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2025 US Caribbean naval deployment

2025 U.S. military campaign against cartels
Part of the War on drugs, Mexican drug war, and the Crisis in Venezuela
Date8 August 2025 – present
Location
Caribbean Sea
Status Ongoing
Belligerents
United States United States Venezuela Venezuela
Cartel of the Suns (alleged)		 CJNG
Sinaloa Cartel
Tren de Aragua
LNFM
Commanders and leaders
United States Donald Trump
United States Pete Hegseth
United States Marco Rubio
United States Pam Bondi
United States John Ratcliffe		 Venezuela Nicolás Maduro Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes
Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar
Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar
Units involved
See forces of United States See forces of Venezuela See forces of cartels
Strength
Unknown Venezuela 4,000 troops[1]
Venezuela alleged 4,500,000 militiamen[1][2]		 Unknown
Casualties and losses
None None 11 killed

In August 2025, U.S. president Donald Trump directed the United States Armed Forces to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels.[3]

The first operation of the campaign was the 2 September strike on an alleged Tren de Aragua vessel in the Southern Caribbean.[4]

Background

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The United States has engaged in efforts to counter drug operations in Latin America. In 1989, president George H. W. Bush ordered the invasion of Panama to depose the country's de facto dictator, Manuel Noriega. The invasion was condemned by the United Nations General Assembly as a "flagrant violation of international law". The United States later provided intelligence about flights with civilians suspected to be carrying drugs to Columbian and Peruvian officials; after several planes were shot down, the Clinton administration ceased its assistance in providing information. Additionally, the United States Navy has intercepted ships believed to be used for drug smuggling operations. The United States Armed Forces broadly engage in joint anti-drug training exercises with other countries, including Colombia and Mexico.[5]

According to Mark Esper, president Donald Trump asked about using missiles to target drug labs in Mexico.[6] As a presidential candidate for the 2024 election, Trump invoked the issue of military intervention in Mexico several times.[5] After Trump's victory, Mexican officials expressed concern that Trump would authorize strikes against drug cartels.[7] Ronald D. Johnson, Trump's nominee for ambassador to Mexico, did not rule out the possibility of military strikes on cartels in his confirmation hearing.[8] Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum publicly opposed the prospect of U.S. drone strikes on cartels in April.[9] In May, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump, speaking to Sheinbaum the previous month, proposed sending in U.S. soldiers to assist in the country's drug war, a suggestion she rejected.[10]

Preliminary actions

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Donald Trump's decision to designate drug cartels as "terrorist" organizations—including the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Cártel del Noreste, Tren de Aragua, MS-13, the Gulf Cartel, and La Nueva Familia Michoacana Organization[11]—established the foundation for U.S. intervention.[12] In August, Trump secretly signed an executive order directing the armed forces to invoke military action against cartels that had been declared as terrorist organizations.[5]

The Central Intelligence Agency, for its part, also joined the military campaign after confirming that it would play a significant role in combating drug cartels, just as it is considering using lethal force against these criminal organizations.[13]

According to The New York Times, "specialists in the laws of war and executive power" stated that Trump lacks the legal authority and precedent to kill suspected drug smugglers.[14]

Timeline

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Footage of the United States strike on a Southern Caribbean boat, September 2025

On 13 August 2025, a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone flew over Mexico and entered territory controlled by La Nueva Familia Michoacana during a coordinated patrol operation with Mexican security forces.[15][16]

On 20 August 2025, Donald Trump ordered the United States Department of Defense to send three Navy warships to the coast of South America.[17] As of 29 August, seven U.S. warships, along with one nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, were in and around the Southern Caribbean, bringing along more than 4,500 sailors and marines.[18] Venezuela said it would mobilize more than four million soldiers in the Bolivarian Militia of Venezuela; the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated the militia had 343,000 members as of 2020.[2] Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said he "would constitutionally declare a republic in arms" if the country is attacked by forces that the United States government has deployed to the Caribbean and stated "Venezuela is confronting the biggest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years".[19][20]

On 2 September, Trump stated that the U.S. had executed a strike on a boat believed to be carrying drugs, killing eleven suspected gang members.[21] The following day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that military actions against cartels in Venezuela would continue.[22] Secretary of state Marco Rubio, speaking in Mexico City, said that further strikes would occur, adding that the U.S. was aware of the identities of those on the destroyed boat, but did not provide evidence to authenticate their identity as Tren de Aragua members.[23]

On 4 September, in response to the presence of Navy warships in Latin America, two Venezuelan BMA F-16 fighter jets flew over the USS Jason Dunham.[24] The U.S. Department of Defense called it “highly provocative” and has deployed ten F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico.[25][26] That same day Rubio met with Ecuadorian President Daniel Naboa in Quito; Rubio stated that Trump intended to "wage war" on those that have "been waging war on us for 30 years" and designated the gangs Los Lobos and Los Choneros as narco terrorists, in agreement with Naboa.[27][28]

Forces

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United States

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Venezuela

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Drug cartels

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Responses

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Domestic

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In August 2025, over thirty organizations urged the United States Congress to oppose the war on cartels.[37]

International

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Regarding U.S. military action against the cartels, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum stated: "The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military. We cooperate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion."[38]

Colombia convened an extraordinary virtual meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in September 2025, which concluded with an expression of "deep concern" over foreign intervention in the region.[39][40] Over Guatemala's objection that procedures were not followed, the group issued a statement saying the region must remain a "Zone of Peace" based on "... the prohibition of the threat or use of force, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the promotion of dialogue and multilateralism, unrestricted respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-interference in the internal affairs of States, and the inalienable right of peoples to self-determination."[39] Guatemala's president Bernardo Arévalo said Guatimala was included in the list of 21 countries (of the 33 members) approving the text, although it did not sign, nor did Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, and El Salvador.[41]

See also

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References

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Works cited

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