Overview
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Cartel de los Soles will be designated a foreign terrorist organization on Nov. 24, alleging ties to President Nicolás Maduro and senior Venezuelan officials.
- The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group has entered the Caribbean as part of Operation Southern Spear, raising the deployed U.S. presence to roughly 15,000 personnel, according to multiple reports.
- President Donald Trump said he probably would speak with Maduro but refused to rule out sending U.S. forces into Venezuela, and he said he would be OK with strikes in Mexico and suggested targeting cocaine production in Colombia.
- U.S. forces have conducted at least 21 lethal strikes on suspected drug boats since September, with publicly reported death tolls of at least 83 people and no released evidence identifying the dead as traffickers.
- Human rights organizations call the maritime killings extrajudicial, regional leaders resist being used for attacks, and questions persist over the administration’s legal rationale for treating cartels as wartime targets.