.”
The Trump administration has presented no evidence to date to substantiate claims that Venezuela has deliberately sent criminals to the U.S.
On Sunday, Mr. Trump told reporters that “we may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out. They would like, they would like to talk.”
The USS Gerald R. Ford is seen in an April 8, 2017 file photo taken in Newport News, Virginia.
Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ridge Leoni/U.S. Navy via Getty
U.S. forces have been stepping up military exercises across the Caribbean for weeks, and CBS News national security correspondent Charlie D’Agata said the USS Gerald R. Ford — the most advanced aircraft carrier in the world — was within striking distance of Venezuela as of Tuesday morning.
The Ford arrived as the U.S. moved to designate the “Cartel de Los Soles” group as a foreign terrorist organization — a shift Mr. Trump said could open the door to targeting Venezuelan assets and infrastructure.
D’Agata reported Tuesday that there are now about 15,000 U.S. troops at sea in the region and on land in Puerto Rico, where U.S. F-35 stealth fighter jets have been seen flying nearly around the clock.
The U.S. military has conducted strikes against at least 22 vessels that the Trump administration alleges were transporting drugs to the U.S. from South America, killing at least 83 people.
The most advanced aircraft carrier in the nation crossed into the Caribbean Sea on Sunday, the U.S. Navy said, marking a major buildup in the region.
The arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford marks a major moment in what the Trump administration says is a counterdrug operation but has been seen as an escalating pressure tactic against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. has asserted that Maduro is complicit with armed criminal gangs that smuggle drugs into the U.S., allegations that Maduro has rejected. And over the last two months, the U.S. military has conducted strikes against at least 22 vessels it alleges were ferrying drugs from South America to the U.S., killing at least 83 people.
“Through unwavering commitment and the precise use of our forces, we stand ready to combat the transnational threats that seek to destabilize our region,” Adm. Alvin Holsey, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said Sunday in a statement announcing the USS Ford’s arrival in the Caribbean Sea.
“The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group’s deployment represents a critical step in reinforcing our resolve to protect the security of the Western Hemisphere and the safety of the American Homeland,” he added. Southern Command is the primary combatant unit for operations in the Caribbean and South America.
The Ford rounds off the largest buildup of U.S. firepower in the region in generations, in what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has dubbed Operation Southern Spear. The Ford’s carrier strike group, which includes squadrons of fighter jets and guided-missile destroyers, transited the Anegada Passage near the British Virgin Islands on Sunday morning, the Navy said.
The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier leaves Naval Station Norfolk on June 23, 2025, in Norfolk, Virginia.
John Clark / AP
Rear Adm. Paul Lanzilotta, who commands the Ford’s carrier strike group, said it will bolster an already large force of American warships to “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the Western Hemisphere.”
The administration has insisted that the buildup of warships is focused on stopping the flow of drugs into the U.S., but it has released no evidence to support its assertions that those killed in the boats were “narco-terrorists.”
President Trump said Friday that he’s “sort of” decided how to proceed on Venezuela, as top officials weigh potential military operations in the Latin American country. “I sort of have made up my mind” about the administration’s next steps in Venezuela, he told CBS News aboard Air Force One, but “I can’t tell you what it would be.”
Top Trump administration officials, military and senior staff gathered at the White House for at least the third day in a row on Friday to discuss possible military operations in Venezuela, according to sources familiar with the matter. Vice President JD Vance, Hegseth, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were among those who spoke with Mr. Trump at the White House on Friday, the sources said.
Venezuela was also discussed as part of the president’s daily intelligence briefing on Wednesday. CBS News has previously reported that Hegseth, Caine and other military officials presented Mr. Trump on Wednesday with options for potential operations in Venezuela in the coming days, including possible strikes on land.
Meanwhile, Venezuela announced Tuesday that it was launching a massive military exercise across the country, reportedly involving some 200,000 forces.
Many people both inside Venezuela, including Maduro himself, and observers outside the country believe the increased U.S. military pressure is aimed at forcing Maduro out of office.
When asked in a recent interview with “60 Minutes” if Maduro’s “days were numbered,” Mr. Trump responded, “I would say yeah. I think so, yeah.” Mr. Trump last month also confirmed that he had authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela.
