The United States has sent one of the largest military forces in decades to the Caribbean, including the world’s most advanced aircraft carrier.
WASHINGTON—A month ago, President Donald Trump stated that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s days in power were numbered. At the time, few believed that the country’s decades-long socialist regime might be facing imminent collapse.
Recently, a growing military buildup in the region and talks of possible U.S. land strikes in Venezuela have raised questions about whether Trump is seeking regime change in the country, and whether U.S. action could indirectly trigger a collapse.
“I’m not going to tell you what the goal is. You should probably know what the goal is,” Trump told reporters on Nov. 25 on Air Force One.
“They’ve caused a lot of problems, and they’ve sent millions of people into our country,” he said, referring to the Maduro regime.
The Trump administration views the Venezuelan regime as a significant national security threat to the United States, citing its involvement in drug trafficking, mass migration, and its ties to Iran, China, and Russia.
In recent weeks, the U.S. military has deployed one of its largest forces in decades to the Caribbean, including the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, considered the world’s most advanced aircraft carrier. In total, nearly a dozen warships and about 12,000 troops are stationed in the region, as part of what the Pentagon has called “Operation Southern Spear.”
Evan Ellis, a Latin American studies professor at the U.S. Army War College, doesn’t believe the Trump administration is conducting the military buildup to explicitly seek regime change.
“It’s not about restoring the legitimate government. It’s not about a crusade for democracy per se. It’s about stopping a threat to U.S. interests,” he told The Epoch Times.
Although, Ellis noted, U.S. land strikes into Venezuela “would likely set into motion a chain of events” that might lead to regime change.
If Maduro departs the country, the legitimate and democratically elected government of Venezuela’s opposition leader, Edmundo González, is expected to come to power. González was recognized by the United States and Europe as Venezuela’s rightful president-elect following the disputed 2024 election.
Trump and members of his administration have repeatedly said Maduro is head of an extensive drug trafficking network, an allegation the Venezuelan leader has denied.
“Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela’s legitimate government,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Nov. 16 statement.
A week later, the United States formally designated Venezuela’s Cartel de Los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization, holding it responsible for violence across the western hemisphere and for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe.
With this action, the administration has formally designated Maduro as a member of a foreign terrorist organization.
The administration said the terrorist designation authorizes the United States to expand military operations in Venezuela.
Cartel de Los Soles has become the 14th Latin America-based criminal enterprise to be designated as a foreign terrorist organization since the beginning of Trump’s second term. Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, and the Dominican Republic have also recognized the group as a terrorist organization.
Hegseth said on Nov. 21 that designating the cartel as a terrorist organization would bring “new options” to the administration, without revealing what those options are.
By Emel Akan and Ryan Morgan
