May 1, 2026

Cartel Wars

Venezuelan military takes control of five ports in economic 'war ...

Venezuelan military takes control of five ports in economic 'war ...

US military ‘preparing to seize ports & airfields’ in Venezuela as Trump declares full-scale war on drug cartels– www.thesun.co.uk
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AMERICA’S military is reportedly preparing to seize ports and airfields in Venezuela as Donald Trump declared a full-scale war on drug cartels.

The President stunned Washington by formally declaring the US is in a “non-international armed conflict” with the Latin American “terrorist organisations.”

The move, revealed in a secret memo to Congress, gives Trump sweeping wartime powers to strike, kill and detain cartel fighters without trial.

And it comes as the Pentagon quietly builds a force big enough to grab and hold territory on Venezuelan soil.

According to the Washington Examiner, US planners now have enough firepower positioned to seize key ports and airfields if ordered.

Off Venezuela’s coast sits a formidable armada: Navy warships and a submarine, ten F-35 Lightning II stealth jets, and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit — 2,200 Marines with Harrier jump jets, helicopters and armor.

In declaring ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels, Trump effectively designates smugglers as ‘enemy combatants’ to be killed on sight– www.washingtonexaminer.com
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A LICENSE TO KILL: Brushing aside concerns of experts in the law of war, President Donald Trump has declared the United States in a state of “non-international armed conflict” with Venezuelan drug cartels operating in the Caribbean, according to a confidential memo to Congress first obtained by the New York Times, and subsequently from numerous media outlets.

The memo provides the justification for treating suspected drug smugglers spotted on the high seas as “unlawful enemy combatants,” who can be killed on sight, instead of criminals subject to arrest and prosecution.

Venezuela’s machinery of repression: Inside the UN’s harrowing 2025 human-rights report– www.miamiherald.com
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On a December night last year in Caracas, opposition activist Jesús Armas stepped out of a café and walked toward his car. Before he could reach it, at least five hooded men dressed in black surrounded him. They asked only his name before forcing him into a gold SUV with no license plates. There was no warrant, no explanation, no indication of where he was being taken. For weeks, his family searched for him. Only later did they discover he had been transferred to El Helicoide, the notorious intelligence prison run by Venezuela’s feared Bolivarian National Intelligence Service.

Trump eyes Venezuela regime change as warships near the coast

Trump eyes Venezuela regime change as warships near the coast

Trump demands Venezuela take back criminals, threatens ‘incalculable price’ if they refuse– www.washingtontimes.com
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President Trump demanded that Venezuela accept “prisoners and people from mental institutions” that are in the United States.

“We want Venezuela to immediately accept all of the prisoners, and people from mental institutions, which includes the Worst in the World Insane Asylums, that Venezuelan ‘Leadership’ has forced into the United States of America,” he wrote on Truth Social Saturday.

“Thousands of people have been badly hurt, and even killed, by these ‘Monsters,’ he wrote, adding all caps, “Get them the hell out of our country, right now, or the price you pay will be incalculable.”

The Trump administration Friday asked the Supreme Court to end protections for Venezuelans in the U.S. Over 300,000 migrants from Venezuela have been granted Temporary Protection Status, which stops them from being deported and allows them to get work permits and apply for some taxpayer benefits.

The case has been batted around the courts for months, and the justices previously blocked a district court preliminary injunction that had ordered the president to keep the Temporary Protected Status program running.

Venezuelan president’s YouTube account offline as tensions with US escalate– abcnews.go.com
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BOGOTA, Colombia — The YouTube account of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was offline Saturday, with Venezuelan state-run channel Telesur claiming in a message on X that it was “eliminated” late the previous night without justification.

YouTube’s parent company Google did not immediately respond to questions on the apparent termination of the Venezuelan president’s account. It comes amid rising tensions between Venezuela and the United States over the deployment of American warships and fighter jets in the southern Caribbean.

Maduro’s YouTube account had more than 200,000 followers before it became unavailable Friday and was used to publish the Venezuelan president’s speeches, as well as clips from his weekly show on Venezuelan state TV.

On its website, YouTube says it eliminates accounts that commit “repeated violations of community guidelines” that include publishing misinformation, hate speech and content that “interferes with democratic processes.”

Maduro has been widely accused of stealing last year’s presidential election in Venezuela, which he lost by a landslide according to tally sheets gathered by hundreds of Venezuelan opposition activists. Venezuela’s elections agency, which is controlled by the ruling socialist party, never published tally sheets to support its claim that Maduro won the vote.

US Treasury sanctions Sinaloa cartel faction Los Mayos in Mexico– abcnews.go.com
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MEXICO CITY — The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned members of a Sinaloa cartel faction known as Los Mayos, one of the groups that has tormented Sinaloa’s capital in an ongoing war for control.

The move came on the same day that U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley is visiting Mexico, and after the Trump administration designated the Sinaloa cartel as a terrorist group earlier this year.

