U.S. Threat to Venezuela's Sovereignty Grows

Senior U.S. military officials presented updated options for military aggression against Venezuela to President Donald Trump this Thursday, which include ground assaults, according to sources within the White House who confirmed the information to local media.

The Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, detailed the operational alternatives to the president. Despite the meeting, two of the sources indicated to CBS News that a final decision on a possible intervention has not yet been made.

Both the White House and a Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the plans. The sources assured that the U.S. intelligence community contributed key information for the design of the potential military operations.

The absence from the discussions of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who was in Canada participating in a G7 foreign ministers' summit, was notable.

Military Buildup in the Region

This new step in the escalation of tensions occurs days after the carrier strike group of the USS Gerald Ford entered the area of responsibility of U.S. Southern Command, the primary U.S. combat unit for operations in the Caribbean and South America.

The deployment of the Ford adds to a flotilla of destroyers, warplanes, and special operations assets already present in the region since August, in what experts consider the largest U.S. maritime deployment since the first Persian Gulf War (1990-1991).

In the last two months, under orders from Donald Trump, the U.S. military has executed attacks against at least 21 vessels, resulting in 80 people killed.

Operation “Southern Lance”

Concurrently, U.S. Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, announced this Thursday the launch of mission “Southern Lance,” a military operation in collaboration with U.S. Southern Command whose stated goal is “to expel the narcoterrorists from our hemisphere.”

Through a post on his profile on the social network X, the official framed the operation as a protective measure for his country. “The operation protects our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people,” he stated.

In a resounding manner with a clear interventionist message, Hegseth added: “The Western Hemisphere is America's neighborhood, and we will protect it.” Thus far, the Pentagon has not offered details on the scope, the countries involved, or the nature of the actions the mission will comprise.

Hegseth's rhetoric, labeling the region as America's “neighborhood,” revives the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, a policy that has historically served as justification for Washington's political and military interventions in the internal affairs of sovereign nations in Latin America and the Caribbean.