US Planning To Attack Military Sites In Venezuela As Conflict With Maduro Regime Escalates

Last Updated:October 31, 2025, 18:59 IST

The strikes will reportedly seek to destroy military installations used by a drug cartel the US claims is headed by Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro and top members of his regime.

Tensions have escalated between US President Donald Trump and Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro. (Reuters)

The Trump administration has planned attacks on military installations inside Venezuela, which could come at any moment as the United States is escalating its offensive against the Soles drug cartel, sources familiar with the matter told the Miami Herald.

The planned attacks will seek to destroy military installations used by the drug-trafficking organisation the US claims is headed by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and top members of his regime. Sources said the strikes also aim to destroy the cartel’s hierarchy.

This marks the latest escalation in Washington’s conflict with Venezuela, after the Wall Street Journal reported that the US flew two B-1 Lancers close to the Venezuelan airspace, days after other American warplanes carried out what US officials described as an “attack demonstration" near Venezuela.

Maduro’s Time ‘Running Out’

Although it was unclear that Maduro himself was the target of the planned US operation, one of the sources told the Herald that his time was running out.

“Maduro is about to find himself trapped and might soon discover that he cannot flee the country even if he decided to. What’s worse for him, there is now more than one general willing to capture and hand him over, fully aware that one thing is to talk about death, and another to see it coming," the source said.

The US has offered $50 million – the largest such bounty ever offered – for information leading to Maduro’s arrest, along with $25 million for the capture of some of his top lieutenants, including Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who is believed to run cartel operations.

US Operation Against Drug Trafficking

The Trump administration has alleged that Maduro leads the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), a drug-trafficking organisation embedded in Venezuela’s military, and works with groups including Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and other transnational criminal networks who pose a threat to the national security of the US by illegal trafficking of drugs.

President Donald Trump earlier said he authorised CIA operations in Venezuela, and that he is considering ground attacks against alleged drug cartels in the country. The American military has also sharply increased its presence off the Venezuelan coast as part of an operation aimed at disrupting drug trafficking tied to the gang.

US strikes in the Caribbean and the Pacific in recent weeks have killed at least 62 people on boats that Washington claims were ferrying drugs. However, the governments where the victims hail from have claimed that they are fishermen.

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