President Trump has called off efforts to reach a diplomatic agreement with Venezuela, according to U.S. officials, paving the way for a potential military escalation against drug traffickers or the government of Nicolás Maduro.
Richard Grenell, a special presidential envoy and executive director of the Kennedy Center, had been leading negotiations with Mr. Maduro and other top Venezuelan officials. But during a meeting with senior military leaders on Thursday, Mr. Trump called Mr. Grenell and instructed him that all diplomatic outreach, including his talks with Mr. Maduro, was to stop, the officials said on Monday.
Mr. Trump has grown frustrated with Mr. Maduro’s failure to accede to American demands to give up power voluntarily and the continued insistence by Venezuelan officials that they have no part in drug trafficking.
American officials have said that the Trump administration has drawn up multiple military plans for an escalation. Those operations could also include plans designed to force Mr. Maduro from power. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser, has called Mr. Maduro an “illegitimate” leader and repeatedly cited a U.S. indictment of him on drug trafficking charges.
Mr. Rubio had described Mr. Maduro as a “fugitive from American justice,” and the United States increased the reward for Mr. Maduro to $50 million.
A White House official said Mr. Trump was prepared to use “every element of American power” to stop drugs from entering the United States and had been clear in his messages to Mr. Maduro to end Venezuelan narcotics trafficking.
Mr. Grenell declined to comment, as did a senior Venezuelan official.
Mr. Rubio and his allies in the Trump administration have been pushing a strategy to drive Mr. Maduro from power. American officials say Mr. Maduro directs drug cartels operating in Venezuela, a charge the Venezuelan government denies.
On Friday, the U.S. military struck another boat in international waters near Venezuela, killing four men, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced. It was the fourth known attack by American military forces against vessels the administration has claimed were trafficking narcotics.
Mr. Grenell has been negotiating with Mr. Maduro for months, though those talks intensified in recent weeks as the U.S. military began striking the boats.
Last month, Mr. Maduro wrote a letter to Mr. Trump denying his country trafficked in drugs and offering to conduct further negotiations with the United States through Mr. Grenell.
Mr. Grenell has tried to fashion a deal that would avoid a larger conflict and give American companies access to Venezuelan oil.
But Mr. Rubio and his allies have come to believe Mr. Grenell’s efforts were unhelpful and creating confusion, according to a person briefed on the matter.
In a notice to Congress last week, the Trump administration said the United States was engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels. The drug cartels, the notice said, were terrorist organizations, and cartel members smuggling drugs were considered “unlawful combatants.”
Taken with the decision to call of diplomacy, the notice appeared to be a signal that the United States planned to escalate the military operations. Some current and former officials said Mr. Trump could authorize strikes against drug cartel targets inside Mexico, though it is not clear if the president has done so or what military plan he might approve.
The U.S. military has claimed that its strikes against boats carrying narcotics have taken place in international waters. Advocates of diplomacy within the Trump administration worry that any further expansion of the anti-narcotics campaign into Venezuela itself, or any direct effort to force Mr. Maduro from power, would risk a entangling the United States into a wider war.
Supporters of diplomacy have said expanding the campaign against Venezuela into a regime-change operation risks putting the United States into the kind of extended war Mr. Trump promised to avoid.
But Mr. Grenell has been at odds with Mr. Rubio over various issues in this administration, including how to get Mr. Maduro to release Americans held in Venezuela.
Julie Turkewitz in Bogotá contributed reporting.
Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades.
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
Maria Abi-Habib is an investigative correspondent reporting on Latin America and is based in Mexico City.
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