The president has justified the attacks on drug boats by saying the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels while claiming the boats are operated by foreign terror organizations. He has faced pushback from leaders in the region, the U.N. human rights chief and lawmakers, including some Republicans, who have pressed for more information on who is being targeted and the legal justification for the boat strikes.
Senate Republicans recently voted to reject legislation that would have put a check on Mr. Trump’s ability to launch an attack against Venezuela without congressional authorization. Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the only Republicans to support the resolution, which failed in a 49-51 vote.
Experts disagree on whether or not American warplanes may be used to strike land targets inside Venezuela. Either way, the 100,000-ton warship is sending a message, one expert said.
“This is the anchor of what it means to have U.S. military power once again in Latin America,” Elizabeth Dickinson, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for the Andes region, told The Associated Press. “And it has raised a lot of anxieties in Venezuela but also throughout the region. I think everyone is watching this with sort of bated breath to see just how willing the U.S. is to really use military force.”
The U.S. military’s 20th strike on a boat accused of transporting drugs has killed four people in the Caribbean Sea, the U.S. military said Friday, coming as the Trump administration escalates its campaign in South American waters.The latest strike happened Monday, according to a social media post on Friday by U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in the Caribbean and Latin America. The latest strike brings the death toll from the attacks that began in September to 80, with the Mexican Navy suspending its search for a survivor of a strike in late October after four days.Southern Command’s post on X shows a boat speeding over water before it’s engulfed in flames. The command said intelligence confirmed the vessel “was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics.”Southern Command’s post marked a shift away from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s practice of typically announcing the attacks on social media, although he quickly reposted Southern Command’s statement.Hegseth had announced the previous two strikes on Monday after they had been carried out on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is expanding the U.S. military’s already large presence in the region by bringing in the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier. The nation’s most advanced warship is expected to arrive in the coming days after traveling from the Mediterranean Sea.Hegseth on Thursday formally named the mission “Operation Southern Spear,” emphasizing the growing significance and permanence of the military’s presence in the region. Once the Ford arrives, the mission will encompass nearly a dozen Navy ships as well about 12,000 sailors and Marines.The Trump administration has insisted that the buildup of warships is focused on stopping the flow of drugs into the U.S., but it has released no evidence to support its assertions that those killed in the boats were “narcoterrorists.” The strikes have targeted vessels largely in the Caribbean Sea but also have taken place in the eastern Pacific Ocean, where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers is smuggled.Some observers say the aircraft carrier is a big new tool of intimidation against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S. Experts disagree on whether American warplanes may bomb land targets to pressure Maduro to step down.Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. doesn’t recognize Maduro, who was widely accused of stealing last year’s election, as the leader of Venezuela and has called the government a “transshipment organization” that openly cooperates with those trafficking drugs toward the U.S.Maduro has said the U.S. government is “fabricating” a war against him. Venezuela’s government this week touted a “massive” mobilization of troops and civilians to defend against possible U.S. attacks.Trump has justified the attacks by saying the United States is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels and claiming the boats are operated by foreign terror organizations that are flooding America’s cities with drugs.Lawmakers, including Republicans, have pressed for more information on who is being targeted and the legal justification for the strikes.Rubio and Hegseth met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers who oversee national security issues last week, providing one of the first high-level glimpses into the legal rationale and strategy behind the strikes.Senate Republicans voted a day later to reject legislation that would have put a check on Trump’s ability to launch an attack against Venezuela without congressional authorization.
WASHINGTON —
The U.S. military’s 20th strike on a boat accused of transporting drugs has killed four people in the Caribbean Sea, the U.S. military said Friday, coming as the Trump administration escalates its campaign in South American waters.
The latest strike happened Monday, according to a social media post on Friday by U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in the Caribbean and Latin America. The latest strike brings the death toll from the attacks that began in September to 80, with the Mexican Navy suspending its search for a survivor of a strike in late October after four days.
Southern Command’s post on X shows a boat speeding over water before it’s engulfed in flames. The command said intelligence confirmed the vessel “was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics.”
