The US president has threatened a second incursion if interim authorities refuse to cooperate
US national security officials have reportedly ruled out plans to deploy ground troops in Venezuela following the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro. The claims refute US President Donald Trump’s earlier threats of further military action.
The US triggered international outrage on Saturday when its special forces raided Caracas to seize Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who were later indicted in New York on drug trafficking charges and pleaded not guilty.
Caracas denounced the operation as an “imperialist attack,” while Trump defended it on security grounds, invoking the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine that frames Latin America as Washington’s sphere of influence. Trump later said he was ready to deploy additional forces and “do a second strike” if interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez failed to cooperate with Washington.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers at a closed-door Senate briefing on Wednesday that the White House does not plan to deploy ground troops, Politico and Stars and Stripes reported, citing people who attended the event.
They added, however, that US naval forces – a dozen warships and around 15,000 personnel – will remain positioned around Venezuela indefinitely.
“We don’t anticipate boots on the ground. That is not the administration’s objective, it is not their expectation,” House Speaker Mike Johnson was quoted as saying, calling the abduction of Maduro a one-off operation.
The briefing came amid a series of aggressive proposals from Trump which he claimed would secure the Western Hemisphere. Following the Caracas raid, he renewed calls to take over Greenland from Denmark and also threatened Mexico, Colombia and Cuba with possible military action.
Speaking to reporters after the briefing, Hegseth avoided addressing further deployments in Venezuela but said the US military would continue to apply “leverage,” pointing to Wednesday’s seizure of two oil tankers, one of them Russian-flagged, under a blockade of Venezuelan oil exports.
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