AMERICA’S military is preparing to seize ports and airfields in Venezuela as Donald Trump declared a full-scale war on drug cartels.
The President stunned Washington by formally declaring the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with the Latin American “terrorist organisations.”
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The move, revealed in a secret memo to Congress, gives Trump sweeping wartime powers to strike, kill and detain cartel fighters without trial.
And it comes as the Pentagon quietly builds a force big enough to grab and hold territory on Venezuelan soil.
According to the Washington Examiner, US planners now have enough firepower positioned to seize key ports and airfields if ordered.
Off Venezuela’s coast sits a formidable armada: Navy warships and a submarine, ten F-35 Lightning II stealth jets, and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit — 2,200 Marines with Harrier jump jets, helicopters and armor.
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Special operations forces have rehearsed parachute and airfield-seizure drills in the Caribbean.
Puerto Rico has become a major staging post, with constant flights delivering troops and equipment.
The Pentagon hasn’t confirmed invasion plans but isn’t hiding its posture either.
Training exercises in August saw US special tactics airmen and pararescuemen seize an airstrip after a high-altitude jump.
Defense insiders told the Examiner the deployment is far beyond routine counter-drug patrols — suggesting Washington wants the option to strike deep inside tyrant Nicolás Maduro’s regime if needed.
Tensions spiked overnight when Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López claimed five F-35s were detected by air defense systems inside the Maiquetía Flight Information Region off the coast of Venezuela.
These are likely the U.S. Marine Corps F-35Bs deployed recently to Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico, OSINT Defender reported on X.
Padrino blasted the flights as a provocation and vowed Caracas “will not be intimidated”.
The military surge follows a dramatic escalation at sea.
Lat month, US forces carried out three lethal strikes on suspected narcotrafficking boats.
At least 17 people were killed, including 11 on September 2 and three more in a fiery September 15 blast.
Trump warned on Truth Social at the time: “STOP SELLING FENTANYL, NARCOTICS, AND ILLEGAL DRUGS IN AMERICA, AND COMMITTING VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM AGAINST AMERICANS!!!”
In his memo to Congress, Trump branded cartel operatives “unlawful combatants” whose smuggling “constitutes an armed attack against the United States”.
By invoking the laws of war, the president is positioning the drug crisis as a national security threat on par with the post-9/11 fight against Al-Qaeda – a move that lets him strike pre-emptively and hold captives indefinitely.
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The administration argues traffickers kill tens of thousands of Americans each year and that Venezuela’s criminal networks – including the notorious Tren de Aragua and the regime-linked Cartel de los Soles – act with state protection.
Trump has personally accused Nicolás Maduro of “mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror,” slapped a $50 million bounty on his head, and ordered US Southern Command to “take the fight to the narco-terrorists.”
Maduro, who clung to power for over 12 years through his “transparent elections” – calls it a pretext for regime change.
He claims 2.5million troops are mobilised to resist “threats of bombs, death, and blackmail” and says the US wants Venezuela’s oil.
Back in Washington, Democrats are furious.
Sen. Jack Reed, the top Armed Services Democrat, warned Trump had provided “no credible legal justification, evidence, or intelligence for these strikes.”
Lawmakers are drafting a War Powers Resolution to block further unilateral action.
Legal experts say Trump is stretching post-9/11 authorities to fit cartels that — unlike Al-Qaeda — have not launched direct military attacks on U.S. forces.
One Capitol Hill official stated that members view the notice as the administration “essentially waging a secret war against secret enemies, without the consent of Congress,” ABC News reported.
Trump’s war on drugs?
by Harvey Geh, Foreign News Reporter
DONALD Trump has launched his full-scale war on drugs – favouring missiles over law enforcement.
The first day of Trump’s second term kicked off with the designation of narcotraffickers as terrorists – giving him the right to kill them before they can reach American shores.
This is the argument he has used in the face of law experts warning that his decision to strike a suspected drug-smuggling boat on Tuesday was illegal.
Washington-watchers claim that the gangsters should have been arrested – but the White House says that law enforcement is ineffective.
Trump vowed after the blitz: “There’s more where that came from.”
The US President has long spoken of his desire to enact force to take on drug cartels, which he accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of actively backing.
Maduro has denied the allegations, and the last few months have seen teetering escalations deteriorate into a tense standoff.
The US has positioned naval destroyers and soldiers around Maduro’s waters, while the Venezuelan dictator has ordered mass mobilisation of troops.