Southern Command’s post marked a shift away from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s practice of typically announcing the attacks on social media, although he quickly reposted Southern Command’s statement.
Hegseth had announced the previous two strikes on Monday after they had been carried out on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is expanding the U.S. military’s already large presence in the region by bringing in the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier. The nation’s most advanced warship is expected to arrive in the coming days after traveling from the Mediterranean Sea.
Hegseth on Thursday formally named the mission “Operation Southern Spear,” emphasizing the growing significance and permanence of the military’s presence in the region. Once the Ford arrives, the mission will encompass nearly a dozen Navy ships as well about 12,000 sailors and Marines.
The Trump administration has insisted that the buildup of warships is focused on stopping the flow of drugs into the U.S., but it has released no evidence to support its assertions that those killed in the boats were “narcoterrorists.” The strikes have targeted vessels largely in the Caribbean Sea but also have taken place in the eastern Pacific Ocean, where much of the cocaine from the world’s largest producers is smuggled.
Some observers say the aircraft carrier is a big new tool of intimidation against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S. Experts disagree on whether American warplanes may bomb land targets to pressure Maduro to step down.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. doesn’t recognize Maduro, who was widely accused of stealing last year’s election, as the leader of Venezuela and has called the government a “transshipment organization” that openly cooperates with those trafficking drugs toward the U.S.
Maduro has said the U.S. government is “fabricating” a war against him. Venezuela’s government this week touted a “massive” mobilization of troops and civilians to defend against possible U.S. attacks.
Trump has justified the attacks by saying the United States is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels and claiming the boats are operated by foreign terror organizations that are flooding America’s cities with drugs.
Lawmakers, including Republicans, have pressed for more information on who is being targeted and the legal justification for the strikes.
Senate Republicans voted a day later to reject legislation that would have put a check on Trump’s ability to launch an attack against Venezuela without congressional authorization.
David Smolansky, a Venezuelan opposition politician, has been living in the U.S. after being driven out of his home country by threats from President Nicolas Maduro’s regime. CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan spoke with Smolansky about why he believes Maduro’s time is coming to an end.
Venezuela announced Tuesday that it was launching a massive military exercise across the country, reportedly involving some 200,000 forces, in response to the increasing presence of U.S. military assets in the region. The announcement by Venezuela’s military came as the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford had entered the Southern Command’s area of responsibility — which includes the Caribbean.
The Venezuelan Ministry of Defense said the exercise launched Tuesday involved the deployment of land, air and sea assets.
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said on Venezuelan state TV that 200,000 troops were involved in the exercise, according to the French news agency, AFP.
Members of the Venezuelan Armed Forces participate in the “Plan Independencia 200” defense deployment, ordered by Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, amid rising tensions with the U.S., in Merida, Venezuela, in a handout picture made available on Nov. 11, 2025.
Merida Governorate/Handout/REUTERS
“They are murdering defenseless people, whether or not they are drug traffickers, executing them without due process,” Padrino was quoted as saying, referring to U.S. military strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that began in September.
The USS Ford is the largest aircraft carrier in the world, and the U.S. Navy’s most advanced. It left the U.S. military’s Mediterranean Command region Tuesday and entered the Southern Command region, which includes the waters around Latin America.
The USS Gerald R. Ford in Newport News, Virginia, on April 8, 2017.
Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ridge Leoni/U.S. Navy/Getty
Aircraft on board the Ford include four squadrons of F/A-18 Super Hornets, an electronic F-18 variant squadron, Airborne Warning and Control Systems, two Helicopter Sea Combat Squadrons and a logistics support squadron.
The U.S. has also deployed F-35 stealth warplanes to Puerto Rico, as well as six other U.S. Navy ships in the Caribbean.
Many people both inside Venezuela, including President Nicolas Maduro himself, and observers outside the country believe the increased U.S. military pressure on Caracas is aimed at forcing Maduro out of office.
President Trump has not stated that as his intention, though he’s said he believes Maduro’s days in office are numbered. Mr. Trump has repeatedly accused Maduro of being complicit with armed criminal gangs that smuggle drugs into the U.S. — accusations the Venezuelan leader has rejected.
