The United States raises tension on Venezuela to the maximum. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, is pressing on multiple fronts. He designated the so-called Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organization and placed the Venezuelan president at the head of this drug trafficking network. He sent the largest military deployment in the region to the Caribbean in several generations. It is bombing suspected drug boats sailing near the coast of the Caribbean country. But Trump does not rule out any options: “It is possible that we are talking, that we are having conversations with Maduro. We will see how it ends. They would like to talk,” the Republican said this Sunday before taking the stage. Air Force One.
The American president’s words come at a moment of maximum tension over Venezuela. When analysts expect military intervention at any moment. The Trump administration has been carrying out a dialectical and military escalation since last August.
The State Department announced on Sunday that it will declare the Suns Cartel a terrorist organization starting November 24. This movement would serve to justify a military operation on Venezuelan territory.
“Based in Venezuela, the Suns Cartel is led by Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking individuals from Maduro’s illegitimate regime, who have corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature and judiciary,” he said in a statement.
The White House strategy recalls the operation carried out in 1989 to overthrow the Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. The United States has accused the former Central American president of financing himself through drug cartels. The US military launched a lightning operation on Panama which ended with the arrest of Noriega and the restoration of democracy in the country.
The statements come as the largest and most advanced American aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Fordconfirmed that it is already in the waters of the Caribbean Sea, together with other escort ships, after a journey of almost a month from Europe. The fleet joins the largest U.S. military deployment to the region in decades. And it opens the door to an imminent military operation in Venezuela.
“Neither Maduro nor his henchmen represent the legitimate government of Venezuela,” adds the statement from the department led by Marco Rubio. The White House believes the Suns Cartel, along with other terrorist organizations such as the Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel, are responsible for terrorist violence in the region, as well as drug trafficking to the United States and Europe, according to the State Department.
