Overview
- Senior officials held multiple White House meetings this week to brief President Trump on options that include land strikes in Venezuela, and he said he has “sort of made up” his mind without announcing an order.
- The Pentagon confirmed a 20th attack on an alleged drug boat on Monday that killed four people, bringing publicly acknowledged deaths to about 80 since early September.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally named the campaign Operation Southern Spear as the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group and other assets expand a regional force that includes roughly a dozen Navy ships and about 12,000 sailors and Marines.
- A reported DOJ opinion frames the effort as an armed conflict with designated cartels and outlines battlefield immunity for personnel, while lawmakers press for legal justifications and evidence tying targets to narcotics trafficking.
- U.S. partners have curtailed cooperation, with the U.K. pausing some intelligence sharing, regional leaders voicing legal and stability concerns, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll finding most Americans oppose the extrajudicial boat strikes and broader intervention.