Overview
- The Wall Street Journal and the Miami Herald report that the administration has prepared target lists for potential raids on facilities linked to the Cartel de los Soles, though President Trump publicly denied considering attacks.
- Pentagon-linked reporting describes possible precision strikes on drug labs, clandestine airstrips and military convoys tied to trafficking, with some accounts suggesting a rapid timeline that remains unconfirmed.
- U.S. deployments now include three destroyers, an amphibious group of roughly 4,500 troops, F‑35Bs and MQ‑9s based in Puerto Rico, and the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group, which has conducted recent maritime interdictions off Caracas and Falcón.
- Washington has intensified legal pressure by doubling the reward for Maduro’s capture to $50 million and directing terrorism designations for the Cartel de los Soles and the Tren de Aragua.
- The Washington Post reports that Nicolás Maduro sought military assistance from Russia and reached out to China and Iran, as rights groups and Chilean magistrates accuse the Tren de Aragua of transnational repression, including the 2024 killing of dissident Ronald Ojeda.