Strategic Council Online – Interview: An American affairs expert stated that in recent weeks, U.S. policy toward Venezuela has undergone a distinct redefinition, shifting toward hard power tools. According to media reports, during Donald Trump’s presidency, the White House reviewed options for military operations “against drug cartels”. It even introduced a deadly attack on a suspected boat leaving Venezuelan waters as the beginning of a new phase of its campaign. This approach has been reinforced by the deployment of significant military assets to the Caribbean periphery, including cruisers equipped with cruise missiles and attack submarines, as well as the stationing of F-35 fighter jets in Puerto Rico. It is complemented by labeling Nicolás Maduro a “narcoterrorist” and doubling the bounty for his capture.
Although Trump, when asked about “regime change,” said, “We’re not discussing that,” by linking Venezuela to the anti-drug mission, he has effectively redefined the “maximum pressure” strategy within a security-military framework. At the regional level, the resurgence of the old concept of “gunboat diplomacy” in America’s backyard sends a deterrent message to Caracas and its allies on one hand, while increasing the risk of sliding into proxy and attritional conflicts on the other. At the structural level, the merging of U.S. domestic considerations, including the “crackdown on drug trafficking” agenda, with geopolitical calculations to control energy resources and routes of influence, indicates that the Venezuela issue is not merely a criminal-security matter but rather a reflection of great power competition and a test of the resilience of the Latin American regional order—an order that, with each crisis escalation, simultaneously creates opportunities and threats for both extra-regional and regional actors.