MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump intensifies pressure on Maduro after Senate refuses to limit his military powers

Trump defended the US military’s extrajudicial strikes. “We’re blowing up cartel terrorists linked to Maduro’s regime”

Despite the legislative setback, President Donald Trump continues to escalate his campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom he accuses of leading a regional narcotics network.

Speaking in Miami alongside Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado, Trump defended the US military’s extrajudicial strikes. “We’re blowing up cartel terrorists linked to Maduro’s regime,” he declared.

Read also: US Senate rejects resolution to curb Trump’s military actions in Venezuela

Machado, addressing the forum by video link, expressed her full support for the US president: “Maduro started this war, and President Trump is going to finish it,” she said.

According to Pentagon sources, the White House is weighing new intervention options, ranging from targeted strikes against Venezuelan military units to seizing control of the country’s oil fields.

Trump is reportedly exploring possible legal justifications for such actions, even as legal experts warn that any intervention would violate Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibits the use of force against a sovereign state. “It would constitute an illegal invasion comparable to Russia’s attack on Ukraine,” said attorney Heather Brandon-Smith of the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

The president has kept his intentions deliberately ambiguous. He has spoken of a “new phase” in his anti-narcotics campaign but denies planning a full-scale war. His administration has, however, authorized CIA covert operations and doubled the reward for Maduro’s capture to US$50 million.

As the Gerald Ford carrier group crosses the Atlantic toward the Caribbean, analysts describe the buildup as a “war of nerves” aimed at pressuring Caracas. “There’s no doubt this campaign is designed to intimidate and bring down Maduro’s regime,” said John Walsh, director of drug policy at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).