Overview
- President Donald Trump said he would consider attacking targets in Mexico to curb drug trafficking and voiced openness to shutting cocaine laboratories in Colombia.
- Rubio stated last week that the United States would not carry out a military intervention in Mexico, highlighting a public split in messaging.
- U.S. forces have conducted repeated maritime strikes since September, with the Pentagon citing 20 attacks and 79 fatalities involving suspected smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
- The United States has surged military assets to the region, including the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group and strategic bombers positioned near Venezuela.
- The White House has doubled its bounty on Nicolás Maduro to $50 million and is preparing to designate the alleged Cartel de Los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization on November 24, as Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado touts a post‑Maduro transition in a new video.