News - World: The United States’ campaign against Venezuela has quietly broadened to include targets in Colombia and Mexico, under a push led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and supported by hardline allies of President Donald Trump.

Investigative news outlet Drop Site News published the report on Saturday, saying Rubio’s effort rests on portraying Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as a key figure in the global drug trade, a narrative that the US intelligence has flatly rejected, confirming that “little to no fentanyl flows from Venezuela to the United States.”

Despite this, the top diplomat and his allies continue to push the line that Caracas serves as a hub for narcotics operations, it added.

In early October, senior US officials and top brass gathered in the Oval Office to explore options “beyond the sea,” after a string of US naval strikes in the Caribbean that have already sunk 14 boats and killed at least 57 people, the report noted.

Some in attendance reportedly discussed strikes on land within Venezuelan territory.

During the same meeting, Trump, through his envoy Richard Grenell, cut off diplomatic communication with the Venezuelan government, deepening the rupture between Washington and Caracas.

Rubio’s initiative, meanwhile, found an enthusiastic ally in Senator Lindsey Graham, who was briefed on new “hard targets” across Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Graham then publicly advocated for an expansion of attacks, declaring on CBS’s Face the Nation, “We’re gonna blow them up and kill the people who want to poison America. President Trump sees Venezuela and Colombia as direct threats because they house narco-terrorist organizations.”

Graham added that Trump viewed Maduro as “an indicted drug trafficker,” who “has to go.” When pressed by CBS host Margaret Brennan on whether this amounted to subversion, he replied, “The end game is to make sure Venezuela and Colombia cannot be used to poison America.”

Trump, however, later contradicted himself, saying he was “not planning to strike inside Venezuela,” despite earlier remarks that “the land is going to be next.”

Concerns of mission creep spread through Capitol Hill after a Republicans-only Pentagon briefing revealed that Colombian sites had been quietly added to the US “target list.”

Even Sen. Mike Rounds criticized the partisan handling of such issues, calling for bipartisan oversight.

In the meantime, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell lashed out at lawmakers for leaks, labeling them “a serious breach of national security.”

Inside the Pentagon, discontent has been simmering. Adm. Alvin Holsey, the head of US Southern Command, was reportedly forced out after objecting to the broadened list of targets. Lt. Gen. JP McGee, responsible for strategic planning, took early retirement, with sources saying he was “uncomfortable” with the policy direction.

Officials, though, denied both reports, dismissing them as “100% fake news.”

Pentagon lawyers have refused to appear before Congress to defend the legality of recent operations, suggesting unease within the institution itself.

Trump has also conceded that Venezuela played little role in fentanyl trafficking, leading to a quiet shift of US strikes toward the Pacific routes between Colombia and Mexico.

Intelligence now suggests these vessels carry cocaine, not fentanyl.

In one tragic incident, Colombian President Gustavo Petro confirmed that a civilian fishing boat had been hit by a US strike.

Amid the situation, statistics have shown that the US continues to channel millions into so-called opposition groups aimed at destabilizing Venezuela’s elected government. Recently obtained documents showed $50 million earmarked for so-called “democracy programs,” adding to over $213 million funneled through USAID in the past five years, including $18 million in 2024 alone to support politician Maria Corina Machado, who has openly aligned herself with Trump and advocates foreign-backed subversion.

Even after the formal disbanding of USAID in 2025, Washington quietly redirected $400 million to weaken progressive governments in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.

Maduro has derided US accusations aimed at linking his country to illegal migration, pointing instead to US-funded propaganda campaigns across Latin America promoting emigration. One such USAID contract with Colombia’s El País paper sought to “disseminate a new narrative” glamorizing migrant “success stories,” a move Caracas views as psychological warfare against Venezuela’s stability.

By early September, Washington had staged an unprecedented military buildup across the region, deploying eight Navy warships, a submarine, Reaper drones, and F-35 stealth warplanes.

When Maduro remained firmly in power by October, Trump escalated further, dispatching nuclear-capable bombers and Special Operations helicopters to buzz the Venezuelan coastline in a show of force that underscored the mounting aggression towards Caracas.

Trump also ordered the deployment of a massive aircraft carrier and its accompanying ships and F-18 warplanes.

Source: Press TV

 

#US #Venezuela #Mexico #Colombia 25-11-02