Evidence is mounting that the Trump administration is preparing for a coup to overthrow the Venezuelan government, escalating a U.S. effort that has dragged on for years. The president’s increasingly bellicose behavior toward Venezuela is evident in his sharp increase of military forces deployed in the region. Trump has ordered at least eight U.S. Navy warships into the Caribbean, including an aircraft carrier, a nuclear submarine, F-35 warplanes based in Puerto Rico, and nearly 10,000 U.S. troops.
There may be dissension in the ranks, however, as U.S. Navy Admiral Alvin Holsey—the commander charged with carrying out a series of strikes on Venezuelan vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific—announced his retirement in mid-October amid speculation that he disagreed with Trump’s directives. The strikes have so far have killed at least 57 people.
Trump first announced the boat bombings in a post to his “Truth Social” platform last Sept. 2: “Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere.”
Proving his words were not just puffed-up rhetoric, Trump announced he also ordered a CIA team to infiltrate Venezuela, targeting President Nicolás Maduro, and is pondering a U.S. military invasion of the country to carry out a coup d’etat against him. The administration has also doubled the bounty to $50 million that it has placed on Maduro’s head, an open invitation to assassinate the leader of another nation.
While Trump is escalating the effort to overthrow the Venezuelan government, the effort is an ongoing one that stretches across administrations. The Associated Press reported from this week that in 2024 a U.S. agent tried to flip Maduro’s pilot, Gen. Bitner Villegas. A U.S. Homeland Security agent offered Villegas riches if he secretly flew Venezuela’s leader into U.S. custody. The failed plan, which, AP reported, reads like a Cold War spy novel, shows how far the U.S. has gone to oust Maduro. Now, Trump is focusing on more overt pressure.
The tragedy of the boat killings he has ordered is shown in the terror and grief inflicted on the people of the little Venezuelan fishing port, San Juan de Unare, where eight fishermen were killed in a single U.S. missile strike in September. Not reported by the Trump administration is whether survivors are rescued from the sea after their fishing boats are destroyed or given medical treatment for their wounds.
Yet Trump’s warmongering is facing opposition. Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., introduced a War Powers Resolution charging that Trump is waging an illicit, illegal military operation in attacking Venezuelan vessels with no proof to sustain his charge that they are “narcoterrorists.”
Paul told Fox News, “So far, they have alleged that these people are drug dealers. No one said their name. No one said what evidence. No one said they’re armed. And we’ve had no evidence presented.” He added, “So at this point, I would call them extrajudicial killings.”
The resolution was defeated Oct. 8 by a 48-51 vote, with two Republicans voting “Aye”: Paul and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and one Democrat voting “Nay,” Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.
Speaking strongly in support of the resolution were Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
In the House, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., called for public hearings on Trump’s unilateral war on Venezuela. What the U.S. Navy is doing in the Caribbean, Smith said, “amounts to an extrajudicial killing.”
Added Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, “The President of the United States is deciding that there is somebody he wants to kill and killing them without legal justification and that is an extraordinary expansion of the power of the presidency, and it is very dangerous.” Smith warned that if allowed to continue, it will “escalate tensions across Latin America.”
In fact, anger is mounting throughout Latin America. Maduro himself denounced the attacks as “heinous crimes” and charged that it is part of Trump’s drive to oust him from office.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro blasted Trump’s piracy as “acts of tyranny,” adding, “Why launch a missile if you could simply stop the boat and arrest the crew?” Speaking of the sinking of the boats, Petro added, “That’s what one would call murder.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that “using lethal force in situations that do not constitute armed conflict amounts to executing people without judgement.”
Sarah Yager, Washington Director of Human Rights Watch, said, “U.S. officials cannot summarily kill people they accuse of smuggling drugs.” She too accused the Trump administration of “extrajudicial killings.”
Adm. Holsey and these other critics in Congress and across Latin America are being joined by a growing chunk of the global community. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Friday, Oct. 31, that the U.S. military strikes are “unacceptable” and must stop.
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for Türk’s office, relayed his message at a briefing, reported on by the Associated Press: “These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable. The U.S. must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats.”
She said Türk believed “airstrikes by the United States of America on boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific violate international human rights law.”
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