American military planners have drown up a list of targets to be attacked in Venezuela as soon as President Donald Trump gives the order, according to a new report.
The report from ABC, which relied on sources it did not name, said the list includes ports, airports and other government-owned sites used by drug cartels.
Senate Republicans were briefed on the list this week in the latest effort by the Trump administration to ratchet up the pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The classified target list, briefed to Senate Republicans earlier this week, along with a massive buildup of military assets in the region that includes some 10,000 troops, has fueled speculation that President Donald Trump could order strikes at any moment.
On Friday, Trump indicated that he would not attack immediately.
A report in the Miami Herald framed the attacks as imminent and said the target was the Soles drug cartel.
The report said that destroying the leadership of the cartel would be on aim of the attacks.
The cartel ships about 500 tons of cocaine annually to locations in the U.S. and Europe.
“Maduro is about to find himself trapped and might soon discover that he cannot flee the country even if he decided to,” one source said.
“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.”
Administration officials say the administration’s attacks on fast boats carrying drugs have made traffickers leery of transporting drugs by water, requiring the U.S. to take the fight to the shore.
Although the possibility of regime change exists, the Herald quoted an administration source as downplaying that eventuality, saying Trump supports “targeted operations, like the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, or attacks on Iran’s nuclear installations.”
In October, Trump said he has approved “covert operations” inside Venezuela.
A report in the Daily Mail. Indicated Secretary of State Marco Rubio is a lead voice in shape the administration’s Venezuelan strategy.
“You have a narco-state in Venezuela run by a cartel,” Rubio said recently.
“This is an operation against narco-terrorists, the al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere … and they need to be dealt with,” he said.
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