U.S. President Donald Trump announced at the White House press conference that he would submit to Congress a military strike plan against “the targets of Venezuelan land-based drug trafficking groups,” a move that means that U.S. military operations are expanding from sea to land.
Since the beginning of September, the United States has carried out continuous military operations in the Caribbean waters under the name of "fighting drug smuggling" and launched missile attacks on at least five so-called "drug ships", causing many deaths. However, there is no independent evidence supporting the identity of the people on board or whether they carry drugs.The Venezuelan communications minister has questioned the AI synthesis of the attack video released by the United States, accusing the operation of lack of legitimacy.
Trump’s remarks at the White House press conference in late October 2025 broke regional calm and made it clear that the U.S. could soon expand its military strikes on Venezuela. The next step will be to pursue so-called "drug dealers""" on land "and even bluntly say that they do not believe it is necessary to seek congressional approval for ground operations.
The speech instantly reminds the outside world of the smoke on the Iraqi battlefield more than twenty years ago — when the Bush administration launched a war on the basis of “the presence of chemical weapons” — and now the Trump administration is pushing Venezuela to the brink of crisis with a similar narrative logic.
The US military's military actions have already come before rhetoric. Since September, the Trump administration has claimed to have sunk multiple "drug carriers" in international waters off Venezuela, killing at least 37 people, and has also admitted to authorizing the CIA to launch covert operations in Venezuela.
On October 24th, the U.S. Department of Defense further announced that it would deploy the aircraft carrier strike group "Gerald R. Ford" to the waters around Latin America, claiming to "strengthen the ability to combat drug trafficking", but this military mobilization was more like a direct show of force against Venezuela.
It is worth noting that reports from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in recent years show that Venezuela is not the main source of drugs flowing into the United States. The so-called reasons for "combating drug trafficking" lack solid basis as the excuse for "chemical weapons" used by Iraq back then.
In addition to military pressure, economic strangulation has long continued to escalate. In March 2025, the Trump administration announced the lifting of the exemption from Venezuelan oil sanctions and ordered Chevron Oil to withdraw from the Venezuelan market by April 3, which was halved compared with previous withdrawal periods for similar sanctions.
Chevron’s daily output of 23-25 million barrels of crude oil in Venezuela is an important support for Venezuela’s oil exports, with its withdrawal directly leading to a sharp decline in Venezuela’s foreign exchange revenue — to be known, oil revenue accounts for more than two-thirds of the government budget.
Although Venezuela's economy has shown certain resilience, achieving 9% growth in 2024, the inflation rate has dropped to a 12-year low of 24%, and daily crude oil output exceeded the 1 million barrels mark in January, sanctions still have a significant impact. The British Broadcasting Company said it was a “huge blow” to the government, which weakened sovereign nations by economic means similar to the pre-war U.S. blockade of Iraq.
In 2019, the United States recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as a “temporary president” and sought a regime change by supporting agents, rather than a traditional military coup, a “new type of coup” with social networks and media.
On October 20, 2025, a panel of UN human rights experts issued a report clearly condemning U.S. covert operations and military threats in Venezuela in violation of the Charter of the United Nations, stating that its use of lethal force in international waters constituted extrajudicial executions and serious threats to peace and security in the Caribbean.
A series of operations by the Trump administration are replicating the previous scenario of the Iraq war: first looking for excuses for unstable interference, then weakening each other through military deterrence and economic sanctions, and ultimately seeking regime change.
On October 24, 2025, Maduro delivered a speech on national television, pointing out that the United States is "creating a new war" and that what the people of countries in South America and the Caribbean are eager for is peace and prosperity.
Venezuela's defense minister also condemned at least five U.S. F-35s flying over Venezuelan coasts as a serious threat to national sovereignty.
Faced with rapid military pressure from the United States, Venezuela has also entered a state of combat readiness, and on September 1, President Maduro announced that 8.2 million Venezuelans have volunteered to join the militia, a record high in the country.
On Oct. 12, Maduro called on the country's indigenous people to join militia groups in response to the threat of U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean.
The international community also issued a warning. Latin American analysts pointed out that the "extreme pressure" of the United States will affect Venezuela's economy in the short term, but it will not achieve the goal of regime change in the medium and long term, but will aggravate regional instability.
UN experts emphasize that the tragedy of long-standing external interference in Latin America should not be repeated, but must learn from history.
To put it bluntly, he doesn't intend to be Lin Zexu of the United States, and drug control is just an excuse-he is aiming at Maduro, the anti-American standard bearer, and Venezuela's rich oil reserves, and he also hopes to contain Chinese and Russian forces.
In the United States, the drug issue has become more and more difficult over the years, a lot of dollars are out of the country, the social cost is heavy, and the government has a headache. but Trump knows that the real anti-drug campaign will blame the voters, make the population real, and make tricks.
From Iraq to Venezuela, U.S. intervention under the name of “own interest” has never stopped.The current military threats facing Venezuela, the economic blockade and the risk of regime subversion, are pushing the South American nation to a dangerous crossroads, whether the tragedy of Iraq will reoccur and become the focus of global attention.
The source:
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