Overview

• The White House says the deployment targets transnational drug cartels and has directed the Pentagon to develop operational options, with Adm. Daryl Caudle citing support for Venezuela-related counter-cartel missions.
• Roughly 4,000–4,500 sailors and Marines, seven warships including USS San Antonio, USS Iwo Jima and USS Fort Lauderdale, a nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine and P-8 maritime patrol flights are concentrated in the Southern Caribbean.
• Caracas has filed a sovereignty complaint with U.N. chief António Guterres, dispatched coastal patrols with warships and drones, urged militia recruitment and announced 15,000 troops for the Colombia border.
• Analysts note most cocaine flows move via the Pacific or by air over the Caribbean and say the force is too small for a land incursion, describing a show of pressure that still carries escalation risks.
• Washington has labeled groups such as Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua as terrorist organizations and doubled a bounty on Nicolás Maduro to $50 million, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited U.S. Southern Command to underscore the posture.