A former top diplomat to Venezuela, Ambassador James Story, who served in President Trump’s first term and under President Joe Biden, told 60 Minutes last month that the U.S. could oust Maduro by force.
David Smolansky, one of Venezuela’s opposition leaders in exile, told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan he also “strongly” believes Maduro’s days are numbered.
“I think it’s important, the pressure that has been implemented from the U.S.,” he said, adding that he and fellow opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Maria Corina Machado are in “constant and fluent communication with the [Trump] administration.”
“We are convinced that the transition could happen soon,” he said.
If there is a U.S. military attack on Venezuela, Defense Minister Padrino said Tuesday in his televised remarks that foreign troops would find a “community united to defend this nation, to the death.”
Some of Venezuela’s neighbors have also raised serious concerns over the U.S. attacks on small boats.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday ordered his country to stop sharing intelligence with the U.S. He said the directive would “remain in force as long as the missile attacks on boats in the Caribbean continue.”
“The fight against drugs must be subordinated to the human rights of the Caribbean people,” said Petro, who told CBS News in an exclusive interview in October that the strikes against boats were illegal and ineffective.
CBS News deputy foreign editor Jose Diaz Jr. contributed to this report.
Venezuela is conducting a massive military exercise as tensions rise near its shores. This comes as the USS Gerald R. Ford enters the Southern Command, and as U.S. strikes against apparent drug-carrying vessels continue. CBS News’ Charlie D’Agata reports.
Spanish police arrested 13 suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua across five cities, seized a stash of illegal drugs and dismantled two drug laboratories, authorities said Friday.
The arrests followed an investigation Spanish police opened last year after the brother of “Niño Guerrero,” the leader of the Tren de Aragua gang, was arrested in Barcelona under an international arrest warrant issued by Venezuelan authorities, police said. This was Spain’s first operation meant to dismantle a suspect cell of the Venezuelan prison gang, police said in a statement.
The two laboratories that police dismantled had been used to make tusi, a mixture of cocaine, MDMA and ketamine, police said. Video shows authorities finding packages and a pink substance inside a residence. The arrests took place in the Spanish cities of Barcelona, Madrid, Girona, A Coruña and Valencia.
The Tren de Aragua gang originated in Venezuela more than a decade ago at an infamously lawless prison with hardened criminals in the central state of Aragua. The gang has expanded in recent years as more than 7.7 million Venezuelans fled economic turmoil and migrated to other Latin American countries, the U.S. and Spain.
The gang has become a key reference in the Trump administration’s crackdown against alleged drug smugglers. The administration announced yet another deadly U.S. strike on a boat officials said was trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea on Friday. At least 18 such strikes have killed at least 70 people.
The United States began carrying out the strikes — which experts say amount to extrajudicial killings even if they target known traffickers — in early September, taking aim at vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Trump administration has said in a notice to Congress that the United States is engaged in “armed conflict” with Latin American drug cartels, describing them as terrorist groups as part of its justification for the strikes.
President Trump had previously designated Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization, along with MS-13 and other gangs and cartels. Mr. Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in March to treat suspected gang members like wartime enemies of the U.S. government, an action that has only been taken three other times in United States history.
WASHINGTON—President Trump has recently expressed reservations to top aides about launching military action to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, fearing that strikes might not compel the autocrat to step down, according to U.S. officials familiar with the deliberations.
The debate underscores that the administration’s Venezuela strategy remains in flux, despite a
buildup of military forces in the region and public threats by Trump to launch attacks.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago—No leader in the Caribbean has embraced the Trump administration’s forceful new military presence in the region like the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who took office in May, has been unwavering in her support for President Trump, cheering airstrikes against alleged drug boats, allowing U.S. military operations in her country’s waters and permitting an American warship to dock at the capital’s main port. On drug smugglers, she has said the U.S. should “kill them all violently.”
MEXICO CITY — They’re blowing up boats in the high seas, threatening tariffs from Brazil to Mexico and punishing anyone deemed hostile — while lavishing aid and praise on allies all aboard with the White House program.
Welcome to the Monroe Doctrine 2.0, the Trump administration’s bellicose, you’re-with-us-or-against-us approach to Latin America.
