What is behind the tension between Venezuela and the USA

Fleet of six American military ships is expected to reach water near Venezuela on Sunday. White House claims to combat drug trafficking, but scope of the mobilization sounds alert in the region.

A fleet of American military ships on their way to South America is expected to reach international waters on the coast of Venezuela on Sunday (08/24), expanding the tension between the White House and the Nicolás Maduro regime.

The military operation ordered by US President Donald Trump is officially designed to combat drug trafficking in the region, but its scope and practical implications are unknown, and has sounded alerts in some Latin American countries.

Trump and Maduro, longtime enemies

Washington and Caracas have not maintained formal bilateral diplomatic relations since 2019, in Trump’s first term. The breach occurred when the White House recognized the then Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, as interim president of the country, after the Venezuelan National Assembly did not recognize the reelection of Maduro.

At the time, the US imposed several sanctions against Caracas and Trump even said that military intervention was “an option” to change the regime in the country. During the Joe Biden government, the US government continued to break with Venezuela.

On July 18 of this year, a prisoner exchange between US and Venezuela lit hope that countries could adopt a pragmatic attitude of rapprochement, but the situation soon deteriorated. A week later, the US government classified the Los Soles cartel as an international terrorist organization and said it was led by Maduro and a threat to peace and security from the US.

Then, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement by stating that Maduro frauddated the elections to stay in power and did not recognize him as president of Venezuela.

And Trump, according to the American newspaper New York Times, signed a confidential guideline determining to the Pentagon the use of military force against cartels in Latin America classified as terrorist organizations.

Return of Monroe doctrine?

On August 7, the US State Department doubled the reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest from 25 million to $ 50 million. The next day, US Attorney General Pamela Bondi published a video at X accusing Maduro of being one of the world’s greatest leaders of drug trafficking and also to collaborate with the Tren de Aragua and Cartel de Sinaloa cartels.

On Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt was asked about the movement of military ships toward Venezuela and replied that Washington would use “all his strength” to prevent drugs from reaching US territory.

“Maduro’s regime is not Venezuela’s legitimate government; he is a narcoterrorist cartel. Maduro, in this government’s view, is not a legitimate president; he is a fugitive chief of this cartel, indicted in the United States for drug trafficking,” he said.

Authorization for the Pentagon to act against cartels in Latin America and the climbing of Venezuela bring evidence that Trump could try to reactivate Monroe doctrine, created in the early 19th century to affirm US hegemony over the Americas, which served as a pretext for interventions and military blows in the region in the 20th century.

In Barack Obama management, the White House even announced that this doctrine was “dead”, replaced by the prioritization of partnerships and cooperation with Latin American countries.

What is the size of the mobilized fleet

The sending of US military ships to the Venezuela coast was reported on Monday by the Reuters news agency and then confirmed by other vehicles.

They make up the fleet, according to the reports:

• Three Fatherlights (USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham and USS Sampson) equipped with the AEGIS system of high precision guided missiles. Are smaller and more agile war ships, with firepower to intercept missiles and act against aircraft and submarines
• Three amphibious assault ships (USS Iwo Jima, USS Fort Lauderdale and USS San Antonio), useful for landing troops, armored and other military equipment on the coast
• A submarine of nuclear propulsion
• P-8 Poseidon Airplanes, used for patrol and recognition maritime missions
• The staff would consist of 4,500 military personnel, including 2,200 Marines

The initial forecast was that the ships would reach the intended position on Wednesday, but the mission was postponed in a few days due to Hurricane Erin, active on the east coast of the US.

USS IWO JIMA, one of the American ships on their way to Venezuela | Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP

What may be behind Trump’s order

In his current term, Trump has been testing on several occasions to what extent he can mobilize military personnel to act on internal issues and fight crime.

He has already highlighted military personnel to the Mexico border to act to control the immigration of undocumented people, to Los Angeles to protect federal buildings and police authorities during a wave of protests against White House anti-immigration policies, and more recently for Washington DC for the declared goal of fighting crime.

The use of the country’s armed forces to combat drug trafficking would not be unheard of. Under George HW Bush’s government, US military man broke into Panama to capture then -dictator Manuel Noriega, accused of heading a drug trafficking gang – the initiative lasted from December 1989 to January 1990 and became known as the fair cause operation.

According to Venezuelan sources consulted by the newspaper O Globo, in anonymous, Caracas considers several possible scenarios related to the arrival of the fleet of US military ships. One would be to use this fleet to impose restrictions on the movement of ships on the Venezuelan coast and make it difficult to export oil, the largest source of resources from the Chavista regime.

Another less likely option would be a punctual and directed attack on Maduro or another Venezuelan authority, as happened with Iranian Iranian General Qassim, commander of Iran’s revolutionary guard, killed in 2020 during the first Trump administration by a Missel fired by American drone in Iraq.

It also makes up the scenario an attempted invasion or coup in Venezuela led by paramilitary groups, as occurred in the so -called Operation Gideon in May 2020, which ended the arrest and death of those involved.

The mobilization of the American Navy can also have effects beyond Venezuela by sending a signal to other countries in the region about the nature of the current US government.

Maduro sees “bizarre threat of an empire in decline”

If for Trump the displacement of military ships to the Venezuelan coast serves to show military power, to mature it is also somewhat useful as a pretext of national union.

The Venezuelan dictator called the American naval mobilization “a bizarre threat of a declining empire,” the 4.5 million armed militiamen (members of the Bolivarian National Armed Force announced) as part of a “peace plan” and appealed to the militias, and prepared, activated and armed.

“No empire will touch Venezuela’s sacred soil, nor should it touch South America’s sacred soil,” said Maduro.

The Venezuelan government rejects accusations of bonds with drug trafficking. The Minister of Interior and Justice, Diosdado Cabello, said that the Los Soles cartel was a “invention” of the White House.

“The Los Soles cartel is an invention, I don’t know how many years they invented this and, at that time, has had about 300 bosses. Whenever someone bothers them, they put him as head of the Los Soles cartel,” he said at a press conference on August 7 on the Venezolana Televisón state channel (VTV).

“No empire will touch Venezuela’s sacred ground,” said Maduro | Cristian Hernandez/AP Photo/Picture Alliance

Maduro has been president since 2013, and in the last elections in 2024, he was declared a winner by the Electoral Court in a lawsuit contested by international observers and without presenting electoral minutes to the conference, and to many analysts today commands an autocracy.

The Brazilian government was engaged in negotiations seeking clean elections in Venezuela in 2024, but criticized the lack of transparency of the electoral process and did not recognize the result that gave victory to Maduro.

Mexico and Colombia criticize US movement

Mexico president Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday criticized US military maneuvers toward Venezuela. Asked about the subject, she stressed that the Mexican Constitution defends “the self -determination of peoples, non -intervention and peaceful resolution of controversy.”

The Mexican government had also rejected the possibility of US military personnel entering its territory with the declared goal of combating drug trafficking after Trump’s order for the Pentagon over cartels considered terrorists.

“The United States will not come to Mexico with the Armed Forces,” she said on August 8. “We cooperate, collaborate, but there will be no invasion. This is discarded, absolutely discarded.” Internally, the Mexican government is already folding the namination bet to combat drug trafficking.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro also reacted. “The gringos are wrong if they think that invading Venezuela will solve their problem, they will put the country in the same situation as Syria, but with the problem of dragging Colombia the same way,” he said at a ministerial meeting on Tuesday. “Trump said, through emissaries, that that would be the worst mistake.”

The Brazilian government, so far, has not officially expressed itself on the subject. According to the UOL portal, Brasilia accompanies the movement of the American fleet and will evaluate how to react in the face of new developments.

Originally published by DW on 08/22/2025