TRUMP SIGNALS POSSIBLE TALKS WITH MADURO AS US RAMPS UP CARIBBEAN MILITARY CAMPAIGN

Mon 17 November 2025:

US President Donald Trump suggested Sunday that talks may be held with his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro as tensions and a military buildup continue in the Caribbean Sea.

“We may be having some discussions with Maduro, and we’ll see how that turns out…They would like to talk,” Trump told reporters in West Palm Beach, Florida before boarding Air Force One en route to Washington, DC.

His remarks came on the heels of a decision to designate the Venezuela-based Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), a move he said would allow the US to target assets and infrastructure linked to the government of President Maduro, whom he accuses of leading the criminal network.

“It allows us to do that, but we haven’t said we’re going to do that,” he said.

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He added that he had instructed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other senior officials at the State Department to brief Congress on Washington’s efforts to curb the flow narcotics.

“Go to Congress and let them know we’re not letting drugs come through Mexico, we’re not letting them come through Venezuela,” he said, noting that “the only thing I don’t want them to do is leak information.”

The US State Department had previously designated several Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in February, granting intelligence agencies broader legal authority to conduct covert operations.

The US military has continued to carry out strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean that Trump and his senior officials allege are involved in transporting drugs to the US. He has also threatened action against Maduro.

Trump has for months been expanding US military operations across Latin America, deploying Marines, warships, fighter and bomber jets, submarines and drones. The USS Gerald Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, has reportedly arrived in the Caribbean as part of this buildup.

The deployment follows a directive from US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth aimed at supporting Trump’s initiative to dismantle criminal networks seen as threatening US security, according to the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).

US military operations against alleged drug trafficking in the Caribbean began in September with a strike on a Venezuelan speedboat, and the campaign expanded to include the Eastern Pacific by late October.

Since the start of the campaign, at least 21 attacks targeting drug traffickers have been carried out, resulting in 82 deaths.

-Source: AA

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