Top United States officials were due to meet at the White House to discuss Venezuela, as US President Donald Trump’s administration continues to defend a controversial twin crackdown on alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean.
The planned meeting on Monday comes as the US military continues to build assets in the Caribbean, Reuters reported. that is caused concern Trump has sent mixed messages recently on a possible ground invasion aimed at toppling the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
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Last week, the US president said ground operations against criminal groups in Venezuela could begin “soon”, adding to months-long attacks by the US military against alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers in international waters in the Caribbean.
A few days ago, the US designated the Cartel de los Solace, which officials describe as a drug-trafficking cartel led by Maduro, a “foreign terrorist organization” (FTO). Experts have Pushed back On characterization, the term “Cartel de los Soles” traditionally refers to the loose web of corruption within the Venezuelan government.
In a Saturday post on his Truth social account, Trump said airspace over Venezuela should be considered “totally” closed, in what some observers saw as a final preparation for military action.
But on Sunday, Trump told reporters to “read nothing” into the move.
Reporting from Washington, DC on Monday, Al Jazeera’s chief US correspondent Alan Fisher said “nobody knows” why Trump announced the airspace closure. He added that reports in the US media indicated that the announcement was made without notification from the Pentagon.
“On Air Force One … when asked about it, (Trump) said you shouldn’t read too much into it. But of course, that didn’t stop the speculation, because no-fly zones are usually imposed before some kind of military operation,” Fisher said.
He added that many observers in Washington have read the threats and attempts to force Maduro to flee the country before any military action is taken. Others have pointed to Trump’s past statements on Venezuela Vast reserves of oilIt raised concerns that he might pursue a “war for oil”.
“Of course, in all of this, Donald Trump has to balance his MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters because he campaigned on the fact that they would not engage in what he described as stupid foreign wars,” Fisher said.
Reporting from the US territory of Puerto Rico, the staging ground for the military’s Caribbean build-up, Al Jazeera’s Phil Lavelle said there had been a flurry of activity, but it was hard to tell if any operations were imminent.
“We have about 15,000 or so military personnel in this part of the world as this preparation continues,” Lovell said.
“We obviously have maritime systems: we have the USS Gerald F. Ford, the largest aircraft carrier strike group in the world, currently ashore … as well as the USS Winston S. Churchill and the USS Bainbridge,” he said.
New scrutiny on boat collisions
The build-up continues as the Trump administration comes under renewed pressure on him Deadly strike on alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers in international waters in the Caribbean.
Over the weekend, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the US House and Senate Armed Services Committees announced they were monitoring the strike.
This comes after the Washington Post and CNN reported last week that US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had verbally ordered the killing of all people on boats suspected of smuggling drugs from Venezuela.
Subsequently, military officials reportedly ordered a so-called “follow-on” strike on the ship after two men appeared to have survived the first strike.
Legal scholars have long called US strikes on ships carrying alleged “drug-terrorists” in international waters. may be illegal Under both international and domestic law, the Secretary of Defense clearly orders the killing of all the people on board and tries for even more uncertain legal reasons.
In a letter, a group of former US military lawyers said the orders “if true” would amount to “war crimes, murder or both”.
Responding to the report, Hegseth said all military action in the Caribbean “complies with the laws of armed conflict”.
He has since doubled down, posting on social media on Sunday a mocking image of the children’s character Franklin targeting boats with a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said Hegseth had denied ordering the assassination.
“He didn’t say that and I believe him 100 percent,” he said.
On Monday, the White House confirmed that a second strike had taken place, with spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt saying that Admiral Frank Bradley ordered the follow-on attack.
Bradley “acted well within his authority and directed the engagement to ensure that the vessel was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was removed,” Leavitt told reporters. She characterized the attack as “self-defense” by the US.
Also on Monday, Venezuela’s National Assembly was scheduled to meet for an extraordinary session to discuss creating a commission on the strike.
However, the meeting was adjourned till Tuesday without giving any reason.