Washington — The United States has prepared plans to strike military installations inside Venezuela as part of an intensified campaign against what U.S. authorities describe as the Cartel de los Soles, officials and media reports said Friday, though both the White House and senior administration figures moved swiftly to cast doubt on reports that an order to attack had been given.
The Miami Herald and the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter, reported that the Trump administration has authorised operations targeting Venezuelan military sites allegedly used by senior members of President Nicolás Maduro’s regime to facilitate large-scale drug trafficking. Those reports say strikes could be carried out by air within days — or even hours — and are intended to degrade infrastructure used by the cartel and to “decapitate” elements of its leadership.
U.S. officials cited by the press estimate the cartel exports roughly 500 tonnes of cocaine a year, destined for markets in Europe and the United States. The administration has previously accused Maduro and senior regime officials of running or protecting the Cartel de los Soles and has increased financial incentives for information leading to arrests: the reward for Maduro was doubled in August to $50 million, while other senior figures, including Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, face multimillion-dollar bounties.
But on Friday the White House pushed back on the media accounts. “Unnamed sources don’t know what they’re talking about. Any announcements regarding Venezuela policy would come directly from the President,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement.
President Donald Trump, travelling aboard Air Force One, told reporters he had not made a decision to attack military sites inside Venezuela. Hours later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also denied the Herald’s account in a post on X, calling the story “fake.”
Despite the denials, U.S. military activity in the southern Caribbean has increased markedly in recent months. The Miami Herald reported that the USS Gravely, a guided-missile destroyer, departed Port of Spain, Trinidad, on Thursday, and officials have disclosed a broader deployment that includes the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its accompanying strike group. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the carrier and escort ships into the region on 24 October, officials said.
The U.S. deployment has included long-range surveillance flights, maritime patrols by P-8 reconnaissance aircraft, MQ-9 Reaper drones and a contingent of F-35B fighters based in Puerto Rico. Administration spokespeople say those assets are being used to map trafficking routes and to target vessels and facilities linked to narcotics shipments. To date, the operation has largely focused on interdiction at sea: U.S. strikes on fast boats suspected of carrying narcotics have killed dozens of suspected traffickers, with officials placing the toll at 61.
Retired Venezuelan officers and analysts who have spoken to the press describe the current posture as a possible “final phase” intended to neutralise cartel leaders and key regime lieutenants and to prepare the option of precision strikes on both fixed and mobile targets on Venezuelan soil. Some U.S. and regional analysts say the military build-up signals an intent to remove or weaken the Maduro government; others caution that the United States lacks the forces required for a prolonged occupation and that any action is more likely to take the form of targeted strikes.
“There isn’t enough combat power for an invasion,” said Mark F. Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “But there is plenty for air or missile strikes against the cartels or the Maduro regime.”
U.S. law enforcement and political officials have linked high-level Venezuelan figures to transnational criminal networks. At an August announcement increasing the reward for information on Maduro, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi described Maduro as the head of a military-embedded drug trafficking organisation and warned that his network worked with groups such as Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.
Administration spokespeople say the current mission is focused on disrupting that criminal infrastructure and reducing the flow of narcotics. But the sheer scale and composition of the deployment — carrier strike group, destroyers, surveillance aircraft and precision strike platforms — has prompted speculation that Washington is prepared to escalate further if necessary.
Regional governments have watched the buildup warily. Caracas has warned of retaliation against neighbouring countries perceived to be assisting U.S. operations, and the presence of U.S. warships and aircraft in the southern Caribbean has raised tensions with states in the region.
Legal and strategic questions remain unresolved should the United States carry out strikes on Venezuelan territory. Officials declined to confirm whether President Maduro himself is a designated target. “Maduro is about to find himself trapped and might soon discover that he cannot flee the country even if he decided to,” one source told the Miami Herald, adding that there were reports of disaffection among some Venezuelan generals.
Administration officials have framed the deployment as part of a broader, non-kinetic effort to choke off the finances and logistics of transnational criminal networks; critics argue the approach risks unintended escalation and civilian harm.
As denials and reports continued to circulate, U.S. policymakers appeared to be weighing a range of options — from continued maritime interdiction to precision strikes ashore — while seeking to balance the stated aim of disrupting drug trafficking against the risks of a wider confrontation in Venezuela.