Overview

• Trump warned that Venezuela must immediately take back Venezuelan prisoners and people from mental institutions or face consequences he described as “incalculable.”
• The White House posted a new video of a U.S. maritime strike that Trump said killed three suspected narcotraffickers, without specifying location or timing beyond the Southern Command region.
• U.S. forces remain deployed in the southern Caribbean with multiple warships, a nuclear‑propulsion submarine and F‑35 fighters staged in Puerto Rico for counternarcotics operations.
• Venezuela escalated its defense posture with community training, La Orchila exercises and appeals to the United Nations, accusing Washington of a “war not declared.”
• Questions persist over the legal basis and disclosed evidence tying the destroyed vessels to drug trafficking, as some regional figures, including opposition leader Henrique Capriles, reject any foreign military intervention.