Senior military officials on Wednesday provided President Trump with updated options for potential operations in VenezuelaIncluding ground strikes, according to multiple sources familiar with the meetings at the White House.
The sources said that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Kaine, and other senior officials briefed the president on military options in the coming days.
Two sources told CBS News that a final decision has not yet been made.
White House spokesmen did not immediately comment. A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment.
The US intelligence community helped provide information for potential operations, the sources said. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard did not attend the White House discussions because she was returning from a foreign trip. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Canada to attend the G7 foreign ministers’ summit.
Earlier this week, the USS Gerald Ford carrier strike group entered the US Southern Command area of responsibility. Southern Command is the primary combat unit for operations in the Caribbean and South America.
The Ford joins a fleet of destroyers, warplanes and special operations assets Already in the area.
Over the past two months, the US Army The strikes were carried out Against at least 21 ships that were allegedly transporting drugs from South America to the United States (there were 20 strokes Not yet, but an operation was carried out in late October targeting two boats. At least 80 alleged smugglers were killed in the raids. Two survived and were returned to their countries of origin in Ecuador and Colombia. The man was released in Ecuador He was released Because the authorities found no evidence that he committed a crime.
At a defense summit on Wednesday in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Hegseth raised the Trump administration’s offensive against drug traffickers.
“My advice to foreign terrorist organizations is not to get in the boat,” Hegseth said. “If you are trafficking drugs to poison the American people and we know that you belong to a designated terrorist organization, or that you are a terrorist or a foreign smuggler — we will find you and we will kill you.”