The unprecedented strikes of American Marines on a cartel-operated ship Van Venezuela this week indicated that the Trump government uses a hard new approach when it comes to combating international drug trafficking.
While the US Army has long worked to combat cartel and international gang organizations towards the end of the 1980s, the Tuesday strike marked in which 11 members of Tren were killed the Aragua – which the Trump government indicated in February as a terrorist organization – a clear shift of earlier conductor and arresting.
Video images showed the ship shortly before it was destroyed from Venezuela on 2 September 2025. (@realdonaldtrump via Truth Social)
Maduro claims that we are looking for the regime of the regime due to the military threat ‘amid Caribbean structure
Since his first government, President Donald Trump has made it clear that he has strongly resisted the Maduro regime and even announced a reward of $ 50 million for information that led to his arrest and conviction.
Trump’s decision to use American troops of the South American nation, Maduro brought on Monday to deny the move as an attempt to seek regime change and said: “Venezuela confronts the biggest threat that has been seen on our continent in the past 100 years.”
The White House stood for an international pushback and questions about what this strike meant for future American policy when it comes to combating cartels and geopolitics in South America.
State Secretary Marco Rubio looked to rectify the record during a Wednesday trip to Mexico, where he also appealed to cross-border weapons and narcotic drugs and said: “The president of the United States is going to wage war against Narco-terrorist organizations.”
Rubio argued that the previous policy for grabbing and arresting ‘does not work’.
“Because these drug cartels – what they do is that they know that they will lose 2% of their load – they bake it in their economy,” he said. “What will stop them is when you blow them up when you have lost them.”
US President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office in the White House on 2 September 2025 in Washington, DC (Alex Wong/Getty images)
American warships to patrol international waters around Venezuela, while Trump promises to stop cartels
Medina argued that Maduro’s “unwilling or not -states” attitude towards international cartel entries rings opened the window of opportunities for Trump to act, and noted that the navy followed strict engagement rules in aiming a terrorist organization considered moving drugs for the US for the US
“Tren the Aragua of Venezuela, supported by Maduro, operates a lot as other terror groups sponsored by the State, including the support of Iran for the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah, destabilizing regions through illegal trade and violence,” Medina said. “Safe ports in international waters are no longer shrines for human dealers and smugglers.
“This strike sends a clear warning that those companies are now confronted with decisive and powerful resistance of American troops and their allies,” he added.
Despite Maduro’s suspicions that Trump’s endgame is to expel his government, experts remain skeptical.
President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro delivers the annual address in Teatro Teresa Carreno in Caracas, Venezuela on January 15, 2025. (Jesus Vargas/Getty images))
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Although Tuesday operation is an extension of Trump’s anti-Maduro policy, Juan Cruz, a former senior director of the National Security Council for Westershemisfere Affairs, said that he does not believe that there are major changes on the horizon as a regime change.
