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U.S. Confrontation With Venezuela

Trump Weighs Expanding Venezuela Strikes

  • U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States is considering targeting Venezuelan drug cartels “coming by land,” after recently striking boats allegedly carrying illicit drugs (Reuters)

Maduro Signs Decree Expanding Military Authority in Case of U.S. Incursion

  • Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said the decree would grant President Nicolás Maduro additional security powers if the United States were to attack Venezuela; Rodríguez said she believed the Trump administration seeks “regime change” (Reuters)
  • Unnamed U.S. officials told the New York Times that the U.S. military has planned potential operations on Venezuelan soil against drug trafficking suspects; a State Department spokesperson said that Washington “is engaged in a counterdrug-cartel operation” (NYT)

Trump Threatens Venezuelan Drug Traffickers

  • U.S. President Donald Trump told the UN General Assembly that recent American strikes on Venezuelan boats carrying alleged drug traffickers were a warning that traffickers would be “blown out of existence,” while also accusing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of leading trafficking networks (Reuters)

Maduro Offers Direct Talks With Trump Envoy Grenell Amid U.S. Pressure

  • Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro offered direct talks with U.S. envoy Richard Grenell in a letter to Donald Trump, rejecting U.S. drug trafficking allegations and urging “frank conversation” to ease tensions; the letter comes as Trump warned Caracas must accept deported prisoners or face “incalculable” consequences (Reuters)

Third Strike in Caribbean

  • The U.S. military killed three people on a boat that Trump claimed was carrying drugs in the Caribbean, he wrote on social media; he has announced fourteen such deaths in two similar strikes in recent weeks (AP)

Venezuela Launches Military Drills

  • Venezuela mobilized more than 2,500 soldiers, 12 naval ships, and 22 aircraft in Caribbean war games in what officials described as a response to U.S. naval deployments in the region; as part of this response, Venezuela has also been showcasing Russian Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets armed with anti-ship missiles (CNN)

U.S. Strike Near Venezuela

  • The U.S. military killed three people in a strike on a boat that Trump claimed was carrying drugs from Venezuela—the second such lethal strike this month; shortly before Trump’s announcement, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had condemned the earlier strike as a “heinous crime” (NYT)
  • He accused Washington of trying to “intimidate and seek regime change” (NPR)

Venezuela Alleges U.S. Boarded Tuna Boat

  • Venezuela’s foreign minister accused U.S. forces of boarding a Venezuelan fishing boat in its territorial waters and blocking communication from the vessel for eight hours; the White House did not immediately comment (AP)
  • The United States has a naval deployment off Venezuela’s coast that it says is aimed at countering drug trafficking (Reuters)

Venezuelan Pushback on Strike

  • Venezuela’s interior minister said that nobody killed by the U.S. military in a strike off Venezuela’s coast last week belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang, contradicting the Trump administration’s claims (Reuters)
  • While Rubio said the boat posed an “immediate threat” to the United States, unnamed U.S. officials told multiple news outlets this week that the boat had turned around at the time that it was struck (State; NYT)

Hegseth Says U.S. Deployment Is Critical Counter-Narcotics Mission

  • On a warship off Puerto Rico, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told U.S. servicemembers their deployment to the southern Caribbean represented the “front lines” of a critical counter-narcotics mission, rather than a training exercise (Reuters)
  • Additionally, the New York Times reported that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard ordered the retraction of a National Security Agency intelligence report on Venezuela; the document purportedly covered former Trump administration intelligence official Richard Grenell’s discussions with dictator Nicolás Maduro as an envoy to Caracas (NYT)

TPS Curtailed for Venezuelans

  • The Trump administration is revoking a deportation shield for almost 270,000 Venezuelans who were granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) under a program that began in 2021; TPS can apply to people fleeing hardship and political crisis (CBS)

U.S. Strike Near Venezuela

  • A U.S. military strike on a vessel alleged to be carrying members of gang Tren de Aragua off the coast of Venezuela killed eleven people, Trump said; Venezuela’s communications minister suggested, without evidence, that a video shared by Trump was created with artificial intelligence (BBC)
  • Trump declared Tren de Aragua a terrorist organization earlier this year and cited that designation as a reason to deport alleged members (White House)
  • A U.S. appeals court decided the use of the Alien Enemies Act for those deportations was illegal (NYT)

