Cole Welsh, Editor

In just the last few weeks, the White House has turned up the heat on both Latin American drug trafficking organizations and Venezuela. Last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group to the Caribbean Sea. Along with other Navy warships that accompany an aircraft carrier, this move brings dozens more fighter and surveillance aircraft to bolster America’s military strikes on drug traffickers.

On Monday, the military carried out three strikes on four vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing 14 drug smugglers. The Pentagon first launched strikes against alleged drug trafficking boats in the international waters off Venezuela in September.

Since then, the military has killed at least 50 drug traffickers, expanding its operations to both the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. The White House has described the people manning the vessels as “narco-terrorists,” linking them to Venezuelan and Colombian cartels that Trump previously designated as foreign terrorist organizations. Like many issues, this unprecedented use of American lethal force against drug boats has divided Congress.

Democrats have largely condemned the strikes as illegal and called on the Trump administration to provide more information. Some have even suggested that Congress needs to approve them under the War Powers Act, an assertion that the White House strongly rejects. Rand Paul, a libertarian Republican from Kentucky and occasional Trump critic, has referred to the strikes as “extrajudicial killings.”

While the explicit goal of these strikes is to stop the flow of deadly drugs into the United States, some have speculated that the unprecedented show of military force is part of a larger effort to enact regime change in Venezuela. Led by President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela has maintained an adversarial relationship with the United States for much of the last two decades.

Since his first term, Trump has remained a staunch critic of Maduro and his government, repeatedly referring to him as an “illegitimate ruler” and a “dictator.” Trump has even described Maduro as a key player in the drug trade and a friend to the cartels, pointing to his 2020 federal indictment on narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges.

Maduro himself has been highly critical of the deployment of American military assets off the coast of Venezuela, arguing that such a show of military might is part of a larger attempt to remove him from power. Where regime change may not be the current objective, the White House appears to be considering all options in dealing with the Latin American country.

In a nontraditional public announcement, Trump recently said he authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct covert action in Venezuela. Unlike the FBI or the DEA, which are federal law enforcement agencies, the CIA can gather information in ways law enforcement cannot without fear of prosecution or having to justify their actions in court.

While the legality of the exact purpose of this military action remains up for debate, it is clear that these strikes fulfill President Trump’s campaign promise of taking on the drug cartels. In the leadup to the 2024 presidential election, Trump promised to “wage war” on the cartels, citing in part the high death toll from fentanyl in the United States.

On the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order designating a handful of drug cartels and gangs, including Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations. While previous administrations relied on federal law enforcement to investigate these cartels as part of the War on Drugs, Trump has instead reoriented the federal government’s strategy to one of counterterrorism. In similarity to operations targeting ISIS and other terrorist groups in the Middle East, Trump is now applying America’s counterterrorism playbook to the cartels.

With the power of the American military now joining the fight, the War on Drugs has entered what many consider a new chapter. While Venezuela’s authoritarian government could become a direct target as well, this military activity is undoubtedly an extension of the Trump administration’s hardline stance against the drug trade, transforming it from a serious crime to a transnational security threat.