Hurley is meeting with Mexican authorities and business leaders to discuss strategies for combating drug trafficking, cartel operations and illicit financing. The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement that the official’s main message will be that the department “will not allow Mexico-based drug cartels to access the U.S. financial system.”

It’s part of an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to crack down on cartels. In addition to pressuring Mexico’s government to more aggressively pursue the criminal groups, the administration has also doled out rounds of sanctions to cartel leaders, banks it alleged facilitated money transfers for cartels and a rapper accused of laundering money for the groups.

Gustavo Petro sworn in as Colombia's president | Politics News ...

Gustavo Petro sworn in as Colombia's president | Politics News ...

US designates Colombia as failing to cooperate in the drug war for first time in nearly 30 years– www.cbsnews.com
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The Trump administration on Monday added Colombia to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years, a stinging rebuke to a traditional U.S. ally that reflects a recent surge in cocaine production and fraying ties between the White House and the country’s leftist president.

Even as it determined that Colombia had failed to comply with its international counternarcotics obligations, the Trump administration issued a waiver of sanctions that would have triggered major aid cuts, citing vital U.S. national interests.

Nonetheless, it is a major step against one of the United States’ staunchest allies in Latin America, and it could further hamper efforts to restore security in the countryside, according to Adam Isacson, a security researcher at the Washington Office on Latin America.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he regretted the decision, which overlooked decades of bloodshed by Colombian security forces and civilians all in the name of a U.S.-led drug war.

How Coast Guard Crews Take Down Drug Smugglers on the High Seas ...

How Coast Guard Crews Take Down Drug Smugglers on the High Seas ...

US military again strikes boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing three people aboard– www.euronews.com
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US President Donald Trump said the military on Monday again targeted a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing three aboard the vessel, hinting that the targeting of cartels could be further expanded.

“The Strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON POISONING AMERICANS!) headed to the U.S.,” Trump said in a Truth Social post announcing the strike.

“These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels pose a threat to National Security, foreign policy, and vital US Interests,” Trump wrote.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office later on Monday, Trump said he had been shown footage of the latest strike by Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Asked what proof the US has that the vessel was carrying drugs, Trump replied, “We have proof. All you have to do is look at the cargo that was spattered all over the ocean — big bags of cocaine and fentanyl all over the place.”

US adds Colombia to list of nations failing to cooperate in drug war– www.washingtonexaminer.com
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The Trump administration added Colombia to a list of countries failing to cooperate in the war on drugs for the first time in nearly 30 years.

The designation reflects the deteriorating relations between the United States and one of its closest Latin American allies. Trump’s vision has repeatedly clashed with that of the left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, whose soft-handed approach to cocaine production has failed to stop the skyrocketing of cocaine cultivation. In a presidential determination, Trump laid the deterioration in relations squarely at Petro’s feet.

Soldiers patrol a street in El Carmelo, Colombia, a day after a deadly attack on a police station that authorities blame on a dissident faction of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)

“The failure of Colombia to meet its drug control obligations over the past year rests solely with its political leadership,” Trump said, bashing Petro’s government for not decreasing production and criticizing his “failed attempts to seek accommodations with narco-terrorist groups.”

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Maduro tries to appear in control of his country ahead of a confrontation against the US.

Tensions keep escalating in the South America-Caribbean region, with the US preparing the biggest military operation in South America in 25 years.

The US military has deployed over 4,000 Marines and sailors to the waters around Latin America and the Caribbean as part of a ‘counter-cartel mission’.

This deployment includes the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (comprising the USS Iwo Jima, USS Fort Lauderdale, and USS San Antonio), a nuclear-powered attack submarine, three destroyers (USS Gravely, USS Jason Duhan, and USS Sampson) a guided-missile cruiser, and additional P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft.

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Shock killings in Mexico as six severed heads found on the road(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)

Six severed heads have been found on a road in central Mexico, sparking a major investigation.

The discovery was made by local authorities early on Tuesday morning in an area that is usually peaceful and not associated with cartel violence.

The route where the severed heads were found links the central states of Puebla and Tlaxcala. Police have not yet provided a motive behind the killings, nor have they revealed any information regarding which criminal groups operating in Mexico could have been behind the horrific act.

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The United States has deployed three Aegis guided-missile destroyers to the coast of Venezuela, amid President Trump’s push to pressure Latin American drug cartels.

The USS Gravely, the USS Jason Dunham, and the USS Sampson are set to arrive shortly, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment and spoke Tuesday on the condition of anonymity to the Associated Press. They confirmed that U.S. military assets are being sent to the region for counter-narcotics operations and that the destroyers would be deployed “over the course of several months.”

The move comes as President Trump pushes to use the U.S. military against the cartels he blames for flooding American communities with fentanyl and fueling violence in American cities – both through illegal immigration, cross-border drug trafficking, as well as other long-established smuggling networks across land and sea – that Washington has previously failed to completely counter.