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Venezuela's authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro has urged Donald Trump not to lead the US into an "eternal war" like in Afghanistan, as the US military presence in the region intensifies and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth vowed to eliminate "narco-terrorists" from America.
Speaking to CNN outside the Miraflores presidential palace in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, Maduro called on Trump to "make peace, not war," following the arrival of the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, in the region.
"Enough with eternal wars. Enough with unjust wars. Enough with Libya. Enough with Afghanistan. Long live peace," said the 62-year-old Maduro, as he walked through the crowd to reach a pro-government rally.
A few hours after the Venezuelan leader's speech, Hegseth attempted to put further pressure on the Venezuelan leader by announcing what he called "Operation Southern Spear."
“President Trump has ordered action and the Department of War is taking action. Today, I am announcing Operation Southern Spear. Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and [US Southern Command],” he wrote on X.
This mission, he added, "protects our homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our hemisphere, and secures our homeland from the drugs that kill our people. The Western Hemisphere is America's neighborhood, and we will defend it."
He did not provide further details, as attacks on suspected drug trafficking ships in the Caribbean and the buildup of forces in the region have sparked widespread speculation that US military strikes on Venezuela are imminent.
It is not clear why Hegseth made the announcement now, 10 months after Southcom, the US military's joint command for South and Central America, announced the imminent launch of the operation, which it said would use "a heterogeneous mix of robotic and autonomous systems to support the detection and monitoring of illicit trafficking" in the Caribbean.
The US Secretary of War's comments could perhaps be an attempt to attract media attention and reshape Trump's pressure campaign against Maduro, which has included a series of deadly attacks on ships that Washington claims were transporting drugs in the Caribbean and Pacific.
"Political crusade" to overthrow Maduro?
Officially, the massive deployment of US military forces is part of the Trump administration's "war on drugs" and is intended to stop Latin American drug cartels from "flooding" the US with cocaine and fentanyl.
However, Venezuela is not a producer of cocaine, whose production takes place almost entirely in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru, nor is it part of the fentanyl smuggling network, which is centered in Mexico, according to the Guardian.
As a result, many observers have begun to see the troop deployment, the largest in the region since the invasion of Panama in 1989, as a "political crusade" designed to achieve something the US president failed to do during his first term: topple Maduro.
CBS News reported this week that senior military officials had presented Trump with "options for possible operations in Venezuela, including ground strikes," although two sources insisted that no final decision had been made.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil sent a provocative message to the "US imperialist regime."
"Don't you dare [attack]. We are ready," he declared.
Amid growing speculation that an air strike on Venezuelan soil is imminent, Reuters reported that the Maduro regime had drawn up plans for a "guerrilla-style response" to any US attack.
According to reports, these plans envision "small military units in more than 280 countries to carry out acts of sabotage and other guerrilla tactics" to repel foreign troops.
Under a second strategy, described as "anarchization," pro-regime groups, including intelligence services, would sow chaos in the streets of Caracas "and make Venezuela ungovernable for foreign powers," two sources told Reuters.
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