Overview
- The State Department told Americans, including lawful permanent residents, to avoid Venezuela entirely and to depart if already there.
- The advisory cites threats such as wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest, and weak health infrastructure.
- U.S. deployments in the Caribbean now include an aircraft carrier, warships, and F-35 jets, which officials frame as operations against drug cartels.
- The administration last month designated the Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization, intensifying pressure on networks it links to Nicolás Maduro.
- Trump has declared Venezuelan airspace "closed" and suggested land operations could begin very soon, while news reports say he authorized covert CIA activities targeting the Maduro government.