Not yet a year into his term, President Trump seems intent on putting his footprint in “America’s backyard” more than any recent predecessor. He came to office threatening to take back the Panama Canal, and now seems poised to launch a military attack on Venezuela and perhaps even drone strikes on cartel targets in Mexico. He vowed to withhold aid from Argentina if this week’s legislative elections didn’t go the way he wanted. They did.
The Navy’s USS Stockdale docks at the Frigate Captain Noel Antonio Rodriguez Justavino Naval Base, near entrance to the Panama Canal in Panama City, Panama, on Sept. 21.
(Enea Lebrun/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Every president comes in promising a new focus on Latin America, but the Trump administration is actually doing it,” said James Bosworth, whose firm provides regional risk analysis. “There is no country in the region that is not questioning how the U.S. is playing Latin America right now.”
Fearing a return to an era when U.S. intervention was the norm — from outright invasions to covert CIA operations to economic meddling — many Latin American leaders are trying to craft please-Trump strategies, with mixed success. But Trump’s transactional proclivities, mercurial outbursts and bullying nature make him a volatile negotiating partner.
“It’s all put Latin America on edge,” said Michael Shifter, past president of Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based research group. “It’s bewildering and dizzying and, I think, disorienting for everyone. People don’t know what’s coming next.”
In this super-charged update of U.S. gunboat diplomacy, critics say laws are being ignored, norms sidestepped and protocol set aside. The combative approach draws from some old standards: War on Drugs tactics, War on Terrorism rationales and Cold War saber-rattling.
Facilitating it all is the Trump administration’s formal designation of cartels as terrorist groups, a first. The shift has provided oratorical firepower, along with a questionable legal rationale, for the deadly “narco-terrorist” boat strikes, now numbering 14, in both the Caribbean and Pacific.
“The Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere,” is how Pete Hegseth, Trump’s defense secretary, has labeled cartels, as he posts video game-esque footage of boats and their crews being blown to bits.
Lost is an essential distinction: Cartels, while homicidal, are driven by profits. Al Qaeda and other terror groups typically proclaim ideological motives.
Another aberration: Trump doesn’t see the need to seek congressional approval for military action in Venezuela.
“I don’t think we’re necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war,” Trump said. “I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead.”
A supporter of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro wearing a T-shirt depicting President Trump and the slogan “Yankee go home” takes part in a rally on Thursday in Caracas against U.S. military activity in the Caribbean.
(Federico Parra/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump’s unpredictability has cowed many in the region. One of the few leaders pushing back is Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who, like Trump, has a habit of incendiary, off-the-cuff comments and social media posts.
The former leftist guerrilla — who already accused Trump of abetting genocide in Gaza — said Washington’s boat-bombing spree killed at least one Colombian fisherman. Petro called the operation part of a scheme to topple the leftist government in neighboring Venezuela.
Trump quickly sought to make an example of Petro, labeling him “an illegal drug leader” and threatening to slash aid to Colombia, while his administration imposed sanctions on Petro, his wife, son and a top deputy. Like the recent deployment of thousands of U.S. troops, battleships and fighter jets in the Caribbean, Trump’s response was a calculated display of power — a show of force designed to brow-beat doubters into submission.
At a rally in support of Colombian President Gustavo Petro in Bogota on Oct. 24, a demonstrator carries a sign that demands respect for Colombia and declares that, contrary to Trump’s claims, Petro is not a drug trafficker.
(Juancho Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Amid the whirlwind turns in U.S.-Latin American relations, the rapid unraveling of U.S.-Colombia relations has been especially startling. For decades Colombia has been the linchpin of Washington’s anti-drug efforts in South America as well as a major trade partner.
Unlike Colombia and Mexico, Venezuela is a relatively minor player in the U.S.-bound narcotics trade, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. And yet the White House has cast Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolás Maduro, as an all-powerful kingpin “poisoning” American streets with crime and drugs. It put a $50-million bounty on Maduro’s head and massed an armada off the coast of Venezuela, home to the world’s largest petroleum reserves.
President Trump talks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Oct. 9. Others, from left to right are, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
(Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
An exuberant cheerleader for the shoot-first-and-ask-no-questions-later posture is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has for years advocated for the ouster of left-wing governments in Havana and Caracas. In a recent swing through the region, Rubio argued for a more muscular interdiction strategy.
“What will stop them is when you blow them up,” Rubio told reporters in Mexico City. “You get rid of them.”
That mindset is “chillingly familiar for many people in Latin America,” said David Adler, of the think tank Progressive International. “Again, you’re doing extrajudicial killings in the name of a war on drugs.”
U.S. intervention in Latin America dates back more than 200 years, when President James Monroe declared that the United States would reign as the hemispheric hegemon.
In ensuing centuries, the U.S. invaded Mexico and annexed half its territory, dispatched Marines to Nicaragua and Haiti and abetted coups from Chile to Brazil to Guatemala. It enforced a decades-long embargo against communist Cuba — while also launching a botched invasion of the island and trying to assassinate its leader —and imposed economic sanctions on left-wing adversaries in Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Motivations for these interventions varied from fighting communism to protecting U.S. business interests to waging a war on drugs. The most recent full-on U.S. assault against a Latin American nation — the 1989 invasion of Panama — also was framed as an anti-drug crusade. President George H.W. Bush described the country’s authoritarian leader, Gen. Manuel Noriega, as a “drug-running dictator,” language that is nearly identical to current White House descriptions of Maduro.
American Army troops arrive in Panama to depose former ally Manuel Noriega in 1989.
(Jason Bleibtreu/Sygma via Getty Images)
But a U.S. military invasion of Venezuela presents a challenge of a different magnitude.
Venezuela is 10 times larger than Panama, and its population of 28 million is also more than tenfold that of Panama’s in 1989. Many predict that a potential U.S. attack would face stiff resistance.
And if curtailing drug use is really the aim of Trump’s policy, leaders from Venezuela to Colombia to Mexico say, perhaps Trump should focus on curtailing addiction in the U.S., which is the world’s largest consumer of drugs.
To many, the buildup to a potential intervention in Venezuela mirrors the era preceding the 2003 Iraq war, when the White House touted not drug trafficking but weapons of mass destruction — which turned out to be nonexistent — as a casus belli.
Iraqi officers surrender to U.S. troops on a road near Safwan, Iraq, in March, 2003.
(Gilles Bassignac/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
“Somehow, the United States of America has found a way to combine two of its greatest foreign policy failures — the Iraq War and the War on Drugs — into a single regime change narrative,” Adler said.
Further confounding U.S.-Latin American relations is Trump’s personality-driven style: his unabashed affection for certain leaders and disdain for others.
While Venezuela’s Maduro and Colombia’s Petro sit atop the bad-hombre list, Argentine President Javier Milei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele — the latter the self-described “world’s coolest dictator” — are the darlings of the moment.
President Trump greets Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele as he arrives at the White House on April 14.
(Al Drago/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Trump has given billions of dollars in aid to bail out the right-wing Milei, a die-hard Trump loyalist and free-market ideologue. The administration has paid Bukele’s administration millions to house deportees, while maintaining the protected status of more than 170,000 Salvadoran immigrants in the U.S.
“It’s a carrot-and-stick approach,” said Sergio Berensztein, an Argentina political analyst. “It’s fortunate for Argentina that it gets the carrot. But Venezuela and Colombia get the stick.”
Trump has given mixed signals on Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The two leftists lead the region’s largest nations.
Trump has wielded the tariff cudgel against both countries: Mexico ostensibly because of drug trafficking; Brazil because of what Trump calls a “witch hunt” against former president Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing Trump favorite convicted of attempting a coup after he, like Trump, lost a bid for reelection.
Paradoxically, Trump has expressed affection for both Lula and Sheinbaum, calling Lula on his 80th birthday “a very vigorous guy” (Trump is 79) and hailing Sheinbaum as a “lovely woman,” but adding: “She’s so afraid of the cartels that she can’t even think straight.”
Sheinbaum, caught in the crosswinds of shifting policy dictates from Washington, has so far been able to fight off Trump’s most drastic tariff threats. Mexico’s reliance on the U.S. market highlights a fundamental truth: Even with China expanding its influence, the U.S. still reigns as the region’s economic and military superpower.
Sheinbaum has avoided the kind of barbed ripostes that tend to trigger Trump’s rage, even as U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats creep closer to Mexico’s shores. Publicly at least, she seldom shows frustration or exasperation, once musing: “President Trump has his own, very special way of communicating.”
Special correspondents Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico City and Andrés D’Alessandro in Buenos Aires contributed to this report.
The U.N. human rights chief said Friday that U.S. military strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean allegedly carrying illegal drugs from South America are “unacceptable” and must stop.The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called for an investigation into the strikes, in what appeared to mark the first such condemnation of its kind from a United Nations organization.Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for Türk’s office, relayed his message Friday at a regular U.N. briefing: “These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable. The U.S. must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats.”She said Türk believed “airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific violate international human rights law.”President Donald Trump has justified the attacks on the boats as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States, but the campaign against drug cartels has been divisive among countries in the region.The strikes and the U.S. military’s growing presence near Venezuela have stoked fears that the Trump administration could try to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the United States.Asked Friday if he’s considering land strikes in Venezuela, Trump said, “No.” He did not elaborate as he spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed to Florida for the weekend.Speaking earlier this week from the USS George Washington aircraft carrier in Japan, Trump noted the U.S. attacks at sea and reiterated that “now we’ll stop the drugs coming in by land.”U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced the latest U.S. military strike in the campaign, against a boat he said was carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. All four people aboard were killed. It was the 14th strike since the campaign began in early September, while the death toll has grown to at least 61.Shamdasani noted the U.S. explanations of the efforts as an anti-drug and counterterrorism campaign, but said countries have long agreed that the fight against illicit drug trafficking is a law enforcement matter governed by “careful limits” placed on the use of lethal force.Intentional use of lethal force is allowed only as a last resort against someone representing “an imminent threat to life,” she said. “Otherwise, it would amount to a violation of the right of life and constitute extrajudicial killings.”The strikes are taking place “outside the context” of armed conflict or active hostilities, Shamdasani said.
The U.N. human rights chief said Friday that U.S. military strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean allegedly carrying illegal drugs from South America are “unacceptable” and must stop.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called for an investigation into the strikes, in what appeared to mark the first such condemnation of its kind from a United Nations organization.
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for Türk’s office, relayed his message Friday at a regular U.N. briefing: “These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable. The U.S. must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats.”
She said Türk believed “airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific violate international human rights law.”
President Donald Trump has justified the attacks on the boats as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States, but the campaign against drug cartels has been divisive among countries in the region.
The strikes and the U.S. military’s growing presence near Venezuela have stoked fears that the Trump administration could try to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the United States.
Asked Friday if he’s considering land strikes in Venezuela, Trump said, “No.” He did not elaborate as he spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed to Florida for the weekend.
Speaking earlier this week from the USS George Washington aircraft carrier in Japan, Trump noted the U.S. attacks at sea and reiterated that “now we’ll stop the drugs coming in by land.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced the latest U.S. military strike in the campaign, against a boat he said was carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. All four people aboard were killed. It was the 14th strike since the campaign began in early September, while the death toll has grown to at least 61.
Shamdasani noted the U.S. explanations of the efforts as an anti-drug and counterterrorism campaign, but said countries have long agreed that the fight against illicit drug trafficking is a law enforcement matter governed by “careful limits” placed on the use of lethal force.
Intentional use of lethal force is allowed only as a last resort against someone representing “an imminent threat to life,” she said. “Otherwise, it would amount to a violation of the right of life and constitute extrajudicial killings.”
The strikes are taking place “outside the context” of armed conflict or active hostilities, Shamdasani said.
The Trump administration has identified targets in Venezuela that include military facilities used to smuggle drugs, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. If President
Trump decides to move forward with airstrikes, they said, the targets would send a clear message to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro that it is time to step down.
While the president hasn’t made a final decision on ordering land strikes, the officials said a potential air campaign would focus on targets that sit at the nexus of the drug gangs and the Maduro regime. Trump and his senior aides have been particularly focused on unsettling Maduro as the U.S. military has attacked boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.
