Trump does not rule out war with Venezuela as military pressure intensifies

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he does not rule out the possibility of war with Venezuela, in a telephone interview with NBC News. When asked directly whether current operations could escalate to armed conflict, Trump responded: "I don't rule it out, no."

Trump defended a blockade order issued earlier this week against sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. He warned that seizures of vessels near Venezuelan waters will continue. "If they are stupid enough to keep sailing, they will end up in one of our ports," Trump said when asked about future actions.

The president stated that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro knows his intentions. "He knows exactly what I want. He knows it better than anyone," Trump said, though he declined to confirm whether removing Maduro from power is his ultimate objective.

Trump linked the military operations to a campaign against drug trafficking, accusing the Maduro government of using oil revenues to finance what he called "narcoterrorism." The U.S. has seized a Venezuelan oil tanker off the country's coast and blocked the entry and exit of sanctioned petroleum vessels.

The military campaign, referred to as "Operation Southern Spear," has resulted in at least 104 deaths according to U.S. military announcements. The campaign includes attacks on boats in Caribbean and Pacific waters that the U.S. says are used to transport drugs. Five alleged "narcoterrorists" were killed in two recent attacks on vessels in Pacific waters.

The scale of U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean has reached levels that analysts compare to historical interventions. The naval presence exceeds that deployed during the 1989 Panama invasion and approaches the accumulation seen during Operation Power Pack in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the deployment of 42,000 marines and soldiers and a fleet of 41 warships during the Dominican Republic civil war.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro responded to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's recent call for Colombian military personnel to support Venezuela against U.S. pressure. Petro rejected the notion that Maduro could give orders to Colombian military forces, emphasizing the need to build relations based on mutual respect. Maduro had urged unity with Venezuela to protect the sovereignty of both nations, while Petro proposed that a constitutional change would be needed for a foreign head of state to command another nation's military.