US President Donald Trump believes Nicolás Maduro's days as Venezuelan leader are numbered, but also"doubts" that his country will go to war with the Caribbean nation. He stated this in an interview for CBS's 60 Minutes program, recorded last Friday and broadcast this Sunday, when asked about the situation between the two countries and the US military deployment in the area, where the army is attacking alleged drug-trafficking boats.
When asked by journalist Nora O’Donnell about the large concentration of warships that the United States maintains deployed in international waters of the Caribbean, bordering Venezuelan territory, and whether there will be a war between the two countries, Trump responded: “I doubt it. I don’t think so. But Venezuela has treated us very badly, and not just on the issue of drugs.”
Immediately, the US president went on to repeat his usual accusations that the Chavista regime has emptied its prisons and sanatoriums to send convicts and the mentally ill to the United States.
When the journalist asked him if he believed Maduro's days as Venezuelan leader were numbered, Trump replied,"I think so." But he declined to elaborate.
Since September 2, the United States has carried out at least 16 extrajudicial attacks against vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific, which it claims, without providing evidence, were attempting to transport drugs to its territory. At least 64 people have died in these incidents, and only three survivors are known: a Peruvian and a Colombian who were repatriated to their countries, and a third person rescued alive in an attack last Wednesday.
Initially, the Trump Administration justified these operations as essential to fight the drug cartels, with which the White House considers itself to be in an"armed conflict".
But gradually, Trump has hinted that this campaign may be a cover for an attempt to bring down Maduro. His administration accuses the Venezuelan president of being a drug kingpin, maintains that Venezuela is a narco-state, and has doubled the reward for the Chavista leader's capture to $50 million. The US president has authorized the CIA to conduct covert missions in the Caribbean country and frequently speaks of the current campaign against the boats entering a"second phase" on land.
When asked by O’Donnell about the threat, the Republican declined to give a clear answer: “I’m not saying it’s true or false. I wouldn’t be inclined to say I would do it, but I’m not going to tell a reporter whether I’m going to attack or not.”
The United States maintains a dozen ships in the Caribbean, with 10,000 troops and F-35 fighter jets, which will be joined in the coming days by the aircraft carrier Gerald Ford, the largest and most modern in its fleet. Nuclear-powered, it has a crew of 5,000 troops.
The most recent attack disclosed by Washington took place on Saturday, according to a tweet by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. All three people on board were killed in the attack.
United States attacks another boat in the Caribbean
As usual, Hegseth has not provided specific details about the identity of the crew members, the type of drugs they were allegedly transporting, or the criminal gang that, according to his information, controlled the vessel.
He merely asserted that the alleged drug-running boat was operated by a “designated terrorist organization.” In February, the State Department added the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to its list, along with six Mexican cartels: Sinaloa, Jalisco New Generation, Northwest, and Gulf, as well as La Nueva Familia Michoacana and Carteles Unidos.
“Our intelligence services knew that this vessel —like ALL THE OTHERS— was involved in illicit drug smuggling, was traveling along a known drug trafficking route, and was transporting narcotics,” Hegseth said.
The Secretary of Defense accompanied his message on social media, as has also become customary, with a video showing the moment the US missile hit the vessel and caused it to explode.