U.S. Sanctions Venezuelan Gang Leaders

  • The U.S. Treasury said that it imposed sanctions on six top leaders of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang due to their involvement in the illicit drug trade, human trafficking, and money laundering; the State Department also designated Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization (Reuters)

Venezuela Declares UN High Commissioner Persona Non Grata

  • Days after the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights documented increasing arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and torture under President Nicolás Maduro’s regime, Venezuela’s National Assembly declared Volker Türk ‘persona non grata’; Venezuelan lawmakers claimed the decision was made because Türk did not protect Venezuelans who were deported from the United States (AP)
  • Although the declaration has no immediate practical effect, Venezuela may still expel the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ office from the country (Reuters)

Electoral Authority Says Ruling Party Won Governor’s Races in Twenty-Three of Twenty-Four States

  • Most opposition parties boycotted Sunday’s vote (BBC)
  • The government also conducted an election in a district bordering the disputed, Guyana-controlled territory of Essequibo that it said would determine Essequibo’s governor. Guyana’s president has called the vote “false” and “propagandistic” (CNN)

U.S. Deportation Shield Lifted

  • The U.S. Supreme Court backed the Trump administration’s efforts to strip temporary deportation protection from some 350,000 Venezuelans living in the United States (WaPo)
  • The Joe Biden administration extended the protection into 2026, citing political and economic crisis in Venezuela, but Trump administration officials argued conditions there had improved and that Venezuelans were a strain on the United States (Reuters)

Guyanese Soldiers Attacked Three Times Near Venezuela Border

  • The Guyana Defense Force (GDF) stated that armed men in plainclothes fired upon GDF forces conducting patrols along the Cuyuni River; the attacks took place in a span of twenty-four hours in the disputed Essequibo region, though the GDF reported no casualties among its soldiers (Guardian)

Russia and Venezuela Sign Strategic Partnership Agreement

  • The countries signed a strategic partnership agreement during Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s trip to Moscow (Reuters)
  • They agreed on joint development of new oil and gas fields as well as to grow their oil trade; Venezuela’s oil sector is currently under U.S. sanctions (France24)

Venezuelan Opposition Members Flee

  • Five opposition members who had been sheltering in the Argentine embassy in Caracas for more than a year have arrived in the United States, Rubio said (Bloomberg)
  • They entered the embassy after warrants were issued for their arrests during a government crackdown on dissent; Venezuelan authorities have for months blocked them from leaving the country (Guardian)
  • Rubio said a “precise operation” rescued them (FT)

Venezuela Plans to Move Forward with Elections in Disputed Essequibo Region Despite ICJ Ruling

  • The International Court of Justice issued a ruling against Venezuela’s plans to hold elections in the disputed region on May 25; in response, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro reiterated Venezuela’s historical claims to the region, which makes up around two-thirds of Guyana’s territory (AP)

ICJ Order on Guyana Vote

  • The International Court of Justice ordered Venezuela to halt its plans to carry out May 25 regional elections in the Guyana-controlled territory of Essequibo, which Venezuela also claims (AP)
  • In late 2023, Venezuela threatened to annex the area by force; mediation by neighboring countries deescalated tensions at the time, but they have since risen (Reuters)

Human Rights Watch Implicates Venezuelan Government in Human Rights Abuses Since 2024 Elections

  • The international organization published a report documenting the detainment of over two thousand opposition supporters by government authorities and pro-government groups; the report also highlighted cases of torture, killings, and forced disappearances (HRW)

Venezuelan National Assembly Approves State of Economic Emergency

  • Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro proposed the decree, which grants him emergency powers to implement economic measures to reduce inflation and boost national production; the move comes as Venezuelan oil output and sales have markedly declined in the face of heavy U.S. sanctions and tariffs (Reuters)

Venezuelan Oil Exports Decline by Over Eleven Percent Between February and March

  • Many usual importers of Venezuelan oil, such as China and India, chose to pause their oil shipments due to U.S. sanctions and tariffs against Venezuela (Reuters)

New U.S. Curbs on Venezuelan Oil

  • French firm Maurel & Prom, Spanish firm Repsol, and Italian firm Eni said the United States revoked licenses that had allowed them to operate in Venezuela despite U.S. sanctions (RFI; Reuters; FT)
  • Last week, Trump said he would establish tariffs on countries that buy oil from Venezuela as a way to pressure Caracas on a range of issues, including migration (AP)