President Donald Trump was briefed Wednesday on possible military targets in Venezuela, according to a new report.
According to CBS, the “potential operations” included “strikes on land.” The report was based on sources CBS did not name.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, and other military officials were at the briefing. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were traveling and did not attend.
The briefing came one day after the USS Gerald Ford carrier strike group arrived off the South American coast.
In the past two months, the United States has destroyed 21 boats smuggling drugs. In remarks Wednesday, Hegseth said that should be a warning.
“My advice to foreign terrorist organizations is do not get in a boat,” Hegseth said.
“If you’re trafficking drugs to poison the American people and we know you’re from a designated terrorist organization, you’re a foreign terrorist or trafficker — we will find you and we will kill you,” he said.
ABC suggested air strikes on seaports, airports, and military facilities were likely, although options could include a team to either capture or kill Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump has indicated that the Cartel de los Soles, which he has designated as a narco-terrorist group, is his main target, according to The Washington Post.
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Jim Stavridis, a retired U.S. admiral who oversaw operations in the region from 2006 to 2009, said a ground invasion is unlikely.
“Look for precision kinetic strikes against narcotics targets and military capability and, if that doesn’t have the desired effect, against leadership,” Stavridis said.
“I think the game here is to convince Maduro that his days are numbered, but convincing him of that will take a fair amount of strikes against Venezuela’s infrastructure,” he said.
Stavridis said strikes on airports or seaports where drugs are shipped out could be the first targets, as could transit points near the border with Colombia.
Clandestine airstrips used by drug traffickers could be targeted, a former agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Venezuela said. The Washington Post withheld the agent’s name.
Storage facilities for drugs could also be targeted after hitting air defenses to ensure no U.S. planes would be lost.
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López said Tuesday he declared an alert so that “the entire country’s military arsenal on full operational readiness,” according to The Washington Post.
Padrino López said a “massive deployment of ground, aerial, naval, riverine and missile forces” is taking place, adding that “almost 200,000” troops are being mobilized.
Mark Cancian, a senior defense adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Military.com that the current level of forces is not enough for a ground attack but has plenty of firepower for long-range air strikes.
“The character seems to have changed,” Cancian said. “Now, it’s possible that those strikes would only go against cartel targets on the ground in Venezuela. But it could easily also focus on the regime, and separating cartels and the regime isn’t always that easy.”
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