Overview
- Reports in the Miami Herald and The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed U.S. officials, said air attacks on Venezuelan military-linked sites could occur within days or hours to pressure Nicolás Maduro and target alleged drug networks.
- Asked aboard Air Force One, the president answered "No" when pressed on whether he intended to authorize strikes, echoing a prior White House pushback on anonymously sourced stories.
- U.S. force posture has expanded with eight Navy ships in the Caribbean, F‑35s based in Puerto Rico, strategic bomber flyovers near Venezuela, and the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group moving into the region.
- Since early September, U.S. forces have carried out a lethal maritime campaign against small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, leaving at least 62 dead and destroying 14 vessels and a semisubmersible, according to multiple reports.
- The UN human rights chief Volker Türk condemned the maritime killings as possible extrajudicial executions and a violation of international law, intensifying scrutiny as separate reporting points to CIA covert activity and a doubled $50 million reward for information on Maduro.