The US president confirmed to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that he had a phone conversation last week with Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, whom the United States considers the leader of the Cartel of the Suns, an organization recently designated as a terrorist organization by the State Department. “I don’t want to comment on that. The answer is yes,” Trump acknowledged as he returned by plane from spending a few days at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, where he escapes on weekends to play golf.
The phone call, first reported by The New York Times last Friday, took place amid escalating verbal and military tensions between the United States and Venezuela. President Trump has ordered a war on drugs originating in Latin America, with Venezuela as his primary target. The White House considers the Caribbean nation a narco-state and Maduro the leader of an alleged criminal organization known as the Cartel of the Suns. U.S. authorities have not provided evidence to support these accusations.
The phone call could open a diplomatic avenue for a long-running conflict. During Trump's first term, between 2016 and 2020, he threatened Maduro with action if he did not relinquish power. Trump considers the Venezuelan leader an illegitimate president following alleged irregularities in the 2014 presidential elections.
The president downplayed the message he posted Saturday on Truth, his social media platform where he expresses his opinions, in which he warned about the complete closure of Venezuelan airspace. “Don’t make a big deal out of it,” he responded when asked about it. He also clarified that the comment about closing Venezuelan airspace did not imply an imminent attack by the U.S. military on the Caribbean nation. “Don’t read between the lines,” he insisted.
President Trump likes to threaten with the idea of imminent military intervention. Last Thursday, during his Thanksgiving Day address, he took the opportunity to warn that the United States would begin “very soon” to arrest Venezuelan “drug traffickers.” “It’s easier by land,” he said. “We’ve warned them: Stop sending poison into our country,” he added, referring to the drug trafficking he blames on the Chavista regime.
On September 2, the United States launched Operation Southern Spear against drug cartels. The Trump Administration, without evidence, places the epicenter of these alleged groups' activity in Venezuela, a country the White House considers a narco-state. Since then, the U.S. military has launched 21 attacks against drug-laden boats sailing in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific, resulting in the deaths of 83 people. These military operations, ordered by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, lacked judicial authorization and the approval of the U.S. Congress.
Specifically, the first of these operations will be investigated by both houses of the United States Congress on suspicion of war crimes. According to a report by The Washington Post, a drug-trafficking boat with 11 crew members was bombed on September 2. Two of them survived the initial impact, but, according to the American publication, another attack was ordered to comply with the directives of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. He denies the accusations.
The United States' harassment of the Maduro regime is not widely known in history. Perhaps the closest parallel was the operation to depose Panamanian dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega in 1989. However, U.S. military forces have not yet reached that level of intervention.
President Trump, however, has ordered the largest troop deployment to the region in decades. Thousands of soldiers are stationed alongside Venezuela, with air and naval support. A few weeks ago, the US Navy's largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, joined the mission, along with other warships. The pressure on the Maduro regime is suffocating. Beyond the economic sanctions, there is also the military harassment.
