Venezuela

The mayor of Caracas had come to one of her city’s busiest tube stations wearing a camouflage T-shirt declaring herself a card-carrying combatant – and with a message to match.

“They think they’re the owners of the world,” Carmen Meléndez complained of the Trump administration and its pressure campaign against Venezuela’s government. “But if they dare [to invade] we’ll be waiting for them here.”

Meléndez said she hoped a US invasion was not on the horizon, even though they had shown themselves to be “a bunch of crazies, who are capable of anything”. “But if it does happen we are ready,” she added, “and we will use all of the weapons we have to defend the homeland.”

WASHINGTON — The US military killed four alleged “narco-terrorists” in the latest strike on a boat deemed to be trafficking drugs off the coast of Venezuela, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Friday.

The operation targeted a “vessel affiliated with designated terrorist organizations,” killing four men who were “transporting substantial amounts of narcotics headed to America to poison our people,” Hegseth wrote on X.

BREAKING: Drug boat heading to the US from Venezuela just blown up by the US military. 4 smugglers kiIIed. pic.twitter.com/BpiVuszYB8

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 3, 2025

When Edith Perales was younger, he enlisted in the National Bolivarian Militia, a civilian force created by the late President Hugo Chávez in 2009 to help defend Venezuela.

“We have to be a country capable of defending every last inch of our territory so no one comes to mess with us,” Chávez said at the time.

Sixteen years on, Perales, who is now 68, is joining thousands of other militia members getting ready for a potential US attack.

At the Doral Park Country Club outside Miami, fevered machinations are under way to overthrow a dictator. For years, in this palm-lined enclave, Venezuelan exiles have schemed to pressure US politicians to bring down Nicolás Maduro, convinced history would one day turn in their favour.

Now they believe it has. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state who is the son of Cuban immigrants, has worked to convince President Trump that Maduro is not only a socialist dictator, but a “narco-terrorist” out to destroy the United States with boat-loads of fentanyl-laced cocaine weaponised to poison American children.

President Donald Trump has said US forces carried out a “lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel which he said was trafficking drugs, and the attack killed three “male narcoterrorists” on board.

Trump said he ordered the attack on the boat, which was in the US Southern Command’s area of responsibility, after US intelligence confirmed it was trafficking drugs. It was the third such strike on alleged drug boats in recent weeks.

Trump’s statement on Truth Social on Friday said the strike happened in international waters. The US Southern Command’s area of responsibility covers most of South America and the Caribbean.

BREAKING – US President Donald Trump releases another drone visual showing a US military Airstrike against a Narco boat in the Carribbean sea originating from Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/T7Q2tvZUs7

— All Patriots Network A.P.N. (@AllPatriotsNet) September 20, 2025

Venezuela says it has begun three days of military exercises on its Caribbean island of La Orchila as tensions soar amid US military activity in the region.

Forces deployed for what Washington called an anti-drug operation have blown up at least two Venezuelan boats and a combined 14 people allegedly transporting drugs across the Caribbean this month – a move slammed by UN experts as “extrajudicial execution”.

The strikes and a deployment of US warships in the region have raised fears of an invasion in Venezuela, whose president, Nicolás Maduro, has been accused by Washington of being a cartel leader.

WASHINGTON — President Trump announced Monday that the US military had carried out a second strike against purported drug traffickers from Venezuela in international waters.

Three “male terrorists” were killed, Trump announced on Truth Social.

BREAKING: On President Trump’s orders, the U.S. military just conducted a SECOND kinetic strike on a drug boat with narcoterrorists headed to the U.S.

Trump is RAINING HELL on the cartels

TRUMP WROTE: “This morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a SECOND… pic.twitter.com/PRwwpGwZyH

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 15, 2025

Trump says SOUTHCOM struck another boat this morning carrying drugs and "narcoterrorists from Venezuela"

"BE WARNED — IF YOU ARE TRANSPORTING DRUGS THAT CAN KILL AMERICANS, WE ARE HUNTING YOU!" pic.twitter.com/iN6Fg5QMbj

— Matt Rice (@matt____rice) September 15, 2025

President Trump shared dramatic footage of the US military obliterating a boat carrying drugs and Tren de Aragua gangbangers off the coast of Venezuela.

The video showed the small boat being blown out of international waters and exploding into flames after it was struck by a single missile on Tuesday, killing all onboard.

BREAKING: President Trump just released the video of the U.S. military STRIKING a drug boat from Venezuela heading to America carrying ELEVEN Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists, who were kiIIed in the strike

TRUMP: “Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces… pic.twitter.com/axQAWxjJhm

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 2, 2025

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday offered a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

“Maduro uses foreign terrorist organizations like [Tren de Aragua], Sinaloa and Cartel of the Suns to bring deadly drugs and violence into our country,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a video posted on X.

Today, @TheJusticeDept and @StateDept are announcing a $50 MILLION REWARD for information leading to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro. pic.twitter.com/D8LNqjS9yk

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) August 7, 2025

h/t Canucklehead

Five members of Venezuela’s political opposition have left the Argentinian diplomatic compound in their country’s capital, Caracas, where they had sheltered for more than a year to avoid arrest, and were in the United States on Tuesday, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said.

Rubio did not provide details of the group’s movements to reach the US, but he described the event as a rescue operation.

The government of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, did not immediately comment on the situation.

US President Donald Trump says he will revoke a license which allowed Venezuela to export some of its oil to the US despite sanctions.

The move is a major blow to the Venezuelan government as the license provided it, through joint ventures between the state-run oil company and US oil giant Chevron, with a crucial income in dollars.

Trump said he was revoking the licence – which gave Chevron permission to operate in Venezuela – because the government of Nicolás Maduro had failed to meet “electoral conditions” and had not transported “violent criminals” deported from the US at a quick enough pace.

More than half a million Venezuelans have entered the US illegally since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Until Biden became president, few Venezuelans arrived illegally. Only around 4,500 arrived in 2020. After Biden’s inauguration, however, numbers exploded: 50,499 Venezuelans illegally entered in 2021, another 189,520 in 2022 and a whopping 334,914 in 2023.

This means that Venezuelans now rank second in illegal immigration into the US, after Mexicans, who still take the number one spot.