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The President of the United States, Donald Trump, confirmed this Friday that ground attacks in Venezuela “are going to start happening”, marking the beginning of a new phase in the so-called Southern Lance Operation, a military and intelligence campaign aimed, according to Washington, at dismantling drug trafficking networks in the Caribbean and South America.
“Now we are starting on the ground, and it’s much easier this way. That will start to happen. We are not going to allow those people to destroy our youth, to destroy our families,” Trump declared from the White House, according to CNN.
The president did not provide details regarding the scope or objectives of the incursions, but Pentagon sources confirmed that U.S. forces are already positioned for rapid operations within and around Venezuelan territory.
The announcement comes just two days after the president accused the regime of Nicolás Maduro of "allowing thousands of criminals to leave Venezuela for the United States" and "exporting murderers."
According to data cited by Trump himself, "11,888 murderers" are said to have entered United States territory from Venezuela as part of the irregular migration flow.
"Drug trafficking by sea has decreased by 92%, and we will start to achieve the same by land," he assured, referring to the success of naval operations that have destroyed 23 suspicious vessels and resulted in the death of at least 87 alleged drug traffickers since September.
Colombia could be the next target
During the press conference on Friday, Trump broadened the scope of his message by issuing a direct warning to Colombia, a country traditionally allied with Washington on security matters.
“Colombia is producing a lot of drugs. They have cocaine factories […] so it would be wise for him to wake up, or he will be next. I hope he is listening to me,” said the visibly irritated leader in a message implicitly directed at Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
The statements were interpreted as a public warning of potential operations in Colombian territory, which would escalate tensions throughout the region.
Analysts believe that Trump's message redefines the geopolitical scope of the offensive, transforming a campaign initially directed against Venezuela into a hemispheric strategy of selective intervention under the umbrella of the "war on drugs."
Maduro under siege
The Venezuelan government responded to the statements by labeling them as an "imperialist threat." The Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, ordered the Armed Forces to "maintain a state of maximum combat readiness" and assured that "any aggression towards Venezuelan territory will receive a strong response."
At the same time, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry reported to the UN that Washington is “using the anti-drug rhetoric as a pretext for military intervention” and called for an urgent meeting of the Security Council.
The U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has stated that “Maduro is not a president, but a criminal indicted by a grand jury in New York,” recalling the 2020 narcoterrorism charge filed in the Southern District of Manhattan. “This is not an opinion, it is an undisputed indictment,” he emphasized.
Escalation and consequences
The White House assures that the offensive aims to neutralize individuals and criminal networks, not to attack sovereign states.
However, the military deployments and presidential rhetoric indicate a regionalization of the conflict, with Cuba and Nicaragua expressing support for Maduro's government and warning that "any aggression against Venezuela will be an aggression against all of Latin America."
With U.S. troops deployed less than 200 miles from the Venezuelan coast, the Caribbean is experiencing its highest level of military tension since the invasion of Panama in 1989.
Trump, however, remains defiant: “We know where the bad guys live. We find them at sea, and soon we will find them on land.”
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