President Donald Trump is weighing options to target cocaine labs and trafficking routes inside Venezuela, though he hasn’t locked in a decision, three U.S. officials told CNN on October 24, 2025. The move comes amid a growing U.S. military presence in the Caribbean, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sending the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group from Europe to the region. Trump has also okayed CIA covert ops in Venezuela, while the Navy’s been hitting suspected drug boats in international waters—most recently taking out six people in a Caribbean strike, bringing the body count to 43 across 10 boats since last month.
One official said Trump’s got “plans on the table” for strikes inside Venezuela but hasn’t ruled out talking things out, even after cutting off recent chats with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The administration’s been hammering Maduro’s drug ties, pointing to his 2020 U.S. narco-terrorism indictment, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling him a “fugitive” in September. Still, Venezuela’s not a big cocaine producer—Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia dominate that game, per a U.N. report and the DEA.
Some in Trump’s circle see this as a way to topple Maduro by squeezing his allies’ cartel profits, hoping they’ll turn on him. Maduro hit back in a video, pleading in English and Spanish to avoid a “crazy war.” Trump’s not in a hurry, distracted by an Asia trip and Ukraine-Russia talks. Any ground action would likely need Congress’s okay, but Trump shrugged that off, saying he’d just “kill” traffickers without a war declaration.
The Pentagon’s calling the carrier move a play to dismantle “transnational criminal organizations.” The U.S. has beefed up forces in the region, with 4,500 Marines, F-35 jets, Reaper drones, and a reopened Puerto Rico base, signaling a serious push as tensions with Maduro climb.
