WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is facing sharp scrutiny this week over its approach to Venezuela after turning its focus to the beleaguered nation, weighing U.S. military strikes against a Latin American state for the first time in more than 35 years.
President Trump scheduled a meeting with top generals and Cabinet officials on the matter at the White House on Monday evening, debating target options now available with the deployment of more than a dozen warships to the Caribbean Sea.
Trump has sent conflicting signals to the country’s dictatorial president, Nicolás Maduro, whose grip on power since 2013 has decimated Venezuela’s economy and prompted a massive migration crisis. Trump warned air traffic away from Venezuelan skies before speaking by phone with Maduro over the weekend, only to caution reporters trying to interpret his actions against predicting his next moves.
Whether Trump will choose to go to war with Venezuela has become a source of alarm on Capitol Hill as new revelations emerge about his team’s tactics for escalating the conflict.
The White House has accused Maduro of driving migrants and drugs across America’s borders, and has begun pressuring his government with military strikes targeting maritime vessels — in international waters, but departing from Venezuela — that the Defense Department claims have been used to smuggle illegal narcotics.
The first of those attacks targeting alleged drug traffickers, conducted on Sept. 2, included a second strike ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “kill them all,” according to a report by the Washington Post.
The Post report has prompted the Republican-led House and Senate committees overseeing the Pentagon to vow “rigorous oversight” of the boat strikes. Trump told reporters Sunday that he “wouldn’t have wanted” the military to launch a second strike to kill those who survived the initial attack.
“The first strike was very lethal, it was fine, and if there were two people around,” Trump said before quickly adding, “but Pete said that didn’t happen. I have great confidence in Pete.”
Yet White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Monday that multiple strikes were authorized by Hegseth against the target that day.
Hegseth authorized Adm. Frank M. Bradley, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, to conduct strikes “well within his authority and the law to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States was eliminated,” Leavitt said at a press briefing.
Trump also confirmed that he spoke by phone with Maduro, but declined to elaborate on what was discussed.
“I wouldn’t say it went well or badly,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “It was a call.”
The disclosure of the conversation came as the administration intensified its pressure campaign on Caracas over the holiday weekend, starting with the president issuing a series of warnings.
Trump warned airlines and pilots on Saturday that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered “CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.”
Trump told reporters he made the declaration “because we consider Venezuela not to be a very friendly country.” But when asked whether his warning signaled an imminent U.S. airstrike in Venezuela, Trump demurred, telling a reporter: “Don’t read anything into it.”
There is no guarantee that talks with Maduro will lead to his exit, or that the Trump administration would be satisfied with any other outcome, said Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela expert at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based research group.
Maduro could pitch Trump on access for U.S. oil companies — possibly at the expense of Russian and Chinese competitors — without any move toward democratization in Venezuela, an outcome that would disappoint many seeking leadership change in Caracas.
“A clear sticking point here is what kind of negotiations that Caracas and Washington want. The Trump administration so far has expressed interest in negotiating which flight Maduro takes out of the country,” Ramsey said. “For Maduro, that’s clearly a nonstarter. So until we see a clear sense of flexibility from Washington and Caracas, I think this stalemate is going to continue.”
Maduro has consistently refused to leave office, despite punishing U.S. sanctions, massive protests, and various offensives during the first Trump administration that Caracas deemed as coup attempts. “The reality is that many previous attempts to condition talks of Maduro’s immediate departure have led nowhere,” Ramsey added.
There are no signs of weakening support for Maduro within the military, nor have there been the kinds of large-scale defections that were seen within his security forces in 2019, when Trump, in his first term, initially sought to oust Maduro. At that time, he refrained from a direct military attack.
A few hours after the president’s remarks, Hegseth posted an altered image of the children’s book character Franklin the Turtle reimagined as a militarized figure using a machine gun firing at suspected drug boats. The mock book cover was titled: “A Classic Franklin Story: Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.”
Hegseth posted the image on social media with the caption: “For your Christmas wish list … ”
Trump sparked more controversy in the region when he announced Friday his plan to pardon Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras who was convicted last year on cocaine trafficking charges and sentenced to 45 years in U.S. prison.
U.S. prosecutors said Hernández received millions of dollars in bribes to help traffickers smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. Once, they alleged, the right-wing president bragged about stuffing “drugs up the gringos’ noses.”
Trump said Hernández had been a victim of political persecution, although he offered no evidence of that claim.
News of the pardon shocked many in Latin America and raised new doubts about Trump’s U.S. military campaign in the region, which White House officials insist is aimed at combating drug cartels that they compare to terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) accused Trump of hypocrisy for freeing a convicted drug smuggler and suggested that the ongoing U.S. military campaign in the region was politically motivated.
“Don’t tell me Donald Trump is killing people in boats in the Caribbean to stop drug trafficking,” Castro said on X.
While Trump’s endgame in Venezuela is unclear, he has made his desires in Honduras explicit.
Ahead of Sunday’s presidential election in the Central American nation, Trump endorsed conservative candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura of the National Party, which Hernández also belonged to. An early vote count Monday showed Asfura with a narrow lead over Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla.
Times staff writers Wilner and Ceballos reported from Washington, Linthicum and McDonnell from Mexico City.
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