New reports in the Wall Street Journal and the Miami Herald say the Trump administration has “identified targets inside Venezuela, including military facilities used for drug smuggling,” and that Washington has “made the decision to attack military facilities inside Venezuela,” an attack that “could come at any time,” the Herald wrote on Friday.
Venezuelan officials and many critics have denounced the move as naked coercion cloaked in a drug war narrative.
The Journal itself noted in a Thursday report that there is no public evidence that Venezuela produces fentanyl, the opioid at the center of U.S. rhetoric, and stressed that Caracas has historically been a shipping route for Colombian cocaine, not a fentanyl factory.
Opponents say the “narcotics” framework risks masking a campaign aimed at regime change and access to Venezuela’s oil, gold and other resources.
Miami Herald sources say the planned strike is aimed at “decapitating the cartel hierarchy” and could be carried out within days or even hours. The leak to the Herald itself may have been intentional, aimed at demonstrating pressure on Venezuelan authorities.
U.S. officials doubled bounties for Venezuelan officials and sent a carrier strike group led by the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to the Caribbean.
Critics warn that the labeling of Venezuela as a “narcostate” is being advanced without transparent evidence and is being used as a pretext to justify extraterritoriality.
The operation has already moved from interception at sea to lethal attacks at sea. The operations, which have killed at least 60 people and which Washington blames on smugglers, have sparked a human rights backlash.
Analysts say expanding such attacks on sovereign military infrastructure risks igniting a regional conflagration, rallying domestic support for Nicolas Maduro and inviting deeper involvement from outside backers.
Caracas has strengthened its air defenses and branded U.S. actions, from public incentives to covert action authorizations, an illegal invasion that uses bombs instead of diplomacy.