The President of the United States, Donald Trump, accused Nicolás Maduro's regime on Thursday of allowing thousands of criminals to leave Venezuela for U.S. territory and promised to expand his offensive against drug trafficking "by land."
In a press conference from the White House, Trump responded to a question from a journalist about the recent seizure of a Venezuelan tanker and whether the campaign against Caracas was still focused solely on drug trafficking.
"Well, it's about many things," the president said. "But one of them is the fact that they have allowed millions of people to enter our country from their prisons, their gangs, their drug traffickers, and their mental institutions, probably in greater proportion than any other country."
The president added that security agencies have detected the entry of "11,888 killers," many of whom are coming from Venezuela, as part of the irregular flow into the United States.
"We had 11,888 killers who entered our country, many of them from Venezuela... drug trafficking by sea has decreased by 92%, and we will begin to achieve the same by land," he stated.
Trump celebrated what he called a "historic success" of his border security policy and the joint operation with the Coast Guard, which, he claimed, has almost completely reduced the drug trafficking routes in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
The president announced that the next phase will be "on land," to pursue criminal networks and trafficking routes operating within the United States. "We have secured the sea, now we will secure the border and every state," he affirmed.
The statements come days after Washington imposed new sanctions on officials and companies linked to the Maduro regime, accused of participating in drug trafficking and corruption operations.
In recent weeks, Trump has hardened his rhetoric towards Venezuela, which he described once again as "a direct threat to the stability of the region."
From the White House, high-ranking National Security officials insisted that migration control and anti-drug operations are part of a “hemispheric” strategy to block the funding sources of chavismo.
"Maduro and his allies are exporting crime, drugs, and chaos across the entire continent," asserted one of the advisors present in the room.
Trump concluded by reiterating that his administration "will not back down" in the pressure against the Venezuelan regime nor in its commitment to "defend the American people from transnational crime."
The Trump administration has launched a full-scale offensive against Nicolás Maduro's regime, combining sanctions, military threats, and increasingly aggressive rhetoric.
In recent days, the Treasury Department sanctioned Cilia Flores' "narco-nephews" and several shipping companies for their involvement in the smuggling of Venezuelan oil, accusing the Chavismo of financing drug trafficking networks and internal repression.
In parallel, Trump has intensified his warlike rhetoric. He promised that ground attacks against Venezuelan drug traffickers would begin “very soon” and warned that “we know where the bad guys live.”
Later, he stated that the United States knows all the routes and houses where drugs are produced and that the next phase will be land-based, following the naval operations in the Caribbean.
Additionally, the president publicly declared that Maduro's days “are numbered”, and he did not rule out direct intervention.
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