US President Donald Trump has continued to disrupt the global political landscape with his aggressive Tariff policies. His administration has been openly criticizing nations that, according to them, take advantage of the U.S. in trade.
Recently, the Trump administration issued an extremely stern warning to one such country due to its alleged”drug trafficking operation.” The country is Venezuela. Earlier, US President Donald Trump declared that the airspace over and around Venezuela is “closed entirely.”
What prompted Trump to issue the latest warning to this country?
With the latest updates, President Donald Trump said that America will “very soon” begin striking “bad ones” living inside Venezuela. The move is after repeated US air strikes on the boats of alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers in the Caribbean. During the cabinet meeting, Trump stated, “We’re going to start doing those strikes on land too. Land is much easier; we know where they live. We know where the bad ones live, and we’re going to start that very soon.”
Which actions by this country triggered the American response?
Comments made by President Trump during a recent meeting with members of his cabinet suggested an escalated confrontation between the United States government based in Washington, D.C., and Nicolas Maduro’s government in Caracas, Venezuela. The Pentagon has conducted over 20 strikes against alleged drug vessels operating within the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific since September of this year, killing approximately 80 individuals, as reported by Xinhua News Agency.
Who inside the Trump administration pushed for a tougher stance?
Trump defended Secretary of War (Designee) Pete Hegseth at the meeting, stating neither he nor Secretary Hegseth knew about a second attack conducted against the vessel in question. On September 2, following an earlier attack, the United States military executed a second strike against a suspected drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean.
The US military had carried out a follow-up strike on a suspected drug vessel operating in the Caribbean on September 2 after an initial attack did not kill everyone on board. Trump stated, “I didn’t know about the second strike. I didn’t know anything about people. I wasn’t involved, and I knew they took out a boat, but I would say this, they had a strike.”
The President stated that Hegseth “was satisfied” with the strike but “didn’t know about a second attack, having to do with two people.”Hegseth, in his defence, stated that he watched the “first strike live” but then “moved on to my next meeting.” Furthermore, the War Secretary said that he learned about the second strike “a couple of hours later.” and did not see any “survivors” “A couple of hours later, I learned. I did not personally see survivors because that thing was on fire. It’s called the fog of war,” Hegseth added. The White House has stated that Admiral Frank M “Mitch” Bradley, commander of the US Special Operations Command, had given the order of the